Annotated Images- Easy As Pie

Probably the greatest seldom used feature in flickr is its simple ability to add notes to an image that appear when the mouse moves over a designated part of a photo. Obviously, you see it in use here.

It is a matter of (1) clicking Add Note; (2) Use the mouse to move and resize the "hot spot" area; and (3) write the text (can contain hyperlinks written with HTML tags.

I cannot imagine a subject taught in schools that does not have some need to provide information related to parts of an image or diagram. And since you can link them to other images or web sites, it can be part of an intensely linked piece of content. There is no other multimedia tool that makes it as easy to use as flickr.

And depending on your flickr account settings, you can make it so other flickr users can add notes to your images (maybe a way of adding feedback? or of providing information about a specific feature in a photo?)

So how about some examples? One of the greatest was done by Art History teacher Beth Harris who used it to provide explanation for areas of historic paintings or had her students provide the analysis of symbolism in other paintings (see module 2 example). Or see another example used in an Archaeology class to label a field site. When I discovered this, I made an example of an annotated diagram of volcano types. Tim Lauer thought of an idea to use this feature to help substitute teachers identify students.

David D Muir used notes when he analzyed technology in a classroom. Ewan McIntosh has an example for a painting of Ivory, Apes and Peacocks, John Duncan where the notes provide both explanation and commentary

Or a tasty example- Bertrand Sereno annotates collages of the steps in a recipe, such as Tarte Au Citron.

So give it some thought-- in what ways can labeling a diagram or photo be useful? And where might it makes sense to invite others to add notes?

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This is but one piece of "I Didn't Know You Could Do That with Free Web Tools", a presentation for the 2006 K-12 Online Conference. Other pieces are scattered across the web!