I have missed Flickr!!
My husband and I set up our account just under 3 years ago to share pictures of our first daughter and I played with it a bit then and have not really gone back. Now our second baby is coming so hopefully I can be the one who organizes the photos when he arrives.
My Own Personal Learning
My husband has kept it up, but we have not posted any recent pictures since last summer. My poor family and friends have not seen pictures since then so I am glad that I can now post and create more albums to share with them. Now I can access the site and upload pictures with more confidence and ease. I learned how to upload more pictures than just one a time…I almost figured it out and my husband helped me at the end. I had to download the application Flickr Uploadr and then place it into applications in my Macintosh files. I am new to using my husband’s MAC too so I am still fiddling around with its operating system. I did not know what to do with it after I downloaded the file so that is were my husband filled me in. Then I could just drag a bunch of photos and download them at once instead of having to do one at a time and wait for each one to download…that was frustrating. Flickr also makes it so easy to organize your photos in sets and create titles and tags so that you can link similar photos. I am glad to say that I am back and will keep our Flickr account active and my friends and family will be much happier and we will be more connected.
Next step is to get back on Skype to connect with a few long distance friends.
Teaching and Learning
Going back to Flickr and really exploring the site has made me realize all the social networking possibilities it has and also the great educational potential. I visited the explore tab and it lead me to all kinds a great links. I liked the calendar option and you can see photos taken on any given day in the month. This would be neat to set up with students. They could post a months worth of pictures, each day they could decide on an important event during the school day or represent something they learned and by the end of the month they could share it with their parents, teachers or other students. Students could explore the calendar freely and check out their classmates’ photos and make comments.
It also has a link to the Commons and Creative Commons where you can search for images on any topic, there is a general description of the photo and all are able to contribute “information and knowledge” in relation to the image. You are also able to use the photos as long as you credit the source. The Creative Commons allows you to use photos under certain types of copyright licenses and regulations, which are clearly stipulated, on the site. This is a great source for finding pictures to add to projects.
You can also create your own groups, which is like an RSS feed for images. My husband belongs to the group “Bomb it” which sends him photos of graffiti art from all over the world. I would like to consider joining another group…possibly wild life, my daughter would love it. This is a great option for students if they are looking for particular images for projects or research.
I also like the map feature within the Explore tab. It links you to groups around the globe, Richardson comments about the ability to share photos with others around the world, “what if you and your students could annotate them with your own descriptions and observations…and become part of a community that contributes images of similar topics for you to consume?” (Richardson, pg.101) There are great learning possibilities and much to gain by being exposed to images that are intriguing, worthy of comment, aesthetically pleasing and different from your experiences. You can also add videos on Flickr, which allows for even more possibilities.
You can create all types of products with your photos such as: Photo Cards, Books, Calendars, Collage Gifts, Gallery Wrapped Canvas Prints of your photos, mugs and t-shirts. This would be a personally useful tool for gifts or for your own keepsakes.
Other educational ideas I had for using Flickr in the classroom or library would be:
-To create Personal Introductions through a Photo Presentation of yourself to share with other students.
-Create photo journals on particular subjects, e.g. animals, current event
-Create Character Photo Journals based on real life or fictional characters
-Create an art show or gallery of images on a particular theme.
There are so many possibilities that will allow students to be creative and to share their knowledge in visual ways. I look forward to being able to incorporate some of these ideas when working with students in the future.
If you check out my Flickr page I have created two new sets of photos, they are called:
-Hollywood, California - Emmy Weekend -- my husband was awarded his first Emmy nomination for a television show he worked on...unfortunately he didn't win but it was an awesome weekend.
-Christmas in Toronto 2010 -- includes photos of the Toronto Santa Claus Parade and around the city.
