The highly popular photo sharing app – Instagram, can deliver a variety of educational benefits.
I’m sure you all must have heard of Instagram, but for those who haven’t Instagram is an online photo sharing and social networking service. You can call it
a mini Facebook, but only concentrating on pictures. It enables users to take pictures and apply digital filters to them and then share them on social networking sites. Instagram was launched in October 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mark Krieger.
The service has been immensely popular with people active on social networking. At present, Instagram has over 100 million users worldwide. Instagram supports all Apple platforms like iPhone, iPad, iPod and all camera phones having the Android operating system.
Instagram is already being utilized by many educators and as Instagram becomes more and more popular it might just end up being the next EdApp.
The question is how can Instagram deliver educational benefits? So let’s discuss the educational possibilities of the app.
Instagram & Spatial Intelligence
Spatial intelligence is a mental process through which the brain attempts to interpret certain types of incoming information. This information is basically anything visual – pictures, maps, plans etc. This intelligence is used very effectively in Instagram exercises. The mind judges the distance, size and other aspects of an object before clicking a picture or when viewing them, and also when editing pictures. So clearly I’m sure we can benefit from a picture more than what it looks like.
Instagram & Linguistic Intelligence
Instagram is all about sharing pictures, after all how long will you will you be cherishing your beautiful memories with only yourself. So what do we gain from sharing? The pictures we share increases our language skills, we interact, give feedback and much more. Surely this App is more than what it looks.
Instagram & Logical Mathematical Intelligence
Logical Mathematical Intelligence is basically detection of patterns, the ability to evaluate problems and think logically. This intelligence can be put to use when teachers share some pictures with the students and ask them to work on them – like cropping an image or improving its look using Photoshop. A very interesting exercise can be cropping a picture into various pieces and creating a puzzle out of it. These exercises improve the working of the brain and engage the student.
Instagram & Interpersonal Intelligence
The ability of a person to comprehend desires, motivation and the intentions of others is referred to as Interpersonal intelligence. And art always represents a person’s desires and thought processes. If you haven’t tried just try it once. Anything creative that comes out of a person represents his/her desires, thought. Teachers can engage the students in group Instagram activities like “all about my classmate” to exercise this form of intelligence.
Usage of Instagram and iPhoneography in Art & Photography Classes
The iPhoneography application helps the students understand the basic fundamentals of photography very easily. At this age understanding the camera settings is not all that easy. iPhoneography eliminates the process of doing camera settings and students are better able to focus on creating marvelous pictures. So this seems like a gift by Technology for students who wish to pursue photography professionally.
Instagram & Intrapersonal Intelligence
The ability to understand oneself and appreciate one’s fears, feelings and motivations is known as Intrapersonal Intelligence. This intelligence is addressed through the act of allowing students to work independently and reflect on some of the pictures they capture and create. As I said your work of art is your thoughts and you. Self introspection can become easier this way.
So what’s the take on this App? Will it be the next App in Education or not? After the points mentioned above I can say it is one great app. But let’s leave the verdict of it working out and surviving the Edtech trends to time and of course its users, “You”.
