I get a lot of ideas for educational applications from my own learning needs. We have been in the midst of a serious flood threat in the Red River (Fargo, Grand Forks, and surrounding communities). This is not the first time for us. We were here for the flooding of Grand Forks in 1997. I am writing this as the flood approaches the crest and how this will turn out has yet to be determined. Fargo is experiencing record river levels, but so far the dikes are holding.
I take pictures in situations like this. This is a serious situation and being obnoxious about taking pictures can get you in trouble. However, these are events that shape our lives and so I collect images when I can. I put a few of these images on Flickr and in doing so I notice that my Flickr account has received considerable attention in the past few days.
When I examined the images that were being viewed, it turned out they were from the flood (most actually from a less serious flood in 2006). This became the starting point for my exploration of the images that were presently being collected.
I explored in a couple of ways and I am certain there are several more. You can simply search by tag and then use recent.
I geotagged most of my contributions so I also tried searching for images by location. The best strategy seemed to be Explore a place (Grand Forks) and then search this map using a specific term (flood, redriver).
Most of the geotagged images I located were associated with bridges. This is where I have taken most of the pictures I have collected because access is not prohibited.
P.S. – Presently the rise in the river has slowed because of very cold weather (single digits at night). This has delayed the crest, but has allowed some of the water to move through with less risk.
Several years ago Cindy was awarded a Teaching American History grant. I sometimes get to tag along on her projects. One of the things I remember as an emphasis was providing students the opportunity to practice the historian’s craft. This is a careful process of examining and speculating about primary source documents. Trying to understand what was happening and why. There is considerable more to the process and in some ways some of concepts mirror skills that are applied when psychologists talk about observation. For example, differentiating description from interpretation. Anyway, one of the ways these concepts were presented to students was through the use of images. The link I provide describes educators in a work shop the grant sponsored going through this process with representatives from the Library of Congress via a video connection.
I have been scanning some slides and putting them on Flickr for viewing and sharing with my relatives. As I looked at some of these slides it occurred to me that they are perfect examples of the types of primary source material that offers a great opportunity to practice the historian’s craft. I am giving you a chance to see how well you can do. I have now added about enough words to this post to separate the image I have provided from my explanation of the scene it captures. If you are interested in this image, I decided to share the full size version as Creative Commons in case anyone wants to use it as a primary source document.
I am estimating this picture was taken in 1952-53. I know what was going on, but I probably did not witness this event. Some of my comments are speculative.
The men are playing a game called “dart ball”. You can see the target in the background. The teams are sitting facing each other. One of the men facing the camera is next up and he has darts in his hand. In the full size image, you can see the line on the floor behind which each player stood as they threw (underhand) darts at the target. Areas of the target represented outs, strikes,balls, and hits of different type. The target for a single is larger than the area for a triple. The area for hits is surrounded by areas of outs, strikes, etc. Each player threw until reaching base or being declared out. If I remember correctly, different teams would use different strategies. My dad’s team (the group of men you can see entirely) used to throw alternatively for singles and triples (I am thinking because it was easier to throw at targets ont the same level). I also think you could not throw at a base that was already occupied (not sure about this). Maybe alternating triple and single would be the most efficient way to force in runs. Beats me.
The scene is a rural Lutheran church basement. Teams from different Lutheran churches would car pool over to another church for an evening match and supper (they did not call it dinner). I even remember there being tournaments with trophies and the whole bit. Note the blackboard used for score keeping.
I never saw a woman throw a dart. I don’t think the Lutherans played other demoninations (again this may not be accurate).
My dad is the last man sitting on the left side (hard to see for certain). I remember him as being very good at this game, but he seems to be batting 9th. 🙂
Wikipedia has an article on dartball and it appears that it is still an active “sport”. Now, I am impressed. Would an encyclopedia have an entry on the game of dartball?
Our kids bought me a scanner for my 60th birthday. This was some months ago and it took some time to get it ordered and delivered and for me to find some time to get it put together. It is a Canon CanoScan 8800F and it has an adapter for scanning slides. It does occur to me that talking about slides and slide projectors may not be particularly informative for many who read my posts, but this disconnect is kind of the point. I have these old pictures in a format I can no longer display and I wanted to do something to save them.
