Thing #7

Flickr: For this post, I am choosing option 1: I am going to find an image through Flickr Explore and blog about it.

This is the image I selected 

Although I can not post an image, I could ask the author if they would allow me to use the image (but I would rather those who read this blog, follow the link to the image so they get more views).

A few things about this photo. The link above takes you to the "light box" version of the photo. I like to view photos in this format because it is usually the largest format and it blocks out the surrounding light from one's computer so that the viewer can see the details in a photo. If you close out of the "Light box," You can still see the image, and below the image are the comments. The interesting part is the right side of the page.  On the right side, you see the basic information: Name, poster, views, "likes" or favorites, and comments. but below that you can see the "Album" that it is a part of so if you wanted to see more similar images, you could browse them there. The next part "Tags" is what makes Flickr special. The tags for this photo are BW, Tokyo, Pentax, K-5lls, Japan, Black, and White.  Seeing these tags can let someone know more information about the picture but also, aids when a user is searching for specific photos. If I want to see more photos with the tag "K-5lls" I can click on that tag and it brings up more photos with the same tag. (ooh cool pictures).

Also on the right side of the page is "Additional info" which happens to describe the settings of the camera, and "Licence" information. I decided to view pictures in the "Commons" and searched for Gettysburg Address. I found a very cool photo and below the image, it has a "Persistent URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1813.001/60r" If you follow this link it takes you to the original image. Using Flickr this way for schools or teaching a lesson about the coins, presidential candidates, or other historical information could be aided with photos from Flickr. For the second photo, there are many more tags, but because this one was found in the "Commons" if has " No known copyright restrictions."

There are many academic uses for Flickr if an instructor wants to teach with many visual aids.