Using Flickr in the Classroom! (mod 9)

Flickr is essentially a website where people can store their photos. Why, then, is Flickr so fascinating for educators? The answer to this question is left to interpretation; my chief reasons will not be the same as a colleague's or even you, who is reading this right now, nevertheless, I will now share some of my ways/reasons for using Flickr in the classroom.

• Give students CHOICE: Flickr allows students to be creative utilizing "real" material. The photos on Flickr represent the world as seen through the eyes of the photographer. With Flickr, I, as the teacher am not just giving students any photo; but I am allowing them to choose a photo that brings meaning to them, on their own through an easy to use "tagging" system. The "tagging" system will also help my ESL students with aspects such as vocabulary and spelling. Simultaneously, we are learning proper sharing etiquette (copyright values) as we discuss which photos we can use, which we cannot, and what it means to give proper credit to the photographer.



• Short Writing Tasks for Beginning ESL: Through Flickr there are applications such as Bookr, Bubblr, and Big Huge Labs. These applications allow students to choose some photos, create a story by adding text, and publish it on the web. These short sentences allow lower level ESL students to use what they are learning in a fun way and the idea of publishing can be motivating for them to learn English.



• Practice Made FUN: As a teacher I can also choose photos for students to work with and create activities such as: What verb is happening in this photo?, Compare/Contrast 2 photos, Adjectives - describe the photo, and Inferences/Point of View - Look at the photo and tell me What is the cat thinking? OR What events happened leading to this photo?



• Collaboration: It is possible to meet and interact with other classrooms. This can involve students leaving notes and comments on photos. This fosters the sharing of ideas and learning to respect opinions.

There are so many options for using Flickr in the classroom it is amazing. One final thought about using Flickr is that it offers options for the multiple intelligences of learning. Depending how you include it in the lesson you can easily involve the visual/spatial, body/kinesthetic, interpersonal or intrapersonal, and verbal/linguistic learners. Can't wait to try it!

[Thank you to woo is not a china girl for the photo entitled Who's blue?]