Using Social Software Tools in the Classroom

I plan to incorporate Picasa as a creative social software tool into my English and Debate classrooms.  Too often students in English and Debate classrooms are 'left behind' when it comes to utilizing creative technology beause "it's not how these classes are taught".  I think the opposite, these two classes provide a need for synthesis with more creative thinking and technological advances.  
Picasa is an element of the Google suites that students will utilize throughout their time with me.  It is a photo sharing IRA that allows users to post, edit, and share their photos with specific people or everyone.  It also acts as an online 'storage facility' so that students can access their images from any computer with internet access and do not consume valuable space on their home or school computers.

I am going to utilize Picasa as an ongoing classroom project.  While it may seem strenuous or time intensive, this project will allow students to synthesize a creative process with their classroom learning and it will allow for a more thorough understanding of whatever area we are studying.  Students will have access to a series of digital cameras (if they do not have their own) and will be required to take a picture daily and relate it (via its caption) to the course material.  Students will then upload these images to their Picasa accounts and share them with the class.  These images will act as course participation points for the day (so if a student is absent they can still have the opporutnity to participate in the course).  Utilizing this process will allow students to think about the real life connections of the course material.  At the beginning of each week students will view a photo collage of everyone's images for the previous week and we will discuss their implications of the course material. We can utilize the images as a referent for discussion.

For example, in Debate when discussing trade embargos students can utilize images of household items they may go without if an embargo were to be enacted.  In English, when studying the origin of language, students could photograph their house and discuss the American prototype of housing.  Students will also have the opportunity to propose their own experiments utilizing Picasa so long as they relate to course material throughout the year, i.e. a student wants to photography themself everyday for a year as a means to discuss character development and identity in various literary works. 

I hope that through the creative expression offered via Picasa and taking photographs, students will find connections between the course and their lives, and that they will begin to feel more comfortable with the course material.  Students who struggle with writing or in class discussions will also be provided a creative and alternative opportunity to share their knowledge with their peers and myself.