Actually, students love to share photos of themselves. They particularly like to share photos of themselves with their friends and doing things. This is one of the attractions of Facebook. The opportunity to take and share photos with, and of, themselves and friends.
This is why Flickr makes the classroom a much more fun place for students. Give them a camera, or two, and let them take pictures. It's been our experience that students will be on-task more often and work more closely and productively with classmates when they know cameras are around.
Students will be pay more attention to directions, and follow them, if they know a classmate will take a picture of them during the Science lab and then post it to the class photo album on the Internet.
Try it out. Show students the new class Flickr account, let them see your digital camera, and tell them you'll be uploading photos of them performing their self created Language Arts poems. Let them know they're free to dress up like a poet as they present. Then, step back and see what happens.
If you're not a Language Arts teacher, try the same thing with these examples:
- The next Science Lab
- Current events presentations in Social Studies where students dress up in the cultural dress of the country they chose to study
- Students reciting as many numbers of Pi they can remember in Math class
- Running their first mile in PE
- Completing their masterpiece in Art
- The big rehearsal in Band
- Baking their first cake in Home Economics
Flickr can be used and applied in just about any content area. If you're running out of ideas for using Flickr, join a community and communicate with schools around the country or the world.
