#6 (WEEK 3) Flickr fun, mashups, and 3rd party sites

Like many web 2.0 sites, Flickr has encouraged other people to build their own online applications using images found on the site. Through the use of APIs (application programming interfaces), many people have created third party tools and mashups* that use Flickr images. Here is just a sampling of a few …

• Mappr - takes Flickr images and allows you to paste them on a map
• Flickr Color Pickr - lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color.
• Montagr – create a photo mosaics from photos found on Flickr.
• Poster Maker with inspiration sayings (add in any picture and saying)
• flickrCC - for discovering pictures people have released under a creative commons license
  

Discover more mashups, web apps, and Flickr tools.

Discovery Exercise:

Your discovery exercise for this “thing” is to: Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools that are out there. Create a blog post about one that intrigues you. You might want to check out FD Toys’ Trading Card Maker.

So have some fun discovering and exploring some neat little apps. If you are up to the challenge while you’re at it, create a trading card of your own. :) or a movie poster or magazine cover from this Flickr site.* Mashup Note: Wikipedia offers some great articles that explain mashups. Basically they are hybrid web applications that take features from one application (like Flickr) and mash it up with another (like a map) In this example, you get Mappr (http://mappr.com)

Curriculum Connections:

1. Idea #1: Use Flickr toys to make a magazine cover. Many groups make their own magazine. This would be perfect! Example for covers: "Welding Weekly," "Lonnie 'Technic Times," or "Genetics Today." Your trainees could create a magazine cover and headlines for a trade, module, or skill set.
2. Idea #2: Create trading card sets. Liven up mission projects, annual reports, and other topics that are ripe for change. Each class member could create a card or groups could design their own trading card pack. Trading the cards can be a fun game, but they can also be useful for recommended reading, books, illustrators, authors, and historical bios/dates. How would you use them? How about using them as Flash cards for vocabulary, periodical table, tools in the workplace, botanical samples, foreign languages or ELL.