Wednesday, August 5, 2009

FlickR Fun


Sun-flower...., originally uploaded by Vikaz.

When I go to Europe I am going to visit the tulip fields in Holland...

After going through the process of having to set up a Yahoo account to then set up a FlickR account, which i then had to add my Blog to and grant permission for FlickR to access it, I can finally browse, search for and use the images I find!

I must say it is quite a long process to set up an account if you don't already have a Yahoo! account (that is compared to creating accounts for other things like Voki). However, once the account is set up I can see how it can be a useful tool. I did not realise that it is not only an image/video share, but a social networking space too. I suppose thew easiest way to use this in the classroom would be for the Learning Manager to create an account for the whole class. That would save a lot of time and confusion, especially in the younger grades.

The great thing about FlickR is that you have to option to keep the images and videos you upload private, meaning you can upload class learning photos and videos with less risk, however it is still important to seek permission from each parent/guardian before doing so. As well as this, if students find/have images they need for their schoolwork, they can upload it to FlickR then access it from anywhere - no more saving it to the computer rather than their file server or forgetting which folder they saved it in!

FlickR provides Learning Resources to aid the completion of tasks performed in ICT learning environments (Oliver, 1999). Rather than searching Google Images and coming up with a random bunch of results, some of which are entirely inappropriate to the search criteria, FlickR provides a host of images and videos available for legal use under the Creative Commons Liscence. It is another way of providing an identified resources needed to successfully complete tasks, as per the ICT Learning Design Framework (Oliver, 1999).

FlickR may also be used as a tool in the Learning Engagement Theory if the 'product' of the problem is an image with a certain message etc. or a video clip. Students may work in collaborative groups (Relate) to solve a problem or CREATE a product - this could link to Technology's Information strand, Visual Literacy (English), The Arts (Visual art, or Drama)... Which is then uploaded on to FlickR (Donate) and made public for the use of others.

That just gave me an idea - in regards to Visual Literacy, FlickR might just be an excellent resource for finding visual 'texts' to use in class... What do you think?

Keirsley, G. & Shneiderman, B (1999) Engagment Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Available from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Oliver, R. (1999). Exploring strategies for online teaching and learning. Distance Education, 20(2), 240-254.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you very much!
    I hope you are still enjoying my posts and finding them useful.
    The mind truly does boggle at the technology available online for free.
    It is amazing how far we have come!

    Bethanie

    ReplyDelete