Flickr and its Instructional Possibilities

Flickr is a free online community that is based around uploading, organizing, and sharing photos.  However, with additional applications such as e-mail and instant messaging, it represents a smaller-scale online networking site, comparable in some ways to Facebook.  Obviously, Flickr lacks the excess of additional features that Facebook offers its users, but this is precisely why Flickr offers educators the better option for creating an online educational community in the classroom.

By being more simplistic than other social networking sites, as well as being relatively simple to use, teachers could utilize the collaboration features (i.e. instant messaging, e-mail, commenting, etc.) to allow students to post and discuss material relevant to in-class studies.  The real benefit is that anywhere that a student can get internet access, they can review, question, and comment on pictures or ideas posted on a designated class Flickr page. Rather than having to give out an e-mail address to students.  Interaction outside of the classroom setting between teacher and student could happen through Flickr accounts.  Sites like Facebook would be less than ideal in comparison because there is most likely going to be a comment, picture, or something else (inappropriate or not) that teachers would not be particularly eager to share with students.

This obviously would be geared toward middle school classrooms and up, but nowadays even elementary school students are going to be relatively adept at navigating and using social networking sites.  Perhaps something like Flickr could be used for these younger ages for simultaneous technology exploration and the ever-popular 'show-and-tell' purposes.