So here you are, in the middle of August, still too tired to get back into lesson preparation, but feeling a twinge of guilt for spending yet another day loafing about.

Fortunately for you, I have a foolproof idea that will not only help you in the months to come but also salve your conscience into the bargain! It's enjoyable too.

A couple of years ago I set myself the goal of getting to the position where I never again had to rely on clip-art or other people's photos to illustrate my articles or blog posts. I also set myself the task of seeing how easy it was to take photos that could be used to illustrate any area of the curriculum.

On the first, I have been extremely successful. I judge that by the fact that I would say something unlike 8 times out of ten, whenever I want to spice up some of my prose with a suitable illustration I can do so from my own collection.

As far as the second goal is concerned, there was not the same sense of urgency, and so I have not yet covered every curriculum area, and probably never will. But I do have enough to be able to pass photos on to colleagues in some subjects, or to suggest ideas to them. If this sort of thing appeals to you, here is a list of points to bear in mind.

1. Always carry a digital camera with you. If your cell phone has a built-in camera, that's fine in many circumstances. I take a camera with me wherever I go, even it's to the local shop around the corner. Where I live, there is ostensibly nothing to see, but look at this marvellous sunset I happened to catch one day.

2. Set yourself themes or tasks. For example, decide to take pictures of patterns. Brickwork on buildings can look great, especially if taken from an unusual angle. Nature usually presents wonderful opportunities to see patterns.

Another theme might be numbers. Once you start looking, you see them everywhere. You also see the same thing expressed in different ways, such as "half price" and "50% off". If you're a math teacher, this is just the kind of thing that might lead to a good discussion in class. (In fact, there is a Flickr group called Fractions.)

3. That brings me on to the next point. You have to find somewhere to store your pix online so that others can see them easily. I use Flickr, as you have probably gathered. As well as being a good way of storing your photos online, it's also a way of making contact with like-minded people.

4. Unless you have permission, erase identifying details from your photos before uploading them. I blur out people's faces, for example, and get rid of things like car licence plates.

5. Do not, ever, take photos of children you don't know. Apart from the fact that it's intrusive, you're almost certain to get yourself arrested. In fact, such is the level of hysteria in the UK about paedophilia that recently someone was accused of being a pervert for taking photos of his own children!

6. Buy a spare battery, and a battery charger if the camera did not come supplied with one. That way, you can ensure that you always have at least one serviceable battery when you're out and about.

7. Buy spare, and high storage, SD or Compact Flash cards. The one that came with the camera is almost certain to be useless -- unless you think that having to clear the card every couple of dozen pictures is OK.

8. Take the pics at the highest definition possible, on the grounds that it's easy to reduce the size without too much compromise in clarity, but more or less impossible to increase the size without the result looking horrible. The only exception to this rule is that with most cameras you can't take full advantage of the digital zoom facility at the highest quality settings.

9. Buy a cam (or 15) for use by classes. Prices are so low these days that it's hard to justify not doing so if you already have plenty of computers in school.

10. Don't worry about quality. If you take a photo and it's out of focus, you can just delete it and take it again. So what's the problem?

11. Finally, and most importantly, enjoy yourself -- especially as you are actually working at the same time, right?!

Terry Freedman is a U.K.-based education technology consultant and publishes the ICT in Education website at www.ictineducation.org, and the electronic newsletter “Computers in Classrooms

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