Flickr is a site I've used before...and I'm continually amazed at what is available through it. I was introduced to the site by my brother, who uploads all of his pictures there. Even with that single operation in mind, I've been impressed not only with the ability to download various pixel sizes so I can print his pictures if I want, but also, how easily organized his pictures are. I haven't done this myself...I am much too lazy, I suppose!
Within the classroom, I was excited to read about ways I can use Flickr with my students. Last year, I asked my students to email me pictures of their families to be used on an "All About Me" glog. I had to download and save the pictures to each individual child's folder on the H drive, which was time consuming, to say the least. With Flickr, I can create a class group on Flickr that only the students and I have access to, allowing them to upload pictures in one location from home, providing a way to easily retrieve them at school.
When creating this All About Me glog, my students needed to find a few specific pictures of objects or activities they enjoyed. You can imagine, when a child wanted a baseball picture to illustrate his love of the game, even when searching Compfight, there were so many picture to choose from...and not all of them entirely about baseball. I could do a search of my own and collect 3-5 photos for the students where necessary and post them to the Flickr group page for easy access...and to help limit their choices somewhat, so they are not overwhelmed.
I like the idea of posting class pictures to the same Flickr Group account so that students and their families can see the photos as soon as they're uploaded, alleviating the need to email individual photos to parents. Anthony's teacher used Smilebox for that purpose, which was even more adorable, but it was one more step. I see that I could also create an RSS feed which would allow me to post the pictures to our class blog. I haven't tried that yet, but it is something I look forward to doing. I just need to remember to take pictures more often!
I'd also forgotten about the many BigHugeLab applications. I had bookmarked the site last year, but since the All About Me glog took much more time than completing a similar craft on paper, I didn't get to do the things I'd hoped to. I am still very interested in utilizing the Movie Poster or Magazine Cover for the students to illustrate their particular strengths after we study Eight Kinds of Smart. Students would need to find a picture that matches the kind of 'smart' they believe themselves to be and write descriptors that match. I'm looking forward to it!
