1. Digital Cameras in the Classroom
Michelle Loconte
CIEE605

2. Presentation Overview
What is a digital camera?
Uses of a digital camera
Uses of a digital camera in the classroom
Why do we need digital cameras in the classroom:
Effectiveness
Advantages
Additional products
Costs and Training Time
References

3. What is a digital camera?
As defined by TechWeb’s Encyclopedia, a digital camera is still camera that records images in digital form. Images are transferred to the computer with a USB cable, a memory card or wireless.
Nikon Coolpix S210, regularly priced at $179.99

4. Why do we need Digital Cameras?
Our school is equipped with over 20 SmartBoards, 2 computer labs complete with Mac computers, and document cameras in every classroom. Digital cameras can work hand in hand with all of these technologies. Here are several examples of how to use a digital camera with the technology we have available.

5. Digital Cameras and SmartBoards
At the Central Institute for the Deaf, students use digital cameras and SMART Boards to create stories. The cameras capture images, and the students can upload their pictures onto the computer that is connected to the SMART Board.

6. Digital Cameras and Mac Computers
Here is a lesson plan using a Mac computer and digital camera in First Grade. In the lesson, the students learn each other’s names and learn about their classmates by first photographing them, editing the photos on a Mac and then video recording interviews of their classmates, and editing the videos on a Mac computer.

7. Uses of a Digital Camera
take pictures
record videos
record audio sound
document a trip
create memories
Sony Cybershot W150 regularly priced at $229.99

8. Uses of a Digital Camera in the Classroom
Canon Powershot 14.7 SD990, regularly priced at $399.99
Uses of a Digital Camera in the Classroom
document student work
record book reports, songs, presentations
create memories for students
document a class trip
personalize classroom
label the classroom for early childhood students and English language learners
conduct research

9. Documenting Student Work
Educators can use digital cameras to create picture rubrics to provide examples of what they are looking for from their students.
Educators can photograph the process of their students completing work, in order to assess their classroom space and make sure they are utilizing it properly.

10. Documenting Student Work
Math Literature Lesson: Using the story Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews to create an image with ten black dots. Picture Rubric:
Mastered
Emerging
Needs Time

11. Documenting Student Work
Fifty States group mural project, 3rd grade.
Creating a Bar Graph of weather in several of the states, 3rd grade.
Kindergarten leaf collecting project.

12. Record book reports, classroom songs and presentations
Many digital cameras today feature a video recording option, educators can use this to their advantage in the classroom.
Teachers can show students their oral presentations in order to help the students self-evaluate their work and develop strategies for improvement.

13. Create Memories for Students
Teachers can photograph classroom parties, allow students to take pictures of and with their classmates, and develop a classroom yearbook they can have when they leave school for the year.
Teachers can also create a bulletin board with pictures of their students completing projects in the classroom to inform their school about what they are doing.

14. Create Memories for Students
Pre-school students enjoying the warm weather during a gardening unit.
Kindergarteners proudly displaying their name banners.
Third graders trying to decide what is inside Miss L’s mystery boxes.

15. Document a Class Trip
When classes go on educational trips, it is often interesting to take pictures and then create a slideshow of what they have seen on the trip.
Extend the trip by taking photographs and discussing it when they return to school.
You can also upload pictures from places you have been onto your computer to create a slideshow to extend learning for students.

16. Document a Class Trip
When learning about volcanoes, I chose to show students photographs of Pompeii, Italy. They not only learned about the effects of a volcano, but they also learned more about the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

17. Personalize Classroom
Students will feel welcome and like a part of the class when they see pictures of themselves in your classroom.
Pictures of students working together in a classroom is a great way to show families what type of role their child is taking in the classroom.

18. Personalize Classroom
Pictures of students working on projects or labs in the classroom is a great way to show families and the community what your classroom is doing.

19. Label the Classroom for Early Childhood & English Language Learners
Students who are trying to learn how to read will be able to recognize words by looking at the picture that it matches up with.
When students need to clean up, they will have an easier time finding where things go if there is a picture to go along with the written label.
Making the labels in two languages, along with a picture, will help the students develop vocabulary in a new language, and help English
language learners develop
vocabulary in English.

