Task #4 Flickr

Wow! talk about screen sucking---I think that's the term--- I logged onto Flickr for the first time and 90 minutes later I was still there. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not but it was certainly an interesting way to kill/spend some time. I created my account, down loaded a few photos, edited a few photos, located them on maps and then went searching.

The actual working with photos was pretty straight forward as was the use of the search features.I may be in the minority but there were some things on the site that I did have some difficulty with. I am not 100% sure I have my account set up the way I want. The privacy controls confused me a little bit and I am not too sure who can and can't view my current albeit small photostream. I think my personal information is hidden the way it needs to be.

I was a little disappointed in the feature that allows people to view your photos. If I have it right, and I think I do, they have to have yahoo accounts to access Flickr. I only mention this because it is just one more account and one more set of instructions for people to remember and use. Most of my contacts are not on the e-mail lists that Flickr seems to work with. .

In the classroom I can obviously see using the database to add truth to the idiom "A picture is worth a 1000 words" and it is a great tool for sharing photos with classes or parents, but I wonder about the logistical challenges of communicating passwords and such to parents or students. Is that an issue, I'm not sure.

I liked the cartoons and captions options as well. Overall it is a solid tool, fun to play with but it definitely would take, in my opinion some practice and work to get the full value out of it in a classroom setting.

I have not yet attempted to import pictures from the site and place them somewhere else. That is a task I will take a shot at tomorrow. If I get lucky maybe I'll get a photo from the site posted to my blog but that will be a major endeavor, I think.