Using Flickr in the classroom

Here we go again! As with so many of the Web 2.0 tools I’ve been studying for my course, I was already familiar with photo sharing for personal use, but had never thought to integrate it into my classroom. I have an account with Snapfish, which I use to share photos with my family and friends, and to order prints and other products (books, calendars, etc). This site is really more appropriate for personal use, so I created an account on Flickr to explore photo sharing as a classroom tool.

The first thing that struck me about Flickr was the ability to search by copyright-type. This is a fabulous resource for any educator or student who needs that perfect photo for a project, but is concerned about copyright infringement (as we all should be). And the wealth of images is amazing – my search of the Creative Commons group for pictures with the tag “Teacher” resulted in over 3,000 pictures! No slim pickings here! The page on the Creative Commons group site has definitions of the various types of C.C. licenses, making this a valuable starting point for a class discussion about Copyright and Fair Use. Clicking through some photostreams and reading the member profiles may also help students to connect with the idea of online images belonging to individuals, and therefore reinforce the idea of proper use and citations.

I chose two Creative Commons photos as examples of Flickr activities that I will be suggesting to my teachers next week. This first one represents an idea I will suggest to our creative writing teacher. Students can search Flickr for an intriguing photo – or the teacher could collect specific photos ahead of time for the students to choose from – and then use it as a writing prompt for a fictional story. The teacher could post the photo on her webpage, blog, or wiki (or even just show it on her projector), along with prompt questions to get the students started. For example:


What is happening in this picture? Why is your character(s) here? Where were they before? What are they doing here? What are they feeling?

The second picture is for a math teacher, though it would also be appropriate for an art or history teacher. I’m not well versed in higher-level math, but arches can be used in an exploration of radius, and various other functions, and this picture is perfect for that:




Both of these activities address not only the curricular subjects of writing and math, but also the 21st century skill of visual literacy, and the following NETS*S: Creativity and Innovation, Communication and Collaboration, and Digital Citizenship.

Photo credits:
Boats in Swan River: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24548102@N00/2870774788/in/photostream/
flickr photo-boats and rainbow
Arches: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alykat/5545146/
flickr photo-arches