Following onto the entry below about my concerns over the complexity of some web2.0 sites affecting their usefulness, I started work on a wee program to use with my new soon-to-be-active class blog.

I want the kids to be able to easily find images, and one place they can use is Flickr.com. However, I just want them to be able to spot an image, and basically drag it into their ’store’ - a big collection of images.

So, the student only does this to get it on their blog:
1. Search for a keyword
2. Pick an image and drag and drop it onto a big folder icon
3. Give it a description
4. Go to their blog
5. Look in the ‘image library’, organised by category (flickr tag, essentially) and click the image to add it directly to their post.

The interface will keep a track of flickr images already in the store and hide them so they can’t be copied again.

I’ve struggled to find any good ways for students to get images without URLs being involved. But I think this could work. I will be modifying WordPress slightly to simplify the image selection choices, and need to finish the interface for Flickr, but if this at all interests you, let me know, and I’ll give you a shout when it’s online.

I hope by web2.0-izing the USE of content from other sites, i can get the pupils to use multimedia without losing any concentration or time.

Got questions about this but am desperate to cut down the length of my posts so that’s enough for now.