Module 6

Some major frustration due to internet slowness not allowing me to upload photographs - and also not being able to see full application of taggalaxy - but the concepts were apparent so I will "imagine" what Fickr and taggalaxy would be like in terms of class applications.
Very pleased to see content filters. Although the examples of "moderate" would not seem suitable for our students. Interesting, however, to contemplate how partial nudity in ancient statues, reliefs, frescos and pottery might be judged (for example, the murals from Pompeii). Perhaps the "Content Type" would make allowances for art works as falling under "community guidelines".
Also noted that the default position for Safesearch is ON and that the initial listing of one's birth date may assist in the prohibition on "restricted" for those under 18.
Students need to be warned about the terms and conditions of both Flickr and taggalaxy - that all images posted on these sites become the property of the site owner to be used as they so wish. Obviously with millions of images posted, the likelihood that one's images could be "on-sold" to an advertiser (etc) is extremely slim, but I believe we need to constantly remind students that internet privacy is a consideration always to be considered.
From an educational perspective, searching for tagged images via taggalaxy could be used to assist the visual learner to define key terms - and for the gifted student to explore connotations and associations of terms and concepts. This is a great opportunity to not only assist with basic research (offering a far wider selection of images than the commercial dominance of a google image search) but to get students to think in a way similar to a dictionary thesaurus - fine tuning definitions, constructing mind maps by seeing links and associations and exploring cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary links.
Sharing images from excursions or taken as part of a class exercise would be an obvious use of Flickr. Whether that was a class presentation of drawings, Adobe manipulations of images (visual reconstructions), a dress up day (Year 10 decade study of the 1960's), or sharing images of family history (Year 10 study of a migrant group).