What are some of the ways you could envision using flickr in your classroom?
About Me
- Worth Weller
- I am a Continuing Lecturer for the Departments of English and Linguistics and Continuing Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. A proud US Army Veteran, serving with the US Army Europe during the height of the Cold War, I'm also happily married for over forty years. My wife and I have three grown, well-adjusted children and two precocious grandchildren!
37 comments:
I have never even heard of flickr, but this is cool. It could have so many uses in the classroom. It would be excellent for a class field trip. I will by using this for sure. It will be cool to be able to send pictures, without having to send a bunch of attachments.
I think flickr would be wonderful to use to share pictures from my class. Whenever I take pictues of groups they all want copies, I don't have the money to print pictures but I could let parents/students print their own from a flickr account.
A few years ago I did a photography project with the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and they made CDs for the kids of their pictures, printed a contact sheet and printed a full photo for display. If I could use flickr to show the photos to the kids and not make a CD for each student I could do this in the classroom with just a few digital cameras to pass around and printing up one photo for display.
The security features are nice. It seems simple enough to use.
Flickr seems to offer a lot of options for use and is very "school friendly." The first thing I thought of when I was brainstorming ways to use flickr was Science Olympiad. Science Olympiad consists of 23 events, many of which are going on at the same time but in different locations across a university campus. Parents that take pictures of their child's events could share those via flickr. Also many students take random pictures throughout the competition and could share those photos as well.
Photos taken during lab sessions could be displayed on flickr.
I take all the track photos for the junior high school. After each meet I create a slideshow set to music for the athletes to view. I know many parents would love access to these pictures!
I can see using Flickr for science projects, too. Documenting experiments and keeping track of changes by using photos would be a fabulous tool! The students could even print out the progress and journal the changes in the pictures for a science journal. It would be a great way to make science fun!
I think this would be a great way to document what you do all year long in your classroom. At the end of my first year I made each of the students a power point covering what we had done throughout the year, but this seems like it would be easier, and less time consuming.
I also like the privacy settings that this program has.
I think flickr would be a great addition to a school web site. It could be used to display events such as football games or band competitions.
Sticking with the technical troubleshooting scenario, a Flickr would come in handy as a slideshow presentation to technicians and engineers as they go about troubleshooting or constructing new equipment out on the field. Perhaps new schematics, layouts or blueprints with last minute changes from clients - accompanied with photographs based on artists' renditions - can guide the engineers as they go about constructing the equipment.
I use Flickr all the time to share photos with my family. But it would be a great way to share photos with a classroom of kids working on webpages or a writing assignment that they needed to illustrate with photographs. And teachers could share many more photos with parents through Flickr than they could through a newsletter or even a webpage.
I can easily see going almost completely digital when I return to the classroom. I think a classroom wiki is a must, with a link to Flickr so parents can see class photos of what is being done, field trip pictures, science experiment outcomes, and just plain fun stuff their kids do. I personally have used Picasa's web albums for a few years, but after a second (and third search), I could not come up with the thorough security settings like Flickr. So I think I will be switching.
I love Flickr, this is the first time I've used anything like this. I can never email my pictures of vacations from home, b/c the files are too big. This is a great resource. Especially with a baby on the way, what a great way to share photos of people who are out of town.
I think I would use flickr as a tool to communicate with parents about what their children are doing in the classroom. I would post pictures of students working on projects, experiments, special activities, or their favorite part of the day. This would give parents the opportunity to experience what their children are doing without actually being in the classroom.
Flickr I feel would be really good to use in my physical education class. One thing I feel I could use it for would be to show correct form for certain activities. Storytelling projects and virtual field trips would be excellent to use with Flickr. I also think that visual flashcards would be a great asset to use in the classroom. I could post the flashcards online at Flickr and the students could go to Flickr and use them as study aids.
I could see using Flickr in several different ways. One way would be to show pictures of students doing science lab activities. This could be for parents to see, other students to enjoy or as an introductory tool for future classes.
Another way Flickr could be utilized is to show pictures of field trips taken by the class. This way you would have documentation of the trip and these picture could be used as teaching tools for future discussions about the trip.
Another possible way is to use Flickr for pictures taken at sporting events. My assistant coach currently makes a slide show after each track meet for all the students in the school to see. This helps to promote the sport and it gives those currently in the sport more recognition for their achievements. Flickr could be used in much the same way.
Flickr looks like it could be a great classroom resource. I could see having class photographers that log thing and put the pitcher on Youtube, taking picture of field trips and class activities could be great as well. Students could use it to take pictures and save them for use in powerpoints or class newspapers. As a coach we could take pictures of the games and post them for parents to see.
