Flickr and del.icio.us

Submitted by Kelly on Fri, 2007-01-19 20:20.

I would like to know how I will use the two websites, flickr and del.icio.us? I basically (very basically) understand what these sites do. What I don't understand is how I will use them for CALL (the course, and my language teaching).

I am trying to think about how these things apply professionally, but I am having trouble visualizing how these tools could help me in my language teaching.

The del.icio.us site seems a little odd because it seems that I will be making my bookmarks public. Why would I want to do that? Also, on the other hand, why would I want to look at someone else's bookmarks? Why would this be a good thing? Maybe I have it all wrong. Someone help me understand, please.

The flickr site is for housing photos. As a public school teacher we are extremely careful not to photograph students unless we have a signed release from the parents. I do not take photos to use in my teaching very often. What kinds of photos would I be storing on this site? Are we talking about photos taken from the Web to use for teaching vocabulary?

Thanks for any help.

--Kelly

 

 

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Sampling the buffet

Submitted by jeff on Fri, 2007-01-19 23:32.
We will discuss this more in depth during next week's class, but briefly.... Del.icio.us can be a useful way to stay updated on web resources of interest. One of the big challenges on the web these days is how to filter through the overwhelming amount of information and resources. Del.icio.us provides a way to do so by using 'tagging', and showing information about what other people think is interesting and what other people in 'your network' have bookmarked. You can see how we've used del.icio.us to connect with our community of listeners in producing a weekly show on Educational Technlogy at: http://del.icio.us/edtechtalk http://edtechtalk.com/EdTechWeekly12 Flickr does something similar with photos, while providing you with free storage space and control over who gets to see your images (which can be photos or graphics of any kind). Flickr also integrates easily with other web based tools like blogs. Both of these site are examples of social networking and Web2.0, two very powerful trends that are reshaping the way we use the internet. With many of these new tools, there is a significant learning curve, so please don't be too concerned about understanding exactly how they work and how you can apply them - especially before we've discussed them in class. Ultimately, you may choose not to use many of them, but I hope this course will provide you with a greater knowledge of what tools are available and how they can be applied. Not every tool will be useful for every student in every situation, but hopefully there is still value in learning as much as possible about what's out there. Of course, that reasoning hasn't stopped generations of students from asking "Why do I have to learn this - I'm never going to use it!?" , has it? I suppose high school geometry students of the world can empathize with your concerns Kelly, but please know I wouldn't be asking you to experiment with these tools if I didn't think they were potentially useful to EFL537 participants, as teaching tools and/or professional development resources.

Sampling

Submitted by Kelly on Sun, 2007-01-21 19:49.
Thanks for the explanation. I'll wait to learn more about it before I decide if it's for me or not.