Flickr: An online photoalbum

Flickr is a website that allows users to not only upload photos to share with friends and family, but opens up a a new world of creativity. With a simple to follow self-guided tour, users are able to understand and benefit from the full potential of Flickr. Once you join Flickr (FREE for basic accounts), you can upload, edit, organize, share, create maps, make stuff, and keep in touch.
In order to allow for as many users as possible, Flickr can be used on both PC and Mac computers. There are also multiple ways to upload pictures, such as using email. Once the pictures are uploaded, the fun and creativity can begin. Everyone has those pictures that come out kind of blurry or there is something wrong with the photo. With Flickr, there is no need to discard those seemingly imperfect photos. Picnik, is a partner of Flickr, and, once you give authorization of Picnik to load your photos, you are all set to edit those photos. In the editing mode you can rotate, change colors, sharpen, and change the exposure, to name a few editing options.
Simply uploading and editing photos is not enough. Users need a way to organize the photos into albums, and Flickr's response to this is sets. By creating sets, you are essentially creating photo albums which will organize your photos. If you are a dog fanatic, or love to travel, then the share section may interest you. This is a way for groups of people who are interested in the same topic to meet eachother and share photos of the chosen topic. I could have my students take pictures of nouns and create a folder of nouns. Take a look at my nouns folder. This folder could be used all year during Language Arts. Folders could be made just as iKits are made on Macs. This could create many new opportunities for my students. In order to protect users, there are special safety features set up such as deciding whether the groups should be public or private. Are you more geographically interested in people or things? You can post where you took your pictures on the maps and look at other user's photos that were taken in different parts of the world. This could be very helpful with telecommunication classes. I would use it as virtual field trips with my students. If we were researching Rain Forest animals, we could look on the map for pictures taken in the Rain Forest. The students would able to see different animals in different Rain Forests.
Finally, the most creative part of Flickr: Making Stuff. With Flickr you can make things from calling cards to postage stamps. Some students are good at writing and some are creative. With the vast amount of creative possiblities available through Flickr, my students could create projects to go along with their work. The possiblities are endless with what you can do once your pictures are uploaded into Flickr. Unsure where to start? Take a look at the Flickr blog