I like the security settings on flickr as well. As a teacher I would feel comfortable being able to use this and keep kids safe at the same time.
I agree with those who would use flickr to document the activities that are done throughout the year in the clasroom. My principal likes to pop into our rooms periodically and sometimes catches the exciting things we do, but often times misses some as well. Flickr would be a good way to show him what he misses. Parent could benefit from seeing what their students are doing as well.
As for the security features of flicjr, I think they're great! With all of the junk that's on the internet now, being able to control what your students see is wonderful.
In addition to the already mentioned field trip and class project documentation, I think Flickr could be a great platform for sharing storyboard concepts, found poetry, and a visual exploration of point-of-view. I like the ease of access and speed of uploading and editing. The privacy settings are reassuring too.
Flickr would be great to post pictures of students doing science labs. I could post ones from previous years, so that students get excited about upcoming events or ones of the current students (because we all know how much students LOVE seeing pictures of themselves!!). Parents could also view the photos to spark conversations with their kids. Adjusting the settings of Flickr so that members of the school board and community can see the pictures would be an excellent way for all people in the area to see what our kids were learning (and see what our tax dollars are going towards).
I like what Bob said about using Flickr on the school website. It would be great to show parents and the community what events are going on at Northrop (guest speakers, sporting contests, projects, etc). I also think the Yearbook Staff could definitely use Flickr, maybe they already do, for the yearbook process.
In the classroom, what really comes to mind is the trip to D.C. my wife and I took 2 years ago. We were able to see a lot of the city's sites, including the West Wing Tour of the White House which is very rare. I allow students to see these and even take them on a virtual field trip. On the student side, what immediately comes to mind is having them photograph in groups the historical aspects of Fort Wayne. Researching and photographing things like street names, monuments, markers, buildings, and so on would be a great project when discussing Fort Wayne's history and all that it includes.
I would use flickr when I took the students somewhere. POssibly I could get a camera dealer or Walmart in town to donate some disposable cameras for the chidlren to use. I also might check with Nikon or Canon to see if they had a program where the school could get donations of cameras to use. I would also use this in the science area to watch a plant grow that the class had planted. On the field trips i owuld have a group of 2-3 students have tasks or stuff they would need to take pictures of. This would prevent students from wondering around and not know what to take pictures of.
I would then take he pictures and send them by flickr to administration, parents, or other teachers.
I tend to take a lot of pictures on Being There Experiences and any time we have any sort of special day in our classroom or school. This would be a wonderful way to organize my pictures and not have them take up a lot of space on my hard drive. It would also make it nice for parents to be able to view the pictures.
I have also done a slideshow at the end of the school year that this would make much easier with all the pictures in the same spot. My students would also have more of a selection using pictures that they wanted for their electronic portfolio or for stories we might write on our computers.
Flickr would be a great tool for my classroom. I could flickr to allow students to upload pictures from a field trip at the Field Museum or the Museum of Science and Industry. I can also see using Flickr as a presentation device for students. It would be cool if students could upload some family pictures when their family members were different ages and then use these pictures as a springboard for writing a historical narrative in the classroom. Flickr has all sorts of cool uses.
Flickr is a great tool for education. I can see using it as a art critique forum. Students can post all thier arts and then each student can critique each others work.
There are many uses for using flickr in a school setting. Being a previous yearbook co-sponsor I could see so many uses. We had digital cameras and had a lot of pictures but only the sponsors and the students working on the yearbook had access to the pictures. We had others take pics for us (teachers/parents) but we were always tracking them down to get the pics, even up until the deadline. Students are constantly taking pics of everything so it would have been nice to include some of those pics in the yearbook. So using this program would allow more people access to view pics and to add pics. That would have made our jobs a lot easier.
As a teacher, one of my projects require a student pic. I always take pics with the intention that if they can't provide a pic, I have one, and they have no excuse for not doing the assignment. Of course, when I get the camera out the students will take a pic by themselves, but you always have those groups that want pics w/ their friends. They all want copies, and it gets expensive. Having the pics available for students and parents would be nice. I too thought that I could have pics of projects done in class posted too. I usually post them in the hallway, but there really aren't too many parents that come in. My students also do a family project. They could possibly have their own account and use this to explain their family project in Spanish for their oral presentation.
