Teaching with Digital Cameras

Welcome to the exciting possibilities of teaching with digital cameras! 

You are probably familiar with the power of digital cameras, and if you don’t already have one, you probably have one on your “wish” list.

But once you get a digital camera, how do you use it? And more specifically, how do you use it to improve student learning?

Digital Cameras have huge potential for motivating students and can be used in a variety of ways. Even though they are useful simply for seating charts and identification, they are much more effective when the students apply them in larger in-depth technology projects.

What kind of projects? Digital Cameras can be used to record information from a field trip and report back to other students. They can be used to capture and identify species found around the school and in our local environments. They can be used to make local history come alive by sharing “sights and sounds” of the cities we live in. They can be used to capture frames of a clay animation explaining plant growth, or even a time lapse of that ever-present bean plant growing from seed to maturity.  They can be used to prompt writing in many forms, descriptive, poetry, persuasive, and more.

And don’t forget the products? While it is certainly about the process, not the product, digital cameras and digital imaging provide for endless possibilities. Web pages, multimedia projects, presentations and newsletters are great examples of the wider use of images. To complete projects you may also want to use iron-on transfer paper to make t-shirts or even a project quilt or use magnet paper, shrink paper, or window decal paper to create thematic displays.

I like to look at using digital cameras in a three-stage approach – Initiate, Manipulate, and Communicate. All of these stages take place within a larger project process. The Initiate Stage is the actual capturing of images. During the Manipulate Stage you edit the images with an image editing program to get them just right. And finally, you use them to Communicate information within a larger context.

The overall project process is a little more complex. Before any work is done by the students, you will need to design the overall project to meet your learning goals. Obviously, student work never starts with the technology. There is always background information everyone needs to know. You may be able to accomplish this with something as simple as a KWL chart, but you may need to spend weeks studying the content before you begin.

Full-scale project work is often a great way to assess student learning of a particular topic you have been studying. When introducing a project, you will also want to share high-quality examples with your students to set expectations, but you will also want to spell out expectations for the work that they are going to complete.

Project work is most successful when completed in teams. Full-scale and in-depth projects require large amounts of research, organization, planning and implementation, which is often too much to complete in our limited classroom time for only one student.  More importantly, however, teamwork helps teach collaborative skills essential for today’s world of work and life beyond the classroom.

You will want to have teams develop an initial project overview and storyboard before they begin work with the cameras. As students work on projects, they will need coaching and facilitation for successful completion and these provide check-in points to monitor progress along the way.

You will also want to create a special venue for completed work. This may be as simple as displaying printed material and products around the classroom and school or presenting projects to peers and community members at a special assembly.

Which Digital Camera Should I Buy?

Steve’s Digicams is an all around great site for learning more about the different kinds of cameras. It is designed to help the consumer pick out the perfect camera for their needs.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/

A Short Course on which digital camera to buy - Course

Tutorials for Using Digital Cameras

Short Course for Using Your Digital Camera - Short Course

Taking Great Pictures

Tips from Kodak on taking great pictures - Kodak Tips

Digital Images without a Camera

If you don’t have the funding for a classroom digital camera, try using the Pics4Learning collection of images. This online collection consists of thousands of images that have been donated by students, teachers, and amateur photographers and is copyright-friendly and free for use in education. - Pics4Learning

Lesson Ideas

Science
Catch a Constellation – Sample Project from Ruth Grillo’s Teaching with Digital Cameras book.

Math
Fun with Fractions - Students will learn about fractions by manipulating images to represent mathematical concepts.

Language Arts
Personification Poetry - Students write a poem which personifies something. They will then create a clay animation to explain or enhance their poem and present this "performance" piece to the rest of the class.

Social Studies
Persuasive and Presidential Writing - Students will write a persuasive piece of writing about who, if possible,  would be a suitable president to carve into Mt. Rushmore.  

Rainforest Conservation Cards and Comics - Students will create postcards with persuasive text and images on the importance of conserving natural resources.

Pics4Learning lessons – All of these lessons use digital camera and/or digital images in unique and engaging ways. You will find lessons for math, science, language arts, and social studies.

Clay Animation lessons – All of these lessons use clay animation to enhance student in unique and engaging ways. You will find lessons for math, science, language arts, and social studies.