As I was hunting around on the web this morning I stumble across the Southwest Airlines Flickr Pool through one of my favorite bloggers, Wesley Fryer. For those of you who aren’t currently Flickr users (hang around me long enough and you’ll start using it – here are some reasons why), the way a pool works is that Flickr users upload pictures and if they have a certain theme or category that fits a pool the picture is submitted to be added. Flickr Pools are a great way to view multiple perspectives on an issue, event, or geographic location. Sometimes in the case of the Southwest Airlines Flickr Pool or the 2009/365 Group its just plain fun.
Regardless of the reasons particular groups form, each one exemplifies the new reality of participatory, collaborative learning Web 2.0 tools provide. Flickr is merely one place this is occurring. Take a look at Wikipedia, the Encyclopedia of Life, FanFiction, Project Gutenburg, or dotSUB and you can easily view the power of collaboration. Each time I find one of these examples I’m just reminded why collaboration through technology is a key 21st Century Skill and something we need to constantly reinforce in our classrooms.
Joe
Photo: Teamwork by Capra Royale on Flickr
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