Flickrstorm!!!

Foreign Language teachers (and all others for that matter), you are about to acquire a tool that will allow your students to use photos from Flickr safely! For those of you, like me, we cannot use Flickr in our district and I understand exactly why...now. As I was searching their site for photos on Spain, I came across a rather alarming, but funny photo. Of course, I would be completely dismayed should any of my students come across something like this while searching for useful goodies! I found that Flickrstorm will allow you to search their site (be sure to use the "advanced search" for creative commons photos), you will then take the photo you like and put it in a "tray". You may put multiple photos in this tray. Then you will take the web address for that tray, and share it with your students. This way, they ONLY see the photos YOU added!! I was so excited to find this little nugget and just couldn't wait to share it with you! Flickrstorm is easy to use and above all, safe for your students to have a resource for photos. Just be sure they are creative commons and allowed for student use or educational purposes!

Voicethread

Wow! I came across this little nugget at a Web 2.0 class this week! It has so many great features! Project opportunities abound! This is especially helpful in a foreign language classroom. The students can create artwork and discuss it or they can post a picture and describe it in the target language. You then have his/her classmates make comments on the work also in the target language! What a great way to have students practice at home! Another way to use this tool is to provide prompts and have students make comments and answer. Teachers can leave video comments to provide students with constructive criticism and guidance.
http://voicethread.com/