Summary
Creating and publishing content on the web does not have to be limited to text. With the increasing popularity of digital cameras and cell phones, sites such as Flickr are becoming increasingly popular.
Why would you ever want to post images on Flickr for the whole world to see? "From a classroom standpoint, think about the ability to capture daily events or highlights and easily share those with parents, community, and colleagues. Field trips, speakers, visitors, special projects, and much more could become a part of any classroom's 'photo stream' and could be a great way of sharing the teaching and learning experience." (102) Sounds like a PR tool with potential to make teaching and learning in the classroom transparent - if that's what you're ready for.
"Pro" account is available for $25 a year. Unlimited storage.
You must register in order to upload photos.
Do all your photo editing and adjusting on your computer before uploading to Flickr. (See extra links below.)
Photos are automatically "Public," but you can choose for your photos to be viewed by "Family" or "Friends." This allows you to upload photos that will be viewable only by your students and/or their parents.
Photos can be organized into albums and slide shows.
Add annotations to photos. When you move your mouse over an annotated photo, notes pop up. Here is an example
Add comments to photos. These can be discussion starters for class or a way for virtual conversations to occur regarding uses or annotations to a photo for class.
Connect with others from around the world. All photographs in Flickr are given tags by their owner. Take for instance this photo. It has the following tags to help classify it: Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem, abandoned, steel, and plant. You can find related photos by clicking on one of the tags to the right of the photo, or even contact the photographer by clicking on their screen name (located in the upper right). If contacting other Flickr members, care should be taken not to divulge any personal information. Establishing these sorts of connections should be closely supervised by the teacher.
Subscribe to various tags or searches using RSS. This way, when a new image is posted using a specific tag, you are immediately notified, without having to access the Flickr site.
Questions:
Like other social networking sites on the Internet, Flickr contains lots of great information and content, but also some not-so-good. As of now, Flickr is filtered in our schools because of the potential for inappropriate content. If you were to use Flickr in your classroom tomorrow, how would you go about it? How would you ensure students access only appropriate content? What would they do if they accidentally ran across something inappropriate? How would you teach them what to do?
Connection:
If you are really interested in tapping into the creativity of your students, visit the last two links above: dumpr and Spell with Flickr. Proceed with caution, though! Be sure to check everything out before you set your students loose on these or any other sites like these!
Creating and publishing content on the web does not have to be limited to text. With the increasing popularity of digital cameras and cell phones, sites such as Flickr are becoming increasingly popular.
Why would you ever want to post images on Flickr for the whole world to see? "From a classroom standpoint, think about the ability to capture daily events or highlights and easily share those with parents, community, and colleagues. Field trips, speakers, visitors, special projects, and much more could become a part of any classroom's 'photo stream' and could be a great way of sharing the teaching and learning experience." (102) Sounds like a PR tool with potential to make teaching and learning in the classroom transparent - if that's what you're ready for.
Technical skills and Flickr:
Flickr in the classroom:
Other photo sites and tools:
Questions:
Like other social networking sites on the Internet, Flickr contains lots of great information and content, but also some not-so-good. As of now, Flickr is filtered in our schools because of the potential for inappropriate content. If you were to use Flickr in your classroom tomorrow, how would you go about it? How would you ensure students access only appropriate content? What would they do if they accidentally ran across something inappropriate? How would you teach them what to do?
Connection:
If you are really interested in tapping into the creativity of your students, visit the last two links above: dumpr and Spell with Flickr. Proceed with caution, though! Be sure to check everything out before you set your students loose on these or any other sites like these!