BP6_20091102_Flickr

Flickr

While searching for educational uses of Flickr, I found lessons plans for science, English as a second language (ESL) students, and digital storytelling. The science application, found at http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2009/04/03/using-the-online-photo-community-flickr-for-science-education/ involves students commenting on a set of teacher uploaded photos.
The ESL plan explains the a growth in student motivation to learn a new language through use the use of this images and this Web 2.0 application. The full article can be accessed at http://e-poche.net/2006/01/11/flickr-for-low-level-efl-students/. The digital storytelling lesson that uses Flickr, available at http://efl20.com/index.php/2007/06/educational-use-of-flickr-visual-storytelling-visual-cues/, is intended for foreign language classes and involves learners telling a story with the use of 5 images from Flickr. All of these plans are well planned and viable, but they really don’t address my content area.

As an eighth grade English teacher, I would use Flickr as an image source for culminating project after reading a novel. They would find images on flickr and incorporate them into an imovie. Students could apply their understanding of symbolism and their understanding of themes and/or main events in the plot. I would task students with creating an movie comprised of images that symbolize themes, topics, and/or important story events. While I did not find any articles or blog posts on this, I have seen student-produced work for such a project on YouTube. This multimodal approach allows them to include music that is consistent with the tone or mood of various sections of the text as well.

Below is an example of student-produced work that can be found on YouTube. The novel is “Silent to the Bone” by E. L. Konigsburg. I have taught this novel for years, but this student did such a excellent job that this year I used the clip with students after reading the novel to demonstrate symbolism and discuss the choices the student made in selecting images. I also used it as a before reading prompt in an online discussion about predictions on my class novels Ning site (Pictured above). Unfortunately, the district filter blocks Flickr, and I am unable to implement this in my class. After observing student response to the discussion of the video embedded below, however, I am certain it would be an engaging and meaningful learning experience if students were able to access the resources.

Video Created by Evan Karsten