If you attended my session at VSTE 2018, ISTE 2019, or another conference, thank you and I hope the time you spent was valuable. Below are the resources I used and links to other materials to help you continue using photography for instruction and learning.
For those visiting who were not at the session, you are very welcome to use anything you find on this page (or the rest of the site), although some of it may not make sense without the live part of the presentation.
One version of the slide show I used is here. I revise this presentation almost every time I use it so this one may be a little out of date. However, you are welcome to use it, or anything else on my site, for any non-commercial instructional purpose. Please send me any comments or questions you have about the session or this material.
Are You a Photographer?
The answer, of course, is yes. Everyone with a camera is a photographer.
So the question then becomes, why? Why do you make images?
If you read photography books and look through websites, you’ll find lists of five, eight, ten or more categories of photographers, including wedding, landscape, wildlife, sports, and on and on.
For most of us, however, there is really one primary reason for using our cameras: telling stories.
Suggestions for Making Better Photos
On this page you’ll find a collection of ideas that could help improve the photos you take with your smartphone. Some of the suggestions will apply to any camera. I addressed many of these during the session.
Using Photos in the Classroom
During the session, we also discussed a few ways to use photography for instruction. You can find a more complete list of ideas I’ve seen and used in this post. I’m sure you can think of more that will apply to your students and the subjects they study.
Managing Your Images with Google Photos
Once you’ve taken all these wonderful photos, how do you edit, manage, and, most importantly, share them?
There are many, many tools for doing that. This post offers a brief review of some photo sharing services. However, the most accessible one for both you and your students is part of the Google account you already have. Take a look at this post on getting started with Google Photos.
Making Photospheres
Unless you were part of my half-day workshop, I probably only very briefly mentioned a type of type of photography sometimes called photospheres. A photosphere is a 360° immersive image, similar to what you see in Google Street View.
Photospheres can be used with the Google Cardboard VR viewer, in addition to other applications on both computers and mobile devices.  To create one on your smartphone, you will need the Google Street View app, available for both iOS and Android.
If you’re interested in learning more, check out another of my presentations on DIY VR.
For the basics, this tutorial offers step-by-step directions for making a photosphere using the app and tips for making good ones. Lots more information about photospheres, along with thousands of examples in Google Maps, can be found on Google’s Street View site.