Another school, another teacher singing the praises of the use of digital cameras in the classroom. Lori Miller from Wacona Elementary in Waycross, GA has posted this wonderful website that breaks downs the issues and the benefits of of using a digital camera in the classroom. Some of the points she makes are:
1. Using a digital camera helps the students become part of the subject
2. Students learn the ease and immediacy of using a digital camera
3. It enhances the students computer skills
Some of the issues she brings up are:
1. The chance for damage is high when using the camera with younger students
2. Ensuring that the students take appropriate pictures
3. Privacy when publishing photos
If you think about it, these issues actually can be a benefit. When dealing with these issues with students you can help teach them responsibility.
The remainder of the site is dedicated to helping teachers get started with projects and several ideas for lessons that use digital cameras.
I really like this site, however I am concerned about one thing. Where did she get her information? Did she do research to find out the benefits or where they assumptions? These are the types of questions I want answered before I rely on a site to help me in my classroom.
http://www.wacona.com/digicam/digicam.html
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Jen, this teacher had a lot of great ideas for the use of digital cameras by very young students! I mostly work with teachers of preschoolers and K - 2, so find the lessons encouraging. Already, a teacher is able to begin instructing the students on group projects and the coordinated efforts it takes to complete these assignments. I read one where children choose a number from 1 - 10 and then develop their own displays of that number to take pictures of, etc. and then report out about it. How much more exciting than worksheets and manipulatives of numbers 1 - 10.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it would be helpful if the teacher would publish her references for her ideas on the web site. I think that's more a factor of not realizing the professional aspect of web site design.
Jen,
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to see some of the negatives with your technology. I really had trouble finding anything bad about Smartboards but if we are to look at our topics objectively we should take all angles. Again, you found a great list of possible activities using digital photography in the classroom. Some of these ideas make me wonder about the financial costs involved. Hopefully the school would cover the costs but that is not always the case.
Hi Jen;
ReplyDeleteThis article includes some good tips on getting starting with the digital camera in the classroom such as training students one-on-one, covering safety rules and privacy rules.
I smiled when I read the tip about handing the camera to a student and they will teach the teacher how to use it. I have to ask students sometimes to help me fix things on computer hard drives in my classrooms. I don't know anything about the connecting cables, etc.
When I see lesson plans like those mentioned in the article I am hopeful that in a few years we will have students entering college that have much better computer skills. So far, I haven't seen any change. We still have many students taking Intro College Computing that never learned how to insert a picture into a Word or PowerPoint document. It doesn't seem possible that they were not taught this in K-12.