20. Label the Classroom for Early Childhood & English Language Learners
The students will have an easier time learning words and finding items in the classroom if they have their items labeled with pictures AND words.

21. Conduct Research
Students can improve their research on a topic by using digital cameras to photograph the topic.
For example, in a leaf collection project in kindergarten, the students and I took pictures of leaves outside while collecting them.
Going over these photographs, we were able to determine which trees had which types of leaves on them.

22. Photographs of the areas students collected leaves helped them recall information.
Conduct Research

23. How are other districts using their digital cameras?
Classroom/ School Websites:
North Haledon’s School district created a slideshow during the construction of their new
school to show families how the construction was going along.
East Brunswick’s Lawrence Brook Elementary School showcases their grade level
bulletin boards on their website.
Hackensack’s Jackson Avenue School has an online photo album on their website.
Lessons: The Casio Classroom Website developed a branch of their website
titled 1,001 Uses for a Digital Camera in which teachers across the country submit
lesson plans they have completed with the help of a digital camera in their classroom.
Three examples include:
Grades K-2: I Can Read Places
Grades 3-5: Create a Story
Grades 6-8: Geometry Walk

24. Effectiveness of Digital Cameras in the Classroom
One teacher, Sarah Carlyle, in a rural town in the U.S., uses her digital camera to improve students’ self image and awareness of their own work.
Carlyle uses her digital camera to help develop strong writers. Carlyle creates a slideshow of pictures and her students tell a story based on the pictures.

25. Effectiveness of Digital Cameras in the Classroom
GadgetGirl uses her digital camera to create books with her students. One of the books she created was Twisted Alphabet, in which the students positioned themselves to look like the letters of the alphabet.

26. Effectiveness of Digital Cameras in the Classroom
A study performed by Eskicioglu and Kopec of CUNY Brooklyn College has revealed that using multimedia technologies in the classroom…
centers the curriculum on authentic problems parallel to those adults face in real world settings
fosters success for all students through special measures to aid the disabled and the disenfranchised.

27. Eskicioglu and Kopec’s Study
The study also cited an IMPORTANT statistic… Multimedia applications can enhance student learning. Active learning indicates what percentage we remember: 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we hear and see, 70% of what we say, and 90% of what we both say and do.

28. Advantages of Digital Cameras in the Classroom
Pictures can be reviewed instantly, uploaded onto a computer and then printed out.
Rather than purchasing a video camera and a photography camera, a digital camera can record both.
Digital cameras are better for the environment- teachers can simply put the pictures on a CD or store them on the computer if they do not want to print them out!

29. Additional Products
Most digital cameras come equipped with a battery and battery charger. Some even come with a case!
Canon Rhythm and Blue Compact Photo Printer, priced at $99.99
PNY 1 gigabyte Memory Card, priced at $12.99

30. Costs Digital Camera: approximately $199.99
Photo Printer: approximately $99.99
Memory Card: approximately $12.99
All together one unit would cost approximately $ (one unit= 1 camera, 1 photo printer, and 1 memory card)
In a K-8 school, 2 units per grade level (18 units total)= $5,
There are 600 students in the school.
The final cost equals $9.39 per child, or $0.05 per student, per day.

31. Training Time
In Eskicioglu and Kopec’s study, proposed an effective training method using PowerPoint training guides that teachers could read on their own time.
The school is also equipped with Information Technology experts on the staff.
If necessary, a workshop on effectively using digital cameras in the classroom could be incorporated into an in-service day schedule.

32. References 1,001 Uses for A Digital Camera: The Casio Classroom
Best Buy: Merchandise and prices
Famous First Graders!:Gayle Berthiaume
Focus on Effectiveness: Projecting Success 2005 by Northwest Region Education Laboratory
Photography Blog: Merchandise and prices
SMARTBoards at CID: Central Institute for the Deaf 2005
Teaching with Cameras: The Original Gadget Girl (Kathy Cothran)
The Ideal Multimedia-Enabled Classroom: Perspectives from Psychology, Education and Information Science: A.M. Eskicioglu, D. Kopec, CUNY Brooklyn College, 2003