Using Digital Cameras in the Classroom
By Cristiana Assumpção Ed. D.

The use of digital images can greatly enhance the learning of Earth Science in your classroom. These images can be obtained from the readily available resources offered to you on our website, or they can be made by your students, making the learning experience more personal, and encouraging student ownership of learning.

How can you use digital images? There are two selected sites below that start you off with some practical ideas and examples. But to be more specific, let’s think of some examples that could use the materials you are learning in the Earth 2 Class program.

 Some ideas to get you started…

1. Students take pictures of trees close to where they live, put them together to compare and guess which ones are the oldest and why.

2. Students could take pictures of cut trees and try to work with the rings, using software like Photoshop or other image editors to highlight certain areas and label them.

3. Students take pictures of a field trip they’ve been to (like the LDEO core lab) and prepare a presentation using the pictures to illustrate.

4. Students prepare a poster with only photos to illustrate their point of view about a topic they are studying (like the impact of mankind on climate change), and other students have to guess what they are trying to communicate through the photographs.

5. Students create a photographic manual on how to conduct a certain experiment (like building your own volcano) instead of only writing out the procedure.

6. Students create still animation by photographing clay models of the movement of the tectonic plates or of volcanic eruptions, or even the formation of a tsunami, and then make a short movie to show to the class.  

As a classroom teacher, I’m sure you can come up with many more interesting examples yourself. To think about how to use a digital camera in your classroom, always think of how it can add value to the learning experience. Think about the following questions: (1) Does the camera allow me to do something that I already did, only better? (2) Does the camera allow me to do something that I could not do before (like illustrate a point that was very difficult for students to visualize)? 

If the answer is yes to either question, then go ahead and use the camera. Technology is only truly beneficial when there is true added value to the learning experience. Cameras are great for illustrating procedures that are difficult to explain in writing, or creating simulations of phenomena students cannot normally observe, or even allowing students to share more about where they live, where they’ve visited or what they’ve presented as class work (look at digital portfolios for more details).

 So read and explore the two websites below, and share with us any ideas you may have for using digital cameras in your classroom! We’d love to see what you’re doing with your students.

Websites:

http://www.tech4learning.com/services/teachingwithdigitalcameras.htm

 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.

There are many, many possibilities for implementing the successful use of digital cameras to improve student learning. If you can, be sure to use the camera at least 3 times a week in different projects or activities. Then, it will quickly become another essential teaching tool and you won’t have to think of ways to use it. 

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

Using Images in Pics4Learning - Pics4Learning Snack

Lesson Ideas

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

Plant Growth - Students will create a clay animation which demonstrates the stages of a plant’s growth from seed to maturity.

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

Living Fractions - Students will create a clay animation which demonstrates the concept of fractions and how these are written in mathematical terms.

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.