Using Flickr for collaborative class projects
During our recent colleague tea session on web tools in the classroom, we talked about ideas for using images on the web in the classroom. Image repositories were discussed. Scott McLaughlin from Archeology (and History, and Education), mentioned that some of his class projects include field work such as taking pictures and creating rubbings of gravestones. This made me think of the online photo sharing service Flickr as a possible image collection and organization tool. Here are some of my thoughts on how this might work, the benefits and possible pitfalls that might be involved in such an endeavor.
One scenario might be to send a class out to take their pictures of gravestones, old buildings, and archeological dig sites, then have them sign up for a Flickr account and upload their images. One could prime the process by following the steps suggested for organizing a “wedding” group - create a group, then send out “invites” to your students. A set of pre-defined “tags” could even be provided for them to use when uploading and describing the images.
Collecting images in this way might have it’s drawbacks. For one, you don’t have much control over the metadata that is being entered - even if the students use the keyword tags you provide, they might use the wrong ones, or misspell them. In short, there is no way to provide a controlled vocabulary, and your students may not necessarily be content experts. Also, the 100mb upload limit on the free account could be a hindrance - depending on the size of the project, they might need to purchase “pro” accounts. An alternative would be for the instructor (or a teaching assistant) to purchase one account and do all of the uploading. This way more control would be had over the metadata, and space would be less of an issue.
There is also the question of ownership, or at least possession and storage of the material. Doing something like this would mean that all this material is going into a vehicle we don’t have complete control over. However, perhaps there is a way to address this by putting our own campus image repository software to use. Many repository applications support the import of images via URL. Flickr provides RSS feeds of photostreams - basically lists of image URL’s and their descriptions. In theory, data collected in the field could be imported into a repository for safe keeping.
Despite the possible pitfalls, this might be a fun experiment to try. Other examples might be a field trip, where students collect images of their travels. Or a tree or plant walk, where class members take pictures of trees they found and post them, along with classification and location information.