Shahi: A mashup of Wiktionary (a Wikipedia type dictionary) and Flickr. This visual dictionary is an excellent way for students to find definitions and get a visual of the word. Students can choose where they want the images to come from. Their choices are Flickr, Google, or Yahoo. My favorite is Flickr.
Integration Ideas: Visual dictionaries are great, but especially useful for your visual learners. Use as a dictionary dictionary or to teach your students parts of speech. Pictures acompany the definitions, therefore students can “see” that a verb is an action word. Use Shahi as the base for a part of speech game with the whole class and a projector. Choose a word from your reading or spelling list and have students guess the part of speech based on the pictures. This is a great way for students to learn the parts of speech through inquiry and problem solving. This is also a great tool for your ELL students. Bookmark Shahi on your classroom computers as a resource during reading/writing time. Look up a spelling word and have students write in their journal about one of the accompanying pictures. A great writing prompt site. Science teachers, Shahi would also be beneficial in the science classroom. Students can look up difficult words or concepts and quickly have a visual representation to aid in understanding. In social studies, students could search places and get a collection of images that will provide them with additional insight into the place.