I love taking pictures and love to take pictures of my students. I like to be able to show them the pictures I have taken of them when they are working (especially in groups and on projects), on field trips, at special assemblies and any extra things that we might do at school (whether its something special to my class or the whole school). I think Flickr is a great way to be able to show the students and their parents what they have been doing at school. I like the idea of having some control as to who views the pictures and who comments on them. This is a very nice way to share the pictures and experiences with parents who may not make it in to the classroom often. It's also nice because they have the ability to print anything that they may want. I think that in some classes, maybe younger grades it would be beneficial for the students to be able to share their pictures at school without the possibility of losing them because they physically brought them. In my classroom, though, I would be most happy to be able to share with the students and their families what we have been doing, since I take so many pictures anyway.
I think using Flickr in the classroom would be a great idea. It helps keep the parents involved. For example when teaching children to count or sing their ABC's you could use pictures and post them for in the classroom or even to keep the parents involved with their child's learning experience after they leave the classroom.
I would like to start by saying that Flickr would be a great tool. First it will open my class to provide involvement with the parents at home. This is a big topic right now. So many schools are looking for involvement from home, and I believe that Flickr could be it. Also I think that it would create a more common bond for my students. If everyone could see each other in action, then maybe it will grow more interest in the topic.
I like the idea of a kind of "digital yearbook" that you and your students could create for your class on Flickr. And I appreciate the privacy settings, letting you limit the access to your students and their parents.
I also can envision this being used to supplement my college teaching. One of my dreams is to finally visit and study in Germany, where J.S. Bach lived and worked. This "virtual field trip" via photos from myself or a colleague who has been in Germany could make the lectures on Bach's life and work really come to life.
Following what Kevin has said, the idea of class yearbooks or scrapbooks appeals to me as we try to forge relationships with students. Capturing their class moments might help them remember the class fondly. More likely, I would use Flickr to illustrate places that we study like The Globe Theatre. I can also see students maybe using the site for creating a photo library from which to pull items for projects.
Using Flikr in school is great idea. Teachers can use it to show parents what their kids did on field trips, school events, sporting events and hands on projects in the classroom. Flickr is a tool that would help families feel connected to the school and more involved in what their children are doing.
What I like best about Flickr for class use are the control settings explained by Worth. I also like the idea of being able to direct friends or students toward a collection of photos without having to send them via email. I am currently volunteering at Turnstone’s handwriting camp. It might be neat to take photos of the various activities we do and group them together on a Flickr page with explanations for each activity. This way, parents could get a real idea of what we are doing while they are away. In the economics classroom, perhaps I could find appropriate graphs and pictures to go with graphs that point toward the concepts. In history, students could search for photos that depict historical moments and explain the moment and its significance. They could do the same with historic figures. If debates or significant projects take place, those activities could be photographed, and as Vanessa said, these photos could be shared with the following year’s classes to get them excited about the activities. I also like Andrew’s idea of having students photograph historic sites in Fort Wayne. This is a project the teacher could start by researching and photographing a couple historic areas. I also like Angela’s idea of photographing more mundane classroom activities so that parents get a window into the classroom. I guess I missed the classroom yearbook option that Kevin and Travis mentioned, but that does not sound like a bad idea.
I am not sure the "educational" value of flicker, but I agree with what others have mentioned about taking pictures in class or doing a special project and allowing parents and students to see them. I think this is something our high school or even just my freshman team could adopt to make school seem more fun and so that students can see other students engaged in learning. A lot of times at my school there seems to be a lot of focus on what's going on that's "bad". Flicker could almost be used positive reinforcements because almost all of our kids love attention!
Flickr would be a great way to do a video yearbook! Elementary students could use it easily, and it would be great for end of the year recognition ceremonies. The privacy settings are especially nice, as that seems to be a big concern with most schools!
I take a lot of pictures in my classroom. Flickr would be a great way to keep parents updated about what their child has been doing. It would also be enjoyable for the students. It has been my experience that they love to see pictures of themselves and their friends. Flickr would also be a great way to document field trips, school events, and the progress of a long-term project.
FYI...I just found out that you can only display 200 photos with a free Flickr account. If you want to put up more, you have to upgrade to a paid account :-(
We take pictures of EVERYTHING at school. :) Flickr is an amazing organizational tool to share these pictures with parents and other people at school. We used to have all of our pictures developed each month and have parent volunteers run and pick them up. Flickr allows parents to view the pictures from home and order what they would like. I also like the ability for me to create my end of the year slide show more easily.
I hang student work all over my classroom, and I am never selective because the students work harder if they know it will be on display. Flickr would free up some of my wall space and parents would get the opportunity to see their child's work. I would be able to archive work from other students to use as examples.
I have to admit I have never heard of flickr before, but I think it's great! I could see using this in several ways: on our school website to show student activities; to display pictures of projects and activities that are going on in my classroom; to post historical pictures for students to use in their research process. I really think flickr would be beneficial to me as an educator and a parent!!
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