A free lesson kit: sharing photos with family, privately.

What learners can do after the class

• Explain the difference between sending photos in a chat, posting them on social media and keeping them in a private shared album.
• Join a shared album from an invite link or a QR code.
• Look at the family’s photos, and reply with a heart or a comment.
• Add photos from their own phone.
• Ask their family to add photos, with a message they write themselves.
• Know who can see the photos, and how to leave an album or remove someone.

The lesson plan, about 60 minutes

• 5 minutes. Why: photos sent in group chats scroll away and lose quality, and social media shows them to more people than the family. A shared album keeps them in one place, for the people you choose.
• 10 minutes. How a private shared album works: someone starts it, invites the family with a link or a code, and only those people can see it. Show it on the projector or your own phone.
• 15 minutes. Join the practice album: learners scan the QR code or open the link, sign in, and look around. Pair up people who get stuck.
• 15 minutes. Add a photo: each learner takes a photo in the room (the plant on the windowsill, a cup of tea) and adds it. Then everyone hearts and comments on someone else’s.
• 10 minutes. Ask the family: each learner writes a short message asking their family for photos, ready to send at home.
• 5 minutes. Privacy and staying safe: who can see the album, removing someone, leaving an album, and not adding photos of other people without asking.

Before the class

• Make a practice album on your own phone and add a dozen photos that show no people: flowers, a view, the building, a meal. Don’t use your own family album.
• Print the handout, one for each learner.
• Ask learners to bring their phone charged and to know how they sign in on it: the Apple account password on an iPhone, the Google account on Android. Many can’t remember it, and that is the step that takes longest.
• Check the room’s Wi-Fi and write its name and password on the board.
• Try joining the practice album yourself from a second phone or a computer.

Choosing an album app for the class

Teach the skill, not the app. Shared albums in the phone’s own photos app, albums in chat apps such as LINE, and family album apps all work on the same idea. For a mixed class, look for an app that:

• works on iPhone and Android, so nobody sits out;
• lets family look and add photos in a web browser, for anyone who can’t install an app;
• keeps photos private to the people invited, with no public feed and no ads;
• is free for what the class does: joining, looking, adding photos, hearts and comments;
• lets people leave an album, and the person who started it remove someone.

The handout

One page for learners to take home: the six steps of the lesson in large type, room to write their family album’s name and who to ask, and a short note on privacy. It names Lumo as the example and works for any album app.

Handout, A4 (PDF) · Handout, US Letter (PDF)

Print and copy it for your classes as often as you like, in black and white if you prefer.

After the class

The real lesson happens at home, when a learner’s family adds the first photos. Suggest that learners send their message the same day, and bring their phone next time to show what arrived.

Learners who want the family’s photos can start their own family album in the same way, and invite their family to it.