Week 13 - Blog 18: Using Google Photos for teaching and learning

This week’s assignment was very fun and educational, because I learned how to utilize Google Photos in the classroom. Google Photos is one of the most popular and effective ways of storing and managing photos. With an existing Google account, you get access to unlimited photo storage. Even though, you can always access your photos online, Google Photos is also pre-downloaded on Android devices and is available for download on iOS devices. It is free to use, and syncs all photos and videos that you take on your phone with the online cloud storage. Google Drive includes Photos as part of its connected applications, so all Google content will be readily available, as well. A nice feature of Google Photos is the ability to search through your photos using keyword. Google Photos uses an algorithm that senses what object or people are within each image, therefore your keyword will search in your photo database for all related images. This is a fast and easy way to find the photos that you look for. Google Photos also gives you some sharing and organizational features, where you are able to create photo albums, collages, and animations, which you can share with anyone. Taking into account that all these features, which are provided in Google Photos are free, you can easily see that this application can definitely enhance the learning in-and-out of the classroom. The following are some ideas that Google Photos can be used for teaching and learning at a Computer and Technology class for 8-12 grade levels:

First of all, is that it provides the teacher and students with a tool to organize the class stream by working with topics and posts. Then the teacher and students can filter the stream for specific topics to make the classroom even easier to use. The students will be able to preview images and videos, all without leaving Classroom. Students can organize their Google Photos folder into sub folders and share those folders with the teacher and among their peers. Students can take photos or screenshots on their mobile device, have it automatically backed up to Google Photos and then they can organize those images into sub folders, based on subject, class, or projects groups for everyone to use.

Another idea, is to make good use of cloud space when using Google Photos to store all the pictures and videos that students take with either their mobile phones and/or tablets. The students must ensure that they have Auto Backup turned on, and they can remove the photos from their device as soon as it is backed up to Google Drive. The images and videos can be downloaded at any time back to the device if needed for a project or assignments that will be submitted to the teacher or share among their peers.

The last idea would be to use Google Photo in conjunction with Google Docs and Forms, which will allow the teacher to add images as part of the questions and answers. One perfect example is when students have to demonstrate their understanding of such as diagrams, graphs, flowcharts, and other subject or topic. As you can see there are many benefits that Google Photo offers for teachers and students, thus enhancing the learning environment in-and-out of the classroom.