flickr in the classroom

I chose to blog about flickr because I didn't really know how it could be used in the classroom. I use flickr to share personal images and to search for copyright-friendly images, but I was surprised to learn how flickr could be used in the classroom. I was especially intrigued by other web 2.0 applications that use flickr images (like phrasr, bookr, and bubblr). I wanted to see if I could use one of these with my students.

In 4th grade we teach similes and metaphors. Students often have trouble determining the meaning of a simile or metaphor. I thought phrasr could be a useful tool. Students enter in the simile or metaphor and then choose pictures to accurately describe what it means. Below is my screenshot of the phrasr site. I entered in the metaphor, "He was boiling mad."

Next, you click start and it runs an initial image search for you.

Then you can change your images. When you are happy with your selection, you enter a title and your name, then you click publish and your phrasr is added to the library.

After using this application, I would probably not use it in my 4th grade classroom. Although I liked the idea, some of the images that were provided in the search were not appropriate (a man putting up his middle finger, a person with a knife, etc.). I would probably modify the activity using flickr creative commons images and have the students insert the images into a Word document, PowerPoint, or Kidspiration.

View my completed phrasr here.