You Oughta Be In Pictures!
Updated: March 30, 2004
A digital camera could be your next classroom aid
By Brenda A. Dyck
There's no doubt that our current generation of students is highly motivated by and responsive to visual stimuli. These students have grown up with daily exposure to television, movies and video games. As educators, it is expedient for us to harness the visual and use it as a tool that will help construct learning connections for our students.
Making use of digital pictures in the classroom has the potential to not only enhance the learning but to also celebrate it. Here's what I've discovered in my own classroom.
How Can I Use Digital Pictures to Enhance Learning?
My sixth grade students couldn't wait! This was the day we were going to break the dishes with a hammer! Taking on the role of archeologists, students took their broken dishes and reassembled them just like archeologists would while on a dig. Patiently, they pieced their little heap of shards (pottery pieces) together using glue and masking tape. Some students worked in pairs, cooperating in ways I've never seen them act before. I knew this was a moment their parents would love to witness, so I preserved it for posterity by using a digital camera. Within a few hours I had posted the pictures on a Web page for our parent body to see. Parents were thrilled, students were proud, and I got to relive the learning moment again and again.
Advantages of digital cameras are countless. The feedback for students is immediate- they are able to see the event within minutes. The images can be stored on a CD, a floppy or hard drive. They can be printed for display or projected onto a screen. Recording a learning experience digitally transforms a seemingly ordinary classroom occurrence into an extraordinary classroom event. Here are a few ways teachers can use digital cameras in the classroom:
1. | recording field trips |
2. | profiling student work on the Web |
3. | class portfolios |
4. | class newsletters |
5. | teacher portfolios |
6. | catching the unexpected moment of learning |
7. | Internet projects |
8. | student assessment |
How Can I Use Digital Portfolios to Celebrate Student Learning?
Digital cameras allow teachers to "catch" students in the act of doing well. I can't think of a better way to encourage both students and their parents than by sending that visual body of evidence their way. (If students don't have computer access at home, you can create postcards or greeting cards of their work to print and mail home.)
One of the niftiest tools that I have found on the web is "online album" websites. These free photography sites will help teachers create classroom photo albums or even take individual pictures, put them in a virtual frame and send them off to parents. One of the sites allows users to drop digital pictures into a template that will superimpose the face of the student onto the face of a famous person in history. Its easy and its fun! And most important it tells our students and their parents that their teachers are proud of their learning moments!
Picture This: Resources and Examples
For a close-up look at how teachers are using digital images, and at some of the better resources available, see:
