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Last autumn I was talking to geography departments and others about exciting features in Flickr (the online photo storage and blogging environment) and the way it could integrate with Google Maps and Google Earth to create online “virtual field trips” that would allow pupils to see geographical features and themselves add to a pool of knowledge via commenting. Further progress was stymied by the blocking of Flickr and despite trying to find a way round the blocking things looked bleak for this amazing “mashup” of Web 2.0 applications.

However, things have changed. The block on Shropshire’s access to Flickr has been lifted so we can start moving on this. Steve B has posted on his blog the instructions for the whole process, including geotagging a picture (it’s even easier if you have a GPS when you take the pic, as you can waypoint the location). Be prepared to be totally amazed by what you can do with this - as Steve describes, the “fly to” option activates Google Earth on your PC and flies you over the globe to the location of your picture.  In addition you can position the picture in Google Maps using the GMiF (Google Maps in Flickr) add-in.
I’m thinking also of other things that might be used with this; although Google Earth shows some topological relief, buildings are a different matter. But with Google Sketchup you can design your own (or existing) buildings, geotag them so they will appear in the right position in G-Earth AND they show up in 3D. There’s food for thought; designing the built environment and locating buildings to their best advantage might prove to be an interesting project.