Using Flickr to Collect Images Captured on Cell Phones

While using a cell to capture photos is quick, easy, and efficient, frequently the pictures are just stuck on the phone. Flickr provides a free, easy and efficient way to share pictures taken on your cell phone. With Flickr you get an email that you (or anyone you share the email with) can use to send all your pictures to and Flickr makes it very easy to sort and group pictures using tags or drag and drop features. You can get a link or code to embed any picture or group/sets of pictures into any online space. When emailing your subject line becomes the picture caption and the message/body becomes the description.

Ideas for Educators Using Flickr
1) Create a slide show of all your blackboard lessons and/or instructional charts and tag them by unit of study for students and families to refer to at any time.
2) Take pictures of field trips. Pass your phone around to your students to indicate subject (Title) and Message (caption). Afterward your photos instantly become a slideshow memory of the trip that can be referenced by students and shared with the schools community.
3) Make a Facebook of your students. Pass your phone around. Let students take self-portraits that they email to your Flickr account with their name in the subject and something they want to share about themselves in the message. What a great way for you to get to know your students and for them to get to know each other.
4) Take a picture of the day. Assign a student each day responsible for capturing the picture of the day. They are responsible for writing the subject (Title) and message (description). What a great scrapbook for the year for students, home-school connection tool, and photos to share with administration.

Here's How to Get Started:

Flickr

• Set up an account on Flickr to be used with school-related projects.
• Flickr gives you an email address to which you (and others) can send pictures.
• Tell Flickr what tag should be associated with pictures sent to that email by going to http://www.flickr.com/account/uploadbyemail. As you are working in different units you will update and change your tag.  If you were studying poetry with grade 8 in class 403 your tag could be poetry8403. If you were studying fiction it could be fiction8403. 
• When sending pictures to your Flickr account make sure you use a subject (photo title) and message (photo caption).
• Using a tag allows you to instantly generate a slide show with photo titles and captions.  No work required.
• Your tag Flickr will generate a link to your slide show that can be shared as well as a code that can be embedded into any online space.  
• Creating a slide show with Flickr saves teachers several hours over alternate methods such as sending individual emails to themselves, downloading every picture, then create a powerpoint where they would upload each picture, and copy/paste the titles and captions.