BP9_2009122_FlickrLesson

[Image retrieved on December 3, 2009 from http://www.usmma.edu/AMHP/default.htm]



This Flickr lesson plan [Snapshot in Time] is from American History Maritime and can be used for grades 3-12 and adjusted as needed. Included in this lesson plan are step-by-step instructions to help the teacher set up Flickr accounts for both teachers and students. The one thing I like about this plan is that it reaches multiple intelligences and promotes critical thinking skills.

The summary of this plan is this: “Students will locate, explore, and photograph evidence of maritime activities affecting them and/or their community, write a detailed description about the effect of the activities, and share both photographs and descriptions online.”
http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater/pdf/OTW_educators_guide.pdf

Standards from History, Science, ISTE, and 21st century skills are addressed in this lesson plan that works with primary sources, mainly photos that have been shared with Flickr from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. “Maritime activity includes shipping and port-related work, ship and boat building, fishing and fish processing, recreational cruising, and many other water-related enterprises, all of which have far-reaching impacts. The foods we eat, the products we buy, how we travel, and even the words we speak are all affected by maritime commerce, past and present” (Thinkfinity.org, 2009).

Students will identify maritime activities and make the connection as to how these activities have helped to shape the lives and experiences in America.

There are several parts to this lesson plan.

In Part I, the students explore and discuss the On the Water online exhibit.

In Part II, students choose maritime activities that affect their lives and take digital photos.

In Part III, students download the photos from their camera, create a folder, then write a detailed description, which includes the location, of each photo. They then will upload their photos in Flickr. Next, students will search for similar activities in photos not submitted by them. I feel like this lesson plan is one I could work in collaboration with other teachers across the curriculum or with the Power Standards team at my school.

Another lesson plan I could develop for my learning environment is a staff development training session on the tagging of pictures in Flickr. Often times teachers hear about Web 2.0 tools but don’t have the time to sign up for the various accounts. In this training session, they could sign up and learn the importance of tagging.

The learning objectives for the session, in rough chronological order, are:
Participants will know how to sign up and log in to Flickr
Participants will know how to use the Flickr interface to add tags

Participants will be able to reflect on the strengths, weaknesses, and challenges of tagging http://capping.slis.ualberta.ca/cap07/SarahPolkinghorne/lessonplan.html