Usually I just use the advanced search on flickr but I’ve been feeling the need for something more …….

Today, just by happy accident, I stumbled across this delicious bookmark I’d made a while back but hadn’t had a chance to read properly. (I tag anything with that I haven’t had a chance to really explore or read if I’m in the middle of looking for something else, or working on something, with lookatlater – very handy!)

Amongst the glorious things that you can do with flickr, here was that need for something more ……

Q: I know Flickr offers a search engine but it won’t display more than 24 pictures at a time. Is there a better alternative ?

A: Switch to either Compfight or PictureSandbox – these are some of best Flickr search tools on the web, even better than Flickr’s built-in search engine.

PictureSandbox

Don’t you love how easy Picturesandbox makes image searching?

Compfight

It really doesn’t get much better than this does it?  What I’d like to find next, is a simple add-on that will get the attribution for me automatically (less clicks for me).  So I’m off to find that now.

How do you search for your CreativeCommons images?

I was kinda “chuffed” then, when I got this email from Schmap Guides

Hi teachingsagittarian,

I am writing to let you know that one of your photos with a Creative Commons license has been short-listed for inclusion in the fifth edition of our Schmap Auckland Guide, to be published at the end of this month.

www.schmap.com/shortlist/p=10747684N00/c=SH51013676

Clicking this link will take you to a page where you can:
i) See which of your photos has been short-listed.
ii) Submit or withdraw your photo from our final selection phase.
iii) Learn how we credit photos in our Schmap Guides.
iv) Browse online or download the fourth edition of our Schmap Auckland Guide.

Our submission deadline is Sunday, July 13. If you happen to be reading this message after this date, please still click on the link above (our Schmap Guides are updated frequently – photos submitted after this deadline will be considered for later releases).

Best regards,

Emma Williams,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides

After thinking about it for a couple of days I did eventually click on the submit the day of the deadline.

Today, when uploading some new photos to flickr I saw an email from Emma Williams congratulating me on the selection of my photo and details of how it looks in the Schmap Auckland Guide. It also gives me credit for the photo.

And it’s even got an iPhone view!

If you’re interested in taking a closer look at the actual photo you can find it here.

I’m off to learn how to use the Manual mode a bit more!

This website has a total of 142 applications and plugins in the database, all of which utilise the Flickr API in some way. This is a pretty extensive list and will take me a while to work my way through so I thought I’d pass it on to you so that you can check it out in your own time.  Enjoy!

This morning on twitter started by @Riptide_Furse …………………

_{Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!}

………….. and ended in a skype call between Fred and myself where he shared what Flickr tools he presented to his teachers at the workshop and their various ways of being used.

Here are just some of the things Fred so generously shared with me ………

1. fd’s Flickr Toys

_{Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!}

This site is full of great tools to use with flickr photos. You don’t need to sign up (athough you can if you’d like) and within a few minutes you can create the most professional looking motivational poster. Here’s my 2 minute effort:

Suggestions for use in the classroom:

• Have students take a photo that represents school motto
• Use Jigsaw / Mosaic Maker with photos from around the school/community representing maths concepts (ie Shapes, angles etc)
• Use Warholizer for Start of Year Activity with student photos
• Spice up class blog with Cartooniser, Framer, Billboard, Slideshow, Writer (list is almost endless possibilities with these gadgets!)

2. Befuddlr

_{Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!}

_{Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!}

Use in the classroom?
We talked this over for a bit and decided that you could have some major conversations about which photos would be easy or hard to un-bedfuddlr.

• What would make a picture harder to organise back to its original state?
• Fun problem solving activity to do for fast finishers
• An activity on a rainy day
• A taskboard activity
  

3. Dumpr.net

_{Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!}

You don’t need to sign up (but you can if you’d like) and within 2 minutes I managed to create this …………
A museum-photo of our Class Mascot Kawekakea meeting Ewan McIntosh at ULearn07 earlier this year.

_{Created with dumpr.net – fun with your photos}

Most of the tools in Dumpr.net are similar to fd’s flickr toys but there are a couple of different ones. Don’t mix up the url with Dumpr.com like I did –

Use in the classroom?

• Use Photo in Art Museum, Jigsaw, Make photos look old, Stone Mosaic, for Presentations, blog posts etc
• Use Photo to Sketch, Alien Vision for creating online avatars, profile photos etc
• Use Photo inside a photo for problem solving puzzles

4. Other Possibilities for the Classroom

• If you’re looking for ways to work REAL LIFE editing into writing
  What’s wrong with these pictures Apostrophes Quote abuse
• Spell with Flickr
• Animated GIFs with Flickr

Got heaps of time on your hands? You could check out this long, long, long list of The Great Flickr Tools Collection!

And if that wasn’t enough, those great folks from Commoncraft have released this:

Online Photo Sharing in Plain English

Click here to view the embedded video.

So, what are your favourite things to do with flickr?

1. Animoto (seeing the potential for students creating “hooks” for other students when summarizing/reflecting on, their learning)

2. Google Earth and Maps (seeing the potential for visually connecting our classroom with the world)

3. Flickr (love the potential of the visual design)

4. ToonDoo (can taste the potential for hooking in the boys)

5. PictureTrail (there’s that visual design potential again)

6. Sketchcast (imagining the potential for students to demonstrate mathematical knowledge)

What will you trying out in your classroom in 2008?

I need to say special thanks to my good friend Kim, because she contributed heavily to an “aha” moment when I realised that I’d been categorising my posts instead of tagging them. Doh!  So now I will be tagging all my posts and tidying up the categories!

^{_{Attribution:
Original Unedited Image: ‘trust love try focus grow‘
www.flickr.com/photos/60368684@N00/47910191}}