USES OF DOCUMENT CAMERAS.............????

At the beginning of this year, I was supplied with a document camera for my second grade class. In short, I wanted to start this discussion in order to throw around some ideas for using the document camera in a classroom. I have used it in the following ways:
-Making every book a big book...shared reading experience
-students showing and explaining their work (especially in math)
-put a timer underneath the camera for variopus applications
-capture student work
-conduct science experiments with insects
-students sharing writing
-shared writing experiences
-word sorting
-math manipulatives
-discussing and displaying homework

Anyone else?

Tags: assessment, cameras, centers, computer, document, math, reading, science, shared, sharing, More…

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Permalink Reply by Kara Norris on January 12, 2009 at 9:01pm

I just learned about the wii remote project. I am so excited to start using it! I have already received my IR pen. I was going to try to steal my kids' remote but, they were not too happy about that. After spending thousands on SmartBoards, I can't wait to try this out. I'm like a little kid with a new toy!

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Permalink Reply by DaveC on September 9, 2008 at 12:13pm

I used our doc camera quite a bit last year, particularly in math class. No more need to copy documents to transparency and it made demonstrations including 3-d objects and games so much easier as the students could all see what I was doing.

Our camera was not computer mounted, but it allowed you to zoom and change the white balance, etc. It has uses for so many things, but out-of-sight/out-of-mind! I kept mine near the front of the room so I could grab it in a second and plug it in.

-dave

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Permalink Reply by Donna on October 13, 2008 at 6:47pm

Bobby, this is just what I needed! The first one is exactly how I feel about document cameras and literature. Being an ex-science teacher, working with anything in nature brings wonder to the classroom even for the teacher. Great job and keep it coming!!!

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Permalink Reply by Carol Horner on October 14, 2008 at 12:14pm

We have a couple of Elmos and we like them a lot. Then we got some SMART document cameras. They integrate with SMART Notebook and our SMART boards. Our teachers like those even better. They can project an item and then pick up the SMART pens and annotate on the screen. Those screens can be saved or printed. The biology teachers went crazy when we got them because they could then put notes on a dissection. You just clicked for the next notebook page and did the next step of the dissection. The entire dissection was projected for the class to see and captured into the software.

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Permalink Reply by Roberta Svegel on November 7, 2008 at 4:32am

Hi Carol. What is the cost of both the Elmo and SMART document cameras/ systems? I teach special ed and can see this as essential as books for my students. Robibie

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Permalink Reply by Carol Horner on December 3, 2008 at 3:32pm

Sorry - I've been busy and haven't checked this for awhile.

The SMART Doc camera was about $600 - $700.

The Elmo was about the same - perhaps a little cheaper - we got the TT02 version. It doesn't interact with the SMART Notebook software though and that has become key for us.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Romard on December 3, 2008 at 6:46pm

Yeah - that's the trick when selecting a document camera - to find one that works with your hardware. I had to go to the US website of Avermedia to find the Mac software (to view/edit the captured pictures)

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Permalink Reply by Brian on October 14, 2008 at 12:46pm

I wrote about this on my blog for my staff members if you're interested: http://ppsblogs.net/brianmckee/tag/document-camera/

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Permalink Reply by Martha on October 31, 2008 at 5:22pm

Demonstrate how to hold a pencil, how to make letters, how to do cursive, how to hold and finger a soprano recorder.... if you use your hands and want the kids to see better what you are doing, a doc camera is the best.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa White on November 6, 2008 at 3:33am

Yeah, I agree with you that document cameras are very useful in schools. We need them for our presentations in classes. Actually a small document camera can bring us many effective and successful presentations as we wish. I'm interested in your post.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Romard on November 27, 2008 at 9:26pm

Our AverMedia document cameras come with PC software, but many of our classrooms have Mac computers. Anyone experience this problem? I'm assuming it's a matter of processing the 'picture' taken with the camera part of the document reader.