Teaching using photos

I got this idea from the BBC's Today programme. The aim is to record your journey home from work/school in pictures. The reporter published her photos (click here) did so as part of a project by a UK university;

"Today presenter Sarah Montague took these pictures of her walk home as part of a project being set up by academics at Northumbria University to increase our awareness of the environment around us.

To contribute contact mywalks@northumbria.ac.uk."

Lesson Plan

1 Tell students that they are going to find out how the others get to and from school. Elicit from them the kind of questions they would need to ask;

E.G. How do you get to school? How long does it take? Who drives you? Which bus do you take? Which route do you take?

2 Student then ask each other. The best thing is shuffle students around so they're not asking their regular partner(s).

3 Now explain to students that they are going to take 10 to 15 pictures of their journey home. They can use a digital camera or their mobile phone. Show them either your example or the one from the Today programme. If students don't have access to either then get them to borrow or share a friend's for a day or so.

4 In the next lesson get students to make a slide show of their pictures with suitable captions.

You can use BubbleShare or Slide.com for a simple version or Microsoft's Photo Story3, Windows Movie Maker or Jumpcut for a more sophisticated one.

If you do choose Jumpcut, Photo Story or Movie Maker then ask them to record a voice over and add some background music.

5 Now get students to post their slide shows on the class/personal blog.

6 For homework students write three questions about someone else's photos in the comments section. All questions must be answered by the following lesson.

Alternatively, you could simply ask them to post the photos on their Flickr page as a set with suitable captions for each. In this case the questions and answers are posted in the Flickr comment box.

You could even ask them to send it to the university project managers - click here for details.