TechCrunch are reporting that Flickr [is] To Add Online Photo Editing Tools Via Picnik, which strikes me as a Good Thing... I also wonder if it's an opportunity for extending the reach of the OU short course course T189 Digital photography: creating and sharing better images.
[T189] is a creative mix of practice, learning, sharing and reflection:There are many online photo editing tools of course, and Adobe will soon be releasing an online version of Photoshop (T189 trains students in the use of Adobe Photoshop Elements, which is provided free with the course, I believe) so the Flickr announcement is not necessarily offering a new service, although it does potentially open up a new audience for T189?* Practice: each week you do a practical photographic activity that broadens and strengthens your photographic experience. Together these activities form the basis of your portfolio that youll draw upon for your end-of-course assessment.
* Learning: each week you learn about different aspects of photographic techniques, as well as relevant aspects of the technology behind digital photography.
* Sharing and reflection: each week you share your work within the T189 online community of photographers. You'll steadily develop your ability to reflect upon your own and others' work, and to write about your increasing visual awareness.
I don't know if anyone has explored a partnership with Flickr or Photobucket or even the Goog (in the context of Picasa) for T189, but the opportunity of doing a daily learning, or one-topic-per-visit version of the course in the context of a photo-hosting and editing site would seem to me to be a natural fit? And a natural place to offer a Relevant Knowledge course on digital photography?
Opening up new revenue streams for our courses is something that I think is on the agenda as UK HE funding continues to undergo something of a review. Licensing Relevant Knowledge short courses to sites that provide an appropriate context for them might provide one way of extending their reach, and the revenue we can generate from them?
Tags: flickr, t189, digital photography, relevant knowledge
Posted by ajh59 at October 22, 2007 11:23 AMJust a quick question, I went over to check out that T189 photography course. This may seem like a silly question, but does the The Open UK have an OCW? And if so, is this course in that OCW?
Posted by: Marion Jensen at October 22, 2007 04:27 PMOCW -as in Open CourseWare?
Yes, in part. Our OpenLearn site - http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn - has several hundred hours of OU teaching material on it under a Creative Commons licence. (You can also see it in FaceBook - ./010855.html ).
Unfortunately, T189 is not available in OpenLearn
Posted by: Tony Hirst at October 22, 2007 04:34 PMThanks!
Posted by: Marion Jensen at October 23, 2007 08:08 PM