BP4_2009_Flickr

Ok, so I'm new to Flickr, in fact new enough I originally started to spell it Flicker!

I've caught students checking their Flicker accounts in our Speech courses, and occasionally they seem to be using it for educational purposes. Which is great, of course, but they are also checking out pics on their friends accounts. Which, of course, is fine on their own time, but not on class time.

I can see the appeal of Flickr, however, despite my criticism that they need to add that e to the name. (So I can stop have to go back to edit and remove it every time I type Flick(e)r!

While I do feel somewhat overwhelmed by all of the different media assets we're using in my Full Sail University program, I could see using this in the classroom. Students, parents, and admin could follow my flickr account, so I actually see this more as a tool for communication than for classroom use. However, it does have good applications for student use.

I have a hard time coming up with a use for Flickr with Speech, other than using it as a search tool to find pics for presentations, which would be a student use of Flickr. I do see serious potential to keep connected to parents, admin, etc. I just posted pics of chairs my 6th graders painted at SHA EL, and I could let parents and students know they could follow the account for updates on this and so much more.

Another use would be to create folders of my art lessons for parents and admin to follow.

As far as lesson plans, I could see using Flickr to create portfolios of students art work, or to display my own works to my art students. One thing often left out of the art classroom is the art teacher's ability to share their own works of art. Portfolio creation would be a great way to use Flickr in many classrooms, for students and teachers alike.