edutools - simplified flickr for blog/wiki image store
Following onto the entry below about my concerns over the complexity of some web2.0 sites affecting their usefulness, I started work on a wee program to use with my new soon-to-be-active class blog.
I want the kids to be able to easily find images, and one place they can use is Flickr.com. However, I just want them to be able to spot an image, and basically drag it into their 'store' - a big collection of images.
So, the student only does this to get it on their blog:
1. Search for a keyword
2. Pick an image and drag and drop it onto a big folder icon
3. Give it a description
4. Go to their blog
5. Look in the 'image library', organised by category (flickr tag, essentially) and click the image to add it directly to their post.
The interface will keep a track of flickr images already in the store and hide them so they can't be copied again.
I've struggled to find any good ways for students to get images without URLs being involved. But I think this could work. I will be modifying WordPress slightly to simplify the image selection choices, and need to finish the interface for Flickr, but if this at all interests you, let me know, and I'll give you a shout when it's online.
I hope by web2.0-izing the USE of content from other sites, i can get the pupils to use multimedia without losing any concentration or time.
Got questions about this but am desperate to cut down the length of my posts so that's enough for now.
posted by Peter @ 4:30 PM
6 Comments:
Hi Pete,
despite the fact that we can't use flickr here (blocked) I'd be very interested in seeing this stuff.
The more transparent we can make blogging for children the quicker we can get on with teaching.
john,
i don't know if static.flickr.com is blocked on your websense, but if it is I can easily set up a proxy to download the images prior to using them.
I should have the site ready in a couple of days. I've built the search part, but want to give an example of the pupil image interface, too. Once you have a look i can clean it up for wordpress or whatever....
Quite excited though, i feel this kind of thing could be quite useful.
Hi Pete,
That sounds great. I've been scripting to download and manually filter flickr at home before making simple webpage for my children to use.
Mind you the authority might not be please if I give children access to flickr via a proxy without human(me) filtering.
Hi,
I'll set up a filter - i don't suppose third-party filters really count but it's easy enough done.
Either that or you could use it another way - use the drag/drop to pick images, and pupils access the other interface, which only searches your collection of images.
Will still be a few days though, as I haven't made up the second interface! Looking forward to some feedback though.
Hi Pete,
That sounds great. I've been scripting to download and manually filter flickr at home before making simple webpage for my children to use.
Mind you the authority might not be please if I give children access to flickr via a proxy without human(me) filtering.
That sounds a cool idea. When working with young children obviously the skill of savingthe images to folders is important, however, if an easy fast method in the quick paced life can be found than I am all for it. Give me more details once you have worked it out.
"The interface will keep a track of flickr images already in the store and hide them so they can't be copied again."
Why make life more complicated for yourself? Could you not just use standard routines to throw up the "An older image with this name already exists..." type message and deal with it that way rather than trying to keep track of everything they download?
Also, will your app. allow you to filter for just creative commons licensed material?
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