This is where I am now!

DF 140, Brasilia_DF, a photo by graemehodgson on Flickr.

This post is of a rather different nature... only very remotely related to ELT!

As I've mentioned before on this blog, I'm taking an online course entitled WebTools4Educators, and half the 'fun' is in putting new tools, platforms and ideas into practice.

In this case, the moderator asked all those taking part in the course to post a pic from Flickr to our blogs saying where we are right now, as we work on the online tasks.

Well, as requested (and I've always had a hard time saying NO!)... this is a pic I took from the front gate of my condo, which is about 30 kms from Brasilia city centre.

The 'commute' does take at least half an hour, each way, but it's sooooo worth it to leave the stresses and strains of 'the city' behind and drive into Brasilia's famous 'cerrado' country!

So what does all this have to do with ELT?

According to Aaron Campbell, who was writing in 2007...

"Some language educators are turning to Web-based social networks in an effort to motivate their students beyond the carrot-and-stick methods of the traditional classroom. Social networks bring people together who share common interests and give those participants the tools to produce, collect, share, and re-mix artifacts (Dieu and Stevens, 2007). Such networks provide language learners with opportunities to meet and interact with people from around the world in self-directed ways on personally meaningful topics. They also give learners a chance to construct a space to call their own; a space without any institutional affiliation, giving learners complete ownership and control over their own work. As long as educators give learners the freedom to choose the content and direction of their online activities, participation in social networks can tap into the bubbling fountain of intrinsic motivation that each learner carries within.

Flickr is one such social network that uses photos as the primary content for sharing amongst its participants. Started in 2002 by Ludicorp (Graham 2006), Flickr’s membership numbers grew rapidly. Bought out by Yahoo! in late 2005, Flickr now hosts a pool of around 500 million photos (Arrington 2007)."

In fact, the latest data suggests that today the number of photos to be found, shared and available for pedagogical exploitation on Flickr is more like 9 billion!), with a 71% increase in daily uploads since Flickr redesigned their interface last month.

Whatever the numbers involved, here are just a few of the possibilities afforded by Flickr for using pictures in the language classroom (Campbell, 2007):

1.Searching for Photos
2.Uploading Photos
3.Making friends
4.Commenting/Leaving Notes
5.Joining Groups
6.Exploring Geotags
7.Photo Tours
8.Blogging Photos
9.Emailing Other Flickr Users
10.Creating Slideshows:
11.Using Flickrtoys
12.Using Combinations of the above in Project work.

A picture says a thousand words... or so the saying goes! But is it easier to get our students to produce a thousand words, motivated by just one picture?

What do you see as the main benefits of using resources like Flickr or Pinterest with learners of English?


REFERENCES:

Campbell, A. (2007) Motivating Language Learners with Flickr (available at http://e-poche.net/flickr/)