Wonderful World of Flickr

I can't say enough about how I would use FlickR in the English classroom! Sites like these excite me because they can be used in a multitude of ways. One way would be in the form of digital storytelling. After collecting my photos from flickr, I would use websites such as animoto to compile my pictures so that they would be able to tell my story. For example, instead of using PowerPoint to create a picture slideshow, I could use animoto instead, and set all my flickr pictures to music (with transitions included) easily to tell whatever story I wanted. Here is a one I made about pie eating just for fun!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

In addition to using flickr for digital storytelling, I could use flickr as a final project for my English students. For example, bighugelabs takes photos from flickr and allows the user to create movie posters, magazine covers, cd covers, or even a comic book! After reading a novel, one of my final projects could be to create one of the previously mentioned objects in order to summarize the essence of the book. Here is a movie poster I made using flickr for the novel Catcher in the Rye:

Would you go see it?

I find that students are very enthusiastic when they use technology they are familiar with for final projects. I have used imovie before and their products turned out well so I have no doubt in my mind using flickr for a final project would turn out awesome products!

UB English Ning

The UB English Education Ning can be a useful tool for me in many ways. First, it helps me keep in contact with any fellow English Ed. majors that I have met over the course of time, and it gives up a sphere where we can communicate. Secondly, we can post our ideas and get feedback for them...without any pressure, or obtain ideas (beg, borrow, and steal). The UB Ning is a place where we can share our success stories, horror stories, and works of art that our students presented to us. It is an awesome educational tool.