THE DIGITAL CAMERA The Digital Camera: An Educational Tool What follows is a list of teacher suggested educational uses for a digital camera. Thanks go out to all who submitted their ideas. From: Mary O'Reilly Taking pictures which are then put on school server. The student can then retrieve them and paste them on any computer work: language arts, math, etc. TEACHER'S NOTE: I use them for web pages and my electronic grade book. "Making the Grade" even imports pictures and reproduces them on a seating chart. Unfortunately, with a student load of over 120 I don't really use this option. ---------------------- From: A. Price AmberP813@aol.com Make up a slideshow using the ThumbsPlus program for graduation. The parents will love it! EDITOR'S NOTE: There are many capture/picture software programs out there that you can use. Most new PCs and MACs come with them in the software packages -- Check to see what you can use. Create a Preschool Handbook and include pictures of the kids "in action" so the new parents can see a little of what goes on in the classroom. I used Microsoft Publisher for that. Also, if parents have an e-mail addresses, you can send them pictures of their children via e-mail. Create a weekly newsletter and include the gifs/jpgs in the letter, that way the parents have a view of something the students did that week. TEACHER'S NOTE: I have been able to get the 3.5 in. discs for FREE thanks to rebates from CompUSA and Office Max. (We have the Sony that takes the discs, that way I don't have to "dump" the pictures onto a laptop when I'm away from the computer!) EDITOR'S NOTE: If you are purchasing a new camera -- it is a good decision to spend a few extra dollars to buy the one that takes disks. You will never regret it. ---------------- From: Teachnet Staff We have the Sony Mavica FD-7 with built-in floppy drive. On the Mac, I drag an entire folder of images onto a shareware program called iView (at http://www.scriptsoftware.com). This app can display all images at full screen size in slide show format, perfect for parents' night, rotating endlessly at the speed you choose. ------------ From: Laura Smeltz Take the digital camera on fieldtrips. Take many pictures of the kids involved in different activities. When you print the pictures, have the students work in pairs to write captions for them to tell the story of the fieldtrip. EDITOR'S NOTE: Such a great idea can also be turned into a mini virtual museum and used over again during the year. The pics could be added to a web page and the captions added in table form. A great way to re-visit topic. Take pictures of all of the school helpers, janitor, secretary, nurse, librarian etc. Blow the pictures up and label them on the hall bulletin board. Take pictures of individual students to use on the author page of individually published books. Use the pictures of the students on the bulletin boards ex - a picture of an astronaut with the face cut out and replaced with the face of each student when you study space, pilgrims and Natives at thanksgiving, etc. TEACHER'S NOTE: The kids love seeing their faces in these "bodies" It is fun. Laura ------------- From: Lori ALLENDER Use the Pics for the bulletin board " A Picture Perfect Year" Rather than taking a roll of film to be developed, use the digital camera. TEACHER'S NOTE: Talk about instant gratification! It would also help spice up those "News Letters", "Student of the Week".... -------- From: Richard and Maura Alves" Take individual pictures and use them in Bio Poems, About the Authors, Holiday Greeting Cards ( I used the Photo Accessory library in Print Shop to insert student pictures in wreaths), All About Me Math Graphing Cards ( print pictures on labels, back with construction paper and laminate). These can be used for any graphing activity or for lunch count. For Back to School night, take pictures of students throughout the school and made a Power Point Presentation entitled "A Day in the Life of Your Child" TEACHER'S NOTE: When we did animal reports based on the animals in Jan Brett's books, I took a picture of each child reading the book which contained their animal and used this in their report. I then made a Power Point Presentation entitled "The Animals of Jan Brett" When the New England Aquarium Tide Pool visited I took pictures of the animals for further science exploration. -------- From: Lisa Take pictures of each student using the digital camera then download the pictures on to the afterdark screen saver program and have your students pictures as your screen saver. TEACHER'S NOTE: The students and the parents were thrilled to see all of the faces ... I had the pictures change every 5 seconds... then as I got good at it, I took the camera on the field trip and did the same thing, adding those pictures to the pictures I already had of the students. By the end of the year, my screen saver was rotating through about 50 or 60 pictures... it was great... I did this for other teachers as well, taking pictures of students involved in various learning activities in the classroom and put them on their computers as well... this is particularl impressive to parents if you can get your computer hooked up to your tv and have that playing at back to school night or for open house. ---------------- From: Lelia Cross Take a picture of each of your computer classes at the beginning and end of the year. Classes can do monthly news letters and use the camera for that. Made a class annual. Each student will have their picture included, as well as the teachers and pictures from any field trips, etc. Become involved in an e-mail exchange with other school children. Each student should take and send a picture. ------------ From: Annette Miller Students use the digital camera to make their own business cards. TEACHER'S NOTE: I have them bring in samples of business cards and we discuss what is found on the cards. Then the students decide what they would want their business card to say. Students use the digital camera to take pictures of each other and import their picture into their wordprocessing document. Cards may be laminated cards so students can carry them with them. -------------------