Thing 7

I have never really used Flickr before.  Honestly, I thought it was just kinda a site for teenager girls to use to show off their newest Miley Cyrus impersonation outfit.  When I saw that exploring Flickr was one of our assignments, I knew I must have been mistaken!  After looking around Flickr some, I realized the site is actually really cool.  You can look at a world map and see where people are posting pictures around the world.  When I clicked on a picture someone posted from Dublin, Ireland, I found the picture below.  The picture was posted by the National Library of Ireland and was taken around 1900.  The caption invites viewers to debate on what exactly is seen in the picture.  Is the giant cross an ornate mail box or something more?  I thought this picture was both gorgeous and intriguing.  It made me think a little bit about what exactly I was seeing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47290943@N03/9682531809

Photographer: Robert French

The amount of historical pictures on Flickr shocked me.  As a historian and future history teacher, this is an excellent resource.  As the overly cliched saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.  Although this is  true in the more commonly accepted meaning of this saying, a picture can be worth countless words in the classroom.  Displaying a picture on the projector is a great way to transition topics and spark discussion with students.  A lesson like this forces students to think about a topic and immerse themselves in histroy

The Commons area on Flikr is the most useful part of the website to my future classroom.  The Commons is an effort to digitize photo archives and make them available for public use.  Several large institutions partipicate in the project.  This project would be a great tool in the classroom because the teacher can trust the image since it comes from a reputatable institution.  The captions are reliable, whereas if an image is just found on Google it may not be.

The tags feature is also really nice, allowing a user to find photos with similar tags.  I looked at photos with the tag libraryofcongress.  All these photos were uploaded from the United States Library of Congress.  Below are some photos with this tag that I thought were interesting.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8623220@N02/9733702037/in/photolist-fQ8LuV-fQ8NVk-fQ8Mup-fQ8Mkt-fQqnyq-fQ8Nst-fQqn6b-fQqmxh-fQ8Mcp-fQ8LaZ-fQ8Nha-fQ8PqP-fQqo6W-fQ8N4Z-fQ8Mqt-fQ8N2M-fQqkSw-fQ8Nd8-fQ8Myx-fQ8PcH-fQ8M2t-fQ8NKi-fQqjXS-fQ8MW4-fQ8KQe-fQqnm9-fQ8KXz-fQqosy-fQ8Phr-fQ8KVv-fQ8Mhk-fQ8N6R-fQqnMU-fQ8Pwa-fQqmqN-fQqo4s-fQqkaq-fQ8LDK-fQ8Mar-fQ8M8r-fQqnY5-fQqksC-fQqkhU-fQqk7Y-fQqjDd-fQ8PDp-fKKBot-fL3jr5-fL3kto-fKKKfi-fKKHkB

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8623220@N02/9574727213/in/photolist-fA5YPF-fA5Zu8-fA5YD4-fAkjPN-fAkk3A-fA61PF-fA5ZTB-fA5Z5M-fAkjyE-fAkkuy-fA61jn-fAkhEo-fAkhxL-fA5YKr-fA5ZDB-fAkhch-fAkkL7-fAkj8Q-fAkjGs-fAkicm-fAki4J-fA613M-fAkm4L-fA61WF-fAkkyE-fA5ZdB-fA5Yft-fA61rr-fAkhAU-fA5Y4D-fAkkny-fuUq7X-fuUsSZ-fv9Lg5-fuUswi-fuUqtD-fuUs2K-fuUqHz-fuUrrn-fuUrUH-fuUsLa-fuUqzM-fuUsZx-fuUriD-fuUsaM-fuUr4c-fuUqWr-fuUpKR-fv9HSd-fuUpT6-fv9Jro

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8623220@N02/9473050638/in/photolist-fr6RVh-fr6S6o-fr6ToE-fr6Rzw-fr6SR5-fqRA5z-fqRByH-fqRC7M-fqRzLa-fqRzsx-fr6QLs-fqRCwZ-fr6Ua9-fqRzTi-fr6SYE-fr6ReL-fqRBVt-fr6T7w-fqRAXk-fr6QGw-fqRzDi-fr6SCU-fr6Snq-fqRzvK-fqRCEg-fr6RMy-fmsYDe-fmsYvx-fmHa3L-fmsY1z-fmsYnB-fmH9ML-fmsYzr-fmH9Fd-fmHaTf-fmsYLe-fmHb7d-fmsYQ6-fmHaaL-fmsZ28-fmsYiP-fmH9QJ-fmGRxb-fmGQ6J-fmsDCp-fmGTdC-fmsExz-fmsD4F-fmsG32-fmGRJY-fmGQTE

After this experience with Fickr, I learned that the sight is easy to use and a great tool in the classroom (and an even better way to spend some free time!).