Photo Finish

Back in the day I was fortunate enough to have a darkroom not only in my home but in my media center.  At that time I was working in a K-12 building as their librarian and teaching a photography and yearbook class to high school students.  When you are teaching classes using black and white photography along with developing it as an art form (and I use that term loosely for myself) you develop a different eye for viewing the world around you. 
Even though the web 2.0 tool Spell with Flickr has been available for at least four years it is new to me and it clearly illustrates that there is more to be seen in your surroundings then one might notice at first glance.
Spell with Flickr allows you to type in words and have them spelled out using letter photos that are part of Flickr.  Once your word or words are spelled out you can click on any letter to have the image changed. 
You can save the images, print them or capture their code to use them in an online publication. 
Students could use this to practice new vocabulary, create titles for projects, or make an acrostic poem.  Its use is only limited by you and your students' imaginations.  Spell with Flickr makes using words and writing just plain fun. 
Stephen T. Johnson's books, Alphabet City or City by Numbers could be paired with this application to make for a great learning experience.  Perhaps this just might lead to students taking digital letter photos to create their own books.
Kid at heart that I am, I've already started to create new signage for the middle school media center.