Technology Infused Learning and Teaching

How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways!!
Thou art more useful for finding an incredible
array of images than any other tool.

And I joketh not!

Okay, all Shakespeare references aside, I am head over heels for Flickr! In my previous post on Creative Commons, I mentioned how I have recently used Flickr for a presentation that I did. I spent hours on Flickr searching for those special images that evoked the meaning I wanted and I found far more examples than I ended up using.

Whenever I need an image, I head straight to Flickr. When someone else needs images, I show them the CC search in Flickr. When I see someone heading to the Google Image search, right after I cringe, I point them to the CC search in Flickr. Certainly there are other photo sharing sites out there, but none are comparable to the depth and breadth you find here. Can you tell I love this site?

Since I already spent so much time searching for images in preparation for my GaETC presentation, I chose to use the same theme for this task. Is that cheating? I dearly hope not. In this instance, I’ll call it dual-purpose tasking just to cover myself . My theme is Professional (Personal) Learning Networks and the images that I searched for were those that, for me, represent what my network means to me.

The image below is probably one of my favorites. Most might see a group of people holding puzzle pieces together. However, what I see is a broad cross-section of people who are joining together to connect, collaborate, share, and create something of value that each person can then use.

Not being a classroom teacher (for many moons), I don’t have specific ideas for how Flickr can be used to support teaching and learning in general. I use Flickr in my professional development courses to show teachers a viable option they can use and that their students can use for project creation.

Personally, in my searches for images to use in my presentation, what I have found in Flickr has broadened my view of how words can be represented. It’s always interesting to see the results that I get when searching titles and tags.

One of the more interesting and recent developments on Flickr is the ability to upload videos. I know that YouTube is the preferred method for that, but in many cases YouTube is blocked for schools whereas Flickr is not. This Life in Florida set contains student-created Photostory movies they are sharing with a partner school, which I believe is in either Central or South America. Since most digital cameras these days can also take decent quality movies with sound, the ability to upload movies to Flickr extends the use of the site and opens up other opportunities for sharing digital media.

I know there are many other aspects of Flickr that can be used in education and that I am just beginning to scratch the surface. This perhaps will become a goal of mine to delve deeper into the world of Flickr so I can then develop strategies for incorporating its use in the classroom. To that end, I created a Flickr in Education group in Diigo to help me and others see the educational applications of Flickr. This is our group’s linkroll thus far. If you are a Diigo user and are interested in joining, you are welcome to contribute!

Group Flickr in Education Bookmarks

Flickr logo photo source – Jing Screenshot
Puzzle photo source: Flickr Lumaxart