FRIT 7090 Assignment #2 Renée Jackson

Flickr – Social Networking in Education

Today’s learners have been referred to as the digital or net-centric generation, and digital

natives. The titles may differ but there is agreement that this generation of learners have been

immersed in the use of technology like the Internet, cell phones, text messaging, and interactive

games so deeply that they are “always on” (Baird & Fisher, 2005). This has lead to the need to

find new ways to address their learning styles, ways of processing and understanding

information, and their need for using technology in a social and student centered learning

environment. To meet the needs of these students, education must be a constantly changing

environment offering opportunities to use technology, collaborate on projects, and produce

authentic products. Vygotsky says that learners prefer to learn through hands-on activities and

“to learn concepts, the learner must experience them and socially negotiate their meaning in their

authentic context of a complex learning environment (Jaramillo, 1996). This is the concept that

supports learning through communicating with others.

Social networking sites such as Flickr (www.Flickr.com) are being used as educational content

delivery methods that seem to meet these needs referred to by Vygotsky and constructivist

theorists.

The use of Web 2.0 tools such as Flickr in an educational setting is sometimes

controversial but many school librarians and educators have found the value of this tool. “Flickr

and other social networking technologies have the ability to play an important part in student

motivation, retention, and learning” (Baird & Fisher, 2005). The features of Flickr offer the

opportunity for students to communicate with others while creating hands-on projects with

authentic value. Because of the international availability of the site, the impact of the social
learning and literacy involvement can be “conceptualized as simultaneously global and local”

(Davies, 2007). Flickr was launched in 2004, and evolved from a site to merely store photos to

an online file sharing site for photos and videos, and users today have transformed it into a

popular social networking site. The combination of pictures and words “takes into account a full

range of modalities as contributing to meaning-making so that visual, aural, and spatial patterns

are accepted as being meaningful as the linguistic mode” (Davies, 2007). Flickr offers a space

for students to review and comment on other people’s works as well as reflect on their own

work. It is a site to create an archive of personal history and narratives of daily life. It is a place

from which to gather data from photos, virtual tours, presentations and maps. All of this can be

done in conjunction with communicating in a global community of learners.

The potential applications of Flickr in education are many. Vygotsky’s theory is that

“social experiences shape the ways that students think and interpret the world. This individual

student cognition occurs in a social situation, and is inseparable…” (Jaramillo, 1996). Through

blogging, instant messaging, and tagging students can interact with others concerning the photos

and videos that are posted on Flickr. This communication addresses the linguistic and visual

intelligences of students. Students can create dialogue about particular photos with others on a

group discussion board or with their classmates in a closed or private group or pool. Photos

viewed in different contexts can derive new meaning, “transforming original narrative or

experience from whence they came, into new shared experiences, ones which develop meanings

as a result of participation and collaboration” (Davies, 2007). The photos can create dialogue not

only about the image and the meaning behind it but the actual process of taking the photograph

and the motivation for the particular shot. The sharing of photos of everyday life can create

cultural understanding about one’s own culture and the culture of others. Davies (2007) argues
“that the learning on Flickr is not just about words and pictures, but about the development of

social and cultural knowledge and issues concerning the self.”

Vygotsky also “emphasized the importance of problem solving in this process which was

reflected in his notion of learning by doing” (Jaramillo, 1996). On Flickr students can upload

their photos and videos to the site and create photosets for use in storytelling, documenting

events, virtual tours, personal histories, scientific observations, presentations, training, and

writing assignments. Flickr offers a feature to allow teachers and students to upload their photos

into their blogs. RSS feeds allow users to display their photos in web pages, portfolios or web

logs. Flickr can be used to post a series of instructional screenshots to teach processes such as

cooking, planting a tree, or learning new computer software. The site offers online editing for

photos and by mashing Flickr with other applications users can create posters, trading cards,

magazine covers, and movie posters. The application also allows for hyperlinked notes that could

be used for book clubs, photography clubs or to create a way for a library to allow browsing of

their catalog. Another learning experience for Flickr is the use of copyright material and how

students can copyright their work.

Flickr is also a good site to upload maps. Flickr has the ability for maps to be organized,

tagged, shared and embedded. Annotations can be made and the users can add notes directly on

the graphic to point out important characteristics or show links when a mouse is rolled over the

area. Street or building names can help users find points of interest with the Birds Eye View.

Flickr can be used with applications like Google Earth and Geographic Information Systems to

embed “the maps with associated text, images and audio/video sources” (Laliberte, 2008).

Historical maps can be uploaded and used in presentations and in conjunction with reports.
These maps can be used to point out environmental changes such as land use, erosion, and over

building.

I found Flickr to be very easy to use. Flickr offers users the opportunity to catalog, sort

and share digital photographs and video. It allows photos to be uploaded into photo albums or

sets, and users can provide comments, notes or annotations about the images they see which is

useful for archival and historical purposes. Tags can be used to help with searches and groups

can be created as public or private pools to discuss common interests. I like that other

applications can mashup with Flickr to allow uses beyond Flickr such as RSS feeds and blogs. I

liked that photos can be uploaded using a cell phone or a computer. When I last visited the site,

6,654 images had been uploaded in the past minute showing how fast content on the site can

change and be updated. I really liked the organizational feature that allows for archiving and

creating sets or collections of photos. The opportunity to keep photos private for a class project is

also a great feature. Students can also edit their photos in Flickr and then share them with their

classmates. I saw a lot of beautiful photos and the site is a good one to find copyright free or

attribution only material. I would be a bit apprehensive about allowing a class project to be

public depending on the age of the students. There are lots of fun accessories and ideas available

for using Flickr.

The most important merit to using Flickr in education is the fact that it is a social

networking site that creates a student centered learning environment. Fisher and Baird (2006)

say, “Education in the 21st century can no longer be defined by static guidelines but rather by

growing, changing, and evolving sets of opportunities, projects, technology, and communities.” I

see Flickr as fitting that description. The use of this technology offers the opportunity to create

projects, provide feedback, and become part of a community bound by a common interest.
“Emerging digital learning styles include fluency in new media, communal learning, and

experiential, guided mentoring and collective reflection via Weblogs, podcasting, moblogs, wiki,

Flickr, and other types of mobile social media” (Fisher & Baird, 2006). The abundance of

opportunities to produce creative products is a tremendous benefit to using Flickr in education.

Flickr can be used in any subject area and as a vehicle to stay in touch with parents and students.

Flickr offers a wide range of uses and is a global communication and learning tool.

The main barrier to using Flickr in an educational setting is that it is a public site and

some images might not be suitable. Some school districts and school boards may have filters in

place to block access to social networking sites, but Flickr is considered to be among the most

suitable for educational content. For those schools that do allow access to the site, getting

parental permission for student users would be prudent. Other limitations for the site are that the

size limit for images is 10MB for free access users and there is no zoom feature for maps.

Flickr will continue to be an important educational tool because of the ease of use and the

evolution of the associated technology and applications. Flickr is likely to impact education

because it is easily accessed by mobile and handheld technology. With online learning becoming

more mainstream, Flickr will likely be used more and more in an educational vein. Flickr and

other social networking sites “foster interaction and communication between students” (Baird &

Fisher, 2005). Flickr offers students the opportunity to collaborate with others and work as an

individual. It offers students the venue to generate their own educational content and learning

environment, and a platform for self reflection that mimics the real world use of technology. The

use of Flickr and other Web 2.0 tools are great arenas for production of authentic projects. This

is key for the connection between learning and real world practice. Digital learning experiences
are interactive, collaborative, authentic, and learner centered which fits into the demands of the

net generation learners.