9 Siftr with Cathy Middlecamp — 04.17.2015

In the Active Teaching Lab on April 17, 2015, Cathy Middlecamp shared how her students used their smartphones to collectively crowdsource a map of photographs and descriptions of campus wildlife.

Key Takeaways

• Siftr is a good tool to help students to see the world in new ways.
• When creating your Siftr, choose tags / categories that don’t overlap much.
• Consider assigning hashtag use in image descriptions to make analysis easier. (E.g., see where the #sophomores go as opposed to the #seniors.)
• Use different colors and shapes for tag / category icons to make patterns more evident on the map.

If you’re interested in getting up and running with Siftr, watch the videos below and try stepping through the Siftr worksheet we created for this session!

The Active Teaching Lab, a Faculty Engagement program, provides a safe space for structured explorations of cool teaching tools and techniques that your colleagues are using to engage students and teach more effectively. During the academic year, labs are held weekly and will be listed on the Active Teaching Lab page.

Cathy’s Siftr Story