Flickr

Well, I took the tour before being directed to the magical features tour. I created a yahoo account before joining Flickr. All going well, I even managed to upload two photos but so far....I have no friends! I have not been able to upload any ones photos yet. I had not heard of flickr before I began this course and now I seem to hear it all the time. Jake (1999) states it is an online tool for collaboration and community building. It is a photo sharing community and contains over 100 million photos. Wow, that rings some security alarm bells to me but it has proven to be an educational tool used in classrooms. Flickr could be used for the design of lessons that promote and build visual literacy skills in students, either as a single photo used as writing prompts or multiple image sets in digital story telling projects. One of the components of Kearsley and Shneiderman's (1999)engagement theory includes activities which occur in a group context. Students can contribute to the development of online stories about images, they write story lines in the comment area of each photo, this is called Flicktion(Jake 1999). What makes Flickr appealing and engaging and in line with the Kearsley's and Shneiderman's 1999 Engagement Theory is it promotes the development of community. Students can contribute on a range of topics that are project based and have an authentic focus. I came across a discussion group on Flickr blog for using Flickr for Educational purposes. I read about teachers who were using flickr in the class room to familiarise students with zoo exhibit labels, environmental issues, geography with Google earth, visual documentation of school events, student artwork, motivational posters, astronomy, space and science. Once again the technology advances of this tool are an endless support and resource for any key learning area in any class room.