Archive for the 'digital camera' Category

QR codes – one dimensional or multi-dimensional for rich learning

Published August 10, 2011 cell phone , digital camera , Dimension , Learn , Mobile learning , smartphones Leave a Comment
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I’ve been seeing many QR codes so I have been using a  code reader to discover the message. Usually a link to a site comes up.  It’s sort of like a letter with only one short sentence  or a very  short tweet.  It’s a “just the facts” type of thinking. I often feel that I wasted my time in reading the QR code.

In education, we strive for richness in learning such as problem based learning (PBL). We want students to explore and think deeply. I think that a QR code with one short link often lacks depth.  For example, I was in a museum that used QR codes. The link went to a short bio on the artist. There were no links off of the bio.  Yes, I wanted to learn about the artist’s life but I also wanted to know more about the style of painting and what other artists painted in that style, and I wanted to know more about the subject of the paintings such as where where the painting was painted and what the subjects represented.

I am waiting to see a QR code  with a built in probing question/ essential question and some links to explore in search of the big answer.

Do your QR codes have just one short dimension or do they present multi-dimensional robust  learning?

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Your Students, is available through Eye on Education.

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Also, my  book,  Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available through Eye on Education.

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Digitizing part of book For Interactivity-Camera

Published May 17, 2008 Camera , Digital , digital camera , Image , Interactive , learning , Student , technology , technology integration Leave a Comment
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I have been taking some pictures of the class textbook so that I can project the image and then mark it up. I copy a speech and then we go through and identify how the speaker has introduced, given evidence, and concluded. Yesterday we went through an information speech and the students focused on every mention of an expert (person, book, or professional organization) to show that the speech has been built on facts. It took me about three minutes to take the pictures, move them over to my computer, do a simply crop, and save as a .gif file to put into the PowerPoint. It is a simple technique if you do not have a document camera, if you do not have a scanner, and if you are too lazy to retype the whole three page entry.

Digital Camera to Record Exemplars

Published February 5, 2008 Achievement , Assessment , assessment for learning , Camera , digital camera , Exemplar , Record , Recording 1 Comment
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Our classes seem to happen at a NASCAR race speed. Students produce proficient work through in class sketches, demonstrations, quick concept maps, short writings, etc. Often some or even much of the work shows above proficient work. However, as soon as the class is done, we have lost those wonderful examples of learning. If we have a digital camera, then we can capture these moments of exemplars. A quick aim and click can record these exemplars. We may have to take a second to change a setting so that the camera best captures document work if we are taking pictures of writing. Of course, we will have had our students sign a release form so that we can use their “intellectual property”. We can use those pictures in subsequent classes that day to show exemplar work. We can show those exemplars the next day in the same class and have the students review what makes those exemplars exemplary. We can have students compare their work to the exemplars and improve.

So what classroom exemplars have you capture and use to help other students to become proficient in the class learning goal?

Digital Camera and Writing in the English Classroom

Published December 28, 2007 Achievement , Camera , digital camera , Picture , technology , Writing 2 Comments
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A few ways to use a digital camera in the writing class

Take pictures of things around the school to serve as writing prompts

Have students take pictures of a sequence and then write a narrative.

Pass out a different picture to all the students and have them write a description of their picture. Then they put the pictures in a huge pile that someone shuffles and turns picture up.  Students do same with their descriptions so students try to match up the description with the picture.

Have student groups  create dramatic scenes, take a picture, and have the class write about cause and effect for the picture.

Show students a picture of two fruit or two sneakers and have them do comparison writing.

Necessary Educational Tool – Digital Camera

Published July 20, 2007 Bloom , Camera , digital camera , higher level thinking , Image , learning , Recording , Thinking , YouTube Leave a Comment

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I see a digital camera as a required technology for every educator. I think that educators enjoy simply tools- tools that help promote students’ higher-level standards-based learning and tools that do what we want when we want without a lot of complication.

With it, we and our students can

-take still images that represent stages of learning in a process. Most cameras allow you to take low resolution images which work great for most classroom and web projects. If you take at the lowest resolution, then probably you do not have to use a third party program to get “small memory” images.

-make movies for our class or for other classes using YouTube. Many cameras can directly upload to YouTube type programs. For example, mine records in .mov. Check your camera manual for the format of your movies.

-do audio recording for podcasts, collecting oral interviews, recording language experiences.

Simple technologies can help our students in powerful learning.

How else do you use a digital camera to help promote students’ higher-level standards-based learning?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

YouTube Instructional Video Creation from a Digital Camera

Published May 22, 2007 Camera , digital camera , Instruction , learning , Student , YouTube 1 Comment

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You and your students can create instructional YouTube videos by using a digital camera that can record short video clips.

Most digital cameras take 30 seconds or more of video (Check your camera’s manual for the length for your camera.) Plan your instructional movie out like you would a real “movie” script- what do you say, what do you show, and what background will be seen? How will these do the best job of “teaching” or “explaining” the learning? Practice it a few times. Then capture it by changing the digital camera to movie mode and click. If you make a major mistake, then reshoot it.

Some hints for creating a better instructional video are focusing on a short burst of concentrated learning, limiting the movement, having a solid non-distracting background, having you or your students speak loudly and clearly (their outside voices), use close up shots whenever possible, using big easy to see objects, and using easy to see signs with large dark colored lettering. Most important, have something very educational to explain or show. How does this video help students learn the standard to the highest level of thinking?

If you did not include a title and credits, you can move the video over to Mac imovies or the PC Movie Maker to add a title (Make the title one that represents the content such as “The Underground Railroad in Ithaca, NY.”) and give your class credit (“Mr. John Brown’s 8th Grade Social Studies Class, ABC School, Norfolk, VA.”)

According to the YouTube Team, save your movie in “either QuickTime .MOV, Windows .AVI, or .MPG files— these are the most common formats and they work well within our system. We specifically recommend the MPEG4 (Divx, Xvid) format at 320×240 resolution with MP3.” Saving in these formats helps compress the movie to a manageable size. YouTube will not accept videos clips over 100 megabytes. Some cameras automatically save to MPEG 4 s0 check your camera’s specs. Some other programs that can help you compress your large movies for YouTube format are found on How to Put Your Camera Video Clips on YouTube .

Please share your experiences with creