Document Cameras in the Classroom??
Our school is on the new technology bandwagon for document cameras. My principal called me in last week to as about them. She is looking at the cost of overheads, books, worksheets, etc. and wanted to know if each classroom had a document camera would it save our school money. My first reaction was ‘yes’. If each room used a document camera, the teacher wouldn’t be creating overheads from curriculum books. The book itself could be viewed under the camera for all to see. BUT we draw on the overheads as we go and they are erasable, so how would that work? Maybe a blank overhead over the book page, so they save on copying, but still need an overhead page? I’m not sure. There are many positives like students being able to share their work without recreating the work. Once they’ve done the worksheet, the page can be brought up and shared. Fourth grade does a heart dissection. Instead of buying a heart for every 4 kids, one heart could be dissected by the teacher and seen by the class. The downside is the students miss out on the hands-on work. Another thing I’m not sure about is the visual aspect. Can the student effectively view the images on a projector or TV? How dark does the room have to be and how big can the image be on the screen? Our school is a “daylight” school with lots of windows and few blinds.
As you can see I have a lot of questions. The research I’ve done is mixed. Some teachers LOVE them and wouldn’t teach without one. They love the student involvement in the instruction. Others don’t see the value. What I would like to hear from you is your input. What experiences have you had using document cameras?? What type of camera and projection system have you used?? I would hate to have our school spend thousands of dollars on a new technology that wouldn’t be effective. All these new trends!! Do we jump on the bandwagon??
Using Voice in the Classroom
I ran across the following link after Brent sent out the message about Educator’s eZine. I really like this site because it has given me ideas to use in all aspects of teaching technology and technology coordination.
http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=196604725
This particular link is about students using their voice in the classroom. I’ve pondered having K-5 create digital stories in class and this year I’m going to try it out. I believe my kindergarteners can create a picture in KidPix and narrate their thoughts, so I’ll put all that together into a story. It sounds like fun even though there is added work on my part.
The older kids will be doing a digital story in place of one of their PowerPoint projects. As the article states, kids are good that this and finding that “golden egg” in the classroom is so true. I’m hoping this new adventure will be a golden egg in my classrom. My older kids need more challenging ideas and this is a skill they can use at home or in middle school. Have any of you tried this?
