Flickr in Education
From Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0: Part 3 by Brian Benzinger. Web Link
Lots of great things in the article. The items on flickr are particularly interesting.
“I can also see Flickr being used in photography classes allowing students to keep an organized collection of their work, share their photos with the world, and receive commentary from viewers and classmates. And who knows? Maybe all it takes is a comment or a couple views of a students work to inspire and motivate them in continuing with photography.”
The article goes on to explain the Flickr photo annotation tool which allows you to add boxes around specific areas to which you can add notes. You could use this feature to explain key concepts or highlight hidden detail / content. Not only that but the note function also allows other users to add their notes as well.
“Say you are a teacher and you uploaded an art piece that you want your students to critique. Have them browse to the art piece and add notes around parts they want to comment on.”
Beth Harris of the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, has used Flickr with her art history course. Images (in this case paintings) are uploaded and students are encouraged to add their own notes (and hence labels) and discuss paintings online. Not only that but each photo has a comments feature which the students use to discuss aspects of the painting. The image below shows a typical example. Clicking on the image will take to the actual photo on Flickr where you can see the student comments.
The article provides another example. Ewan McIntosh has uploaded the painting, “Ivory, Apes and Peacocks,”. Users not only label the image but also use the note function to ask questions, which are then answered in the comments facility (located below the image).
Again click on the image to interact with the note boxes and read comments.
Finally the article mentions Alan Levine who uses the annotation facility to create “hot-spot learning objects.”. In the example below shows a range of volcano types. As the mouse hovers over each volcano (hotspot) a note appears providing info. Click on the image below to see this in action.
Interestingly Alan has also used the notes tool to create tutorial on how Flickr can be used and the variety of tools available. Clicking on the image below takes you to the tutorial but it is also worth noting that Alan has provided more links and explanations using the information text slot that comes with the image. The tutorial is actually part of the k12 online 2006 conference with delegates using the comments and annotation facilities to add their views. BLU conference organizers may wish to follow a similar route in future?
