The Beauty of Flickr

The beauty of Flickr is that you bring the world near.  Sharing pictures of people, places, and events multiplies the pleasure and divides the pain.  People who are separated by time and space can visualize, understand, feel, and act once having seen the situation.  Many can rejoice at the happy conclusion of a project or offer to lend a hand when disaster strikes.  Photos go up, notes and comments are written, and concerned parties may blog thoughts and plans. 

As a high school librarian I believe service learning experiences could be shared by the whole community, discoveries chronicled, and support elicited.  All our students participate in a two weeks winter term where reading, writing, and media are components.  Posting photos to Flickr would create an online photo gallery of each year's service learning bounty which could then be archived and used to promote such opportunities in coming years.

Learning through real world experiences, captured digitally, binds the minds and hearts of a community. Friendships begun during the interim could be extended long after students are back in the classroom by sharing more photos.  "The Global Schoolhouse" will thrive with a little help from Flickr.