Flickr-Big Huge Labs

      The two articles I read were Motivating language leaners and photo sharing in education. Flickr is a good web site because it can be understood by students who speak another language. Even though English is not their first language they can understand what they are viewing by the photo and the fact that Flickr uses many one-liners and describes everything in just a few simple words. Teachers can use Flickr for activities and let the students use the computers for a fun learning experience. There are many activities listed in these articles to give a teacher some ideas. Flickr gives students a lot of control over their activities and photos so the teacher has to trust her class to be mature before using this application. Photo sharing in education is a fast easy way to upload photos you would want to share with your class, and they can share with each other. The students can leave comments on photos which could start up an educational discussion. Flickr is a fun way to teach other than just in the classroom. I would recommend only the upper level grades use this application. There are a lot of photos they can view on this site and a maturity level is expected. The comments being posted should not be hurtful or use any vulgar language.
       I would use Flickr in my own classroom to be projects on pictures from around the world or weather photos etc. I would assign about 4 groups depending on the class size split them up and give them a certain topic to research. I would make them only use photos and a few simple words to describe what the picture is. Each group must comment if they have any questions or can figure out what the picture is for example if someone put up a picture of a tornado. This is just a fun way for the kids to all get involved using the technology available to them and let them learn about a topic in a fun way other than taking notes on it. If a question is asked about there photo such as how many tornados usually happen in a year? The group will have to research that to give an answer.
      The object I made is from Big Huge Labs and it is a puzzle of the continents. I would use this in my classroom to teach the children what the continents are and where they are located. For some students will disabilities they could benefit from doing this puzzle. If a student has ADD/ADHD they are usually hard to keep their focus when taking notes or just coloring in the continents on a piece of paper, but having them try and put together a puzzle would keep their attention and it is fun so they don't lose focus because they are always looking at pieces trying to put them together, they have a lot going on to keep them focused. They could also work with a friend which is always fun for the students than independent work. Also if a student can't hold a pencil or color I could make the puzzle pieces extra large when printing them out so they could hold them and out them together easily. If a student doesn't speak English they could put together this puzzle without much direction from the teacher this would be a easier task to them than trying to follow directions from a teacher when she is explaining many directions, on what continent goes where, what color to make it etc. I think everyone enjoys trying to put together a puzzle and the general educational students and the disabled students would both benefit and have fun with this activity, it's something they can all work together and do.