By Maxine

Tag galaxy offers searchers a visual representation of search terms in the form of a galaxy image whilst retrieving images from Flickr.

This tool is a great way to teach students about word association when deciding on search terms, synonyms and related words. An initial search presents you with a galaxy of related terms that you can use to refine or extend your search. To see how this works watch this YouTube clip.

Once you’ve built your search and clicked on the central planet the resulting images are displayed as a 3D globe which you can turn to view. Your search terms are displayed in the top right hand corner of the screen To view an image close up simply double click on it, then close to return to the wider globe of images. Click and hold your left hand mouse button to move the globe up, down or sideways.

I tried a search for Hobbit that returned some suggestions such as Tolkien, LOTR, Middle Earth, Hobbiton and Frodo. By hovering over these suggested terms I could see how many images are associated with each one. By clicking on the associated planets I added Middle Earth and New Zealand to my original Hobbit term and then clicked on the centre green planet to view my globe of images.

Tag galaxy could be used with student to discuss word relationships and how to build searches. How would you use Tag Galaxy when talking with students ?