Photosynth and the Classroom

http://photosynth.net/

On Friday October 14th I attended a full-day professional development hosted by the 2Learn group.  It was an amazing day and I learned so much from them.  One of the tools that was introduced was "Photosynth," a free online tool that can be downloaded on most mobile devices and desktop computers.  The main premise of Photosynth is to allow users to stitch photos together in order to create a 3D rendition much like those found on Google Maps.

The 2Learn group explained that using video media is a great way to help students identify what the main characteristics of an environment are.  They also stated that the tool helps students to better articulate their surroundings or a different surrounding if they are not able to see it in real life.  Photosynth is a great tool that give students what they need to be able to write more accurately and articulately (www.2learn.ca/bdl/bdltr_Web2IMGT_sup.asp). 

I download this App unto my new iPad and my iPhone and started to take photographs.  I quickly created a 3D rendition of the conference room, emailed a copy to another teacher who was not at the meeting including some information about my surroundings.  This gave me a great idea for an activity that I can use in my classroom.  I will give each of my students either an iPad or an iTouch and have them create a photosynth of the outdoor environment focusing on the clouds.  This is a great tool to use for this small project as it is quick to use and easy to move unto a computer. Each student will create a photosynth and then either post a written comment or an audio recording explaining their reasoning for identifying the type of cloud and the weather it may bring depending the pressure.  I can’t wait to have my students work on this project on Monday.

This was a great project, the picture to the left is an example of what a Photosynth looks like ones it has been rendered and email as a .jpeg. My students created a series of photos on different days that why the clouds would be different therefore influencing their predictions. What was even more impressive was seeing these photos on the Smart Board and then hearing all my students talk about each of their photos and justify their weather predictions.

Finally, I would like to state that Photosynth is a very new web 2.0 tool, in fact it is so new that it was not mentioned in any of the course readings. Kist, Richardson and Berger & Trexler didn't discuss this tool, so for any teachers or technology explorers out there that would like to try something new, this is the tool for you.