Flickr

With Flickr, there are endless possibilities for use in an educational setting.  Having already used Snapfish, I made the false assumption that Flickr would be a similar website in form and in use.  Flickr is not just a place where online users can store their photos, but it's a place where creativity thrives.  Online users who post their pictures on this site have the opportunity to share their photos with other users and can access others' photos by using the tool "Creative Commons" which is located within Flickr's search engine.  Having access to a huge range of pictures is essential to Flickr's effectiveness in the classroom.

I was inspired by some of the ideas that I read about in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts by Will Richardson and I wanted to share them so below is a list that I have compiled of my top 5 educational uses of Flickr in the foreign language classroom.
1. Use in projects and/or presentations
        -Students in the FL classroom are consistently developing their language skills and understanding of cultural related topics through the medium of projects and presentations.  Instead of allowing students to get their pictures from just anywhere (typically images from a Google search), students can search through Flickr.  Not only will they probably find fantastic photos to use but they would also have the opportunity to communicate with the photographer.  This would be a great opportunity for students to interact with people from different cultures and at the same time it would greatly enhance their presentation or project.
2. Identify features in an image
         -With Flickr, you have the option to delve deeper with your pictures by highlighting certain parts of the picture by marking them off with a square.  This would be a great tool to use when introducing or reviewing vocabulary.  You could take a picture and use it as a theme and then search deeper into the picture by identifying different objects, actions, or people in the scene.  For example, a scene from a grocery store could be used to identify different food or beverage items.

3. Flicktion
          -Students find a picture in the "Creative Commons" search engine of Flickr and then they write a fictional story using the picture as a focus for their story.
4. Field Trips/Foreign Exchange Programs
          -Flickr has potential to serve as a tool for building relationships.  Students who participate in foreign exchange programs can use Flickr as a place to share pictures from trips or other experiences with their new friends.
5. Online Discussions
           -Students and teachers alike have the opportunity to engage in online discussions related to pictures that are posted on Flickr.  This would serve students well as they could engage in discussions related to cultural themes observed in images.

Flickr provides teachers the opportunity to enhance their visual supplements related to curriculum while at the same time benefiting students with engaging and exciting visuals to use as a point of discussion, to interact with, and to use in their own projects and presentations.