Fun with Flickr: Synagogues of the World
There are a number of ways to use Flickr in educational settings, as discussed previously. Here is a short tutorial to show some features.
Go to the Flickr home page and try this out: in the search area, type the word “synagogue” and hit Go. This will call up photographs collected on Flickr that are accessible to the public which are tagged by the word “synagogue.” These photos can be sorted by “most relevant,” “most recent,” and “most interesting.” The photographs are also categorized by Groups (shared collections of similarly tagged photographs in one place) and People. Searches can be refined using Advanced Search to include photos that are available for use according to specific licensing agreements.
But wait, there’s more!
Users can take advantage of the bonus map feature. Many of the “synagogue” entries are tagged with a “geotag” designation by the person who uploaded them. Geotags allow users to call up photographs from specific regions around the world. Go to Explore and select World Map. Once the map downloads, enter “synagogue” in the search box and click Go. The search will return an interactive map of images of synagogues around the world. Click around the photos and become acquainted with different architectural styles across the continents. Try out other key words to help illustrate the Jewish experience around the world. Have students upload images of their family in a private section and geotag the pictures to depict immigration patterns. Share this project with Jewish students around the world to trace commonalities and differences.
January 10th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Are these pictures free from copy rights? We are constantly looking for pictures copy rights free for students projects in my school.
Gila Efrati
January 11th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Thank you for your question, Gila. Many photographs on Flickr are posted under Creative Commons licenses; see Creative Commons (www.creativecommons.org) for more information.
You can search for photographs posted on Flickr by license type if you use Flickr’s advanced search tool at http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced. Click on “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed photos.” An attribution license, for example, grants users permission to use the work in exchange for giving credit to the creator. See Flickr’s Creative Commons page for details and another way to search by license: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons.
Dave Jakes provides a number of resources about uses of Flickr in education and related tools on his blog, JakesOnline (www.jakesonline.org/flickrsites.htm)
Also take a look at sites for educators that organize copy-right friendly image collections. These include Pics4Learning (http://pics.tech4learning.com) and kitZu (www.kitzu.org). Educational subscription services may provide these resources as well.