I started to look at some pictures (slides) we saved from my parents’ house shortly before it was torn down. Some of the slides are likely older than I am and even pictures in which I appear are really at the earliest reaches of my powers of recollection. It is impossible to know if I really remember or if I remember the descriptions provided by others.
Here is a picture I am guessing was taken approximately 55 years ago. I am on the right with the binoculars and my brother Dan is on the left. We are not twins, but my mother must have thought it interesting to dress us alike. Perhaps it was a way to keep us from fighting about who had the coolest stuff. The kid in the middle is Lowell Monke our neighbor from down the gravel road. At least I think this is the case. I must admit I even have difficulty differentiating the pictures of me from my brother after this length of time. Actually, maybe it is my brother Bill, but that would make this story less interesting. I wrote about Lowell in a blog post some years ago because we both went on to academic careers that had something to do with classroom technology. I wrote a book about the integration of technology and he wrote a book cautioning educators against instructional dependence on technology with younger children. I have not had the opportunity to talk with him in years and I have no idea how different our perspectives really are. What are the odds?
I am intrigued by the current interest in stories, storytelling, and the importance of collecting the stories of our lives. Images may be a neglected part of these stories. Maybe now is the time to consider how we will save the images we tucked away in our closets and basements.
When I was a kid, we subscribed to Life magazine. According to Wikipedia, Life offered its last issue on April 20, 2007. I must say I hadn’t noticed. I guess many of us have moved on to other media.
The Life collection of images has historical value and now Google is providing all of us access. It looks like Life is going to launch its own venture, but Life.com is not yet available.
This is another resource educators may find helpful.
Friday afternoon. Time to read a couple of journal articles. Nah, time for some online exploration.
LifeHacker describes an interesting image search tool – Pixolu. It works like this.
1) You enter a term and locate images related to that search term.
2) Based on the image collection returned, you then select a prototype image you like and Pixolu searches for images that are more similar to the prototype.
3) You then move to the location of images that suit your need/interest.
My “sources” are quite varied. Here is a link to a column from the technology talk show host Kim Komando (the digital goddess). The topic concerned legal issues in photographing the public. I have wondered about some of these issues and I thought maybe you have too.
Adobe has brought its expertise in digital image editing to “the cloud”. It now offers a browser-based application – Photoshop Express. The service not only provides powerful image editing capabilities, but also the opportunity to store up to 2 GB worth of images. This screen shot may give you some feel for the tools – left column.
I have read concerns in another blog related to the user agreement.
Sharing Your Photos
As part of registering for the Service and creating an account, Adobe may require you to create a user name (“User Name”) and user-specific URL, such as xxx.photoshop.com (“Personal URL”). The Service allows you to share Your Content that you upload to your account in the following ways: (a) by using the “Gallery” function to publicly share Your Content on the “Gallery” site of the Service, (b) by using the “email” function to send an email containing a URL link to Your Content, and (c) by using the “Link” function and the “Embed” function to include a link or embed Your Content on a web page. Please note that when you share Your Content, your User Name and Personal URL is made public, and recipients may in the future be able to share Your Content with others, add Your Content to their own accounts, and make photographic prints of Your Content. Adobe may revoke the right to use that URL for any reason deemed appropriate by Adobe in its sole discretion by giving you at least thirty days’ prior notice of such revocation, except in the event your URL or content therein is determined by Adobe in its sole discretion to contain infringing or illegal content or content that otherwise violates these Additional Terms or the General Terms. In such event, Adobe reserves the right to revoke the right to use your URL immediately without notice. Adobe owns and retains all right, title and interest in the use of “Adobe,” “Photoshop,” “Photoshop Express” or other Adobe property in association with a user’s Personal URL.
I have been trying to decide if any of this agreement bothers me. I think Adobe is just warning me that they are not responsible for how others may use my images. I would use this service for images I wanted to make public in much the same way I make images available on Flickr. I understand that I must accept the possibility that my online storage opportunity may be terminated, but I should have 30 days to deal with this situation if I must. Nothing here that seems too negative. I doubt my images have commercial value and I typically am trying to offer my images to others who may find some educational value in a few of my pictures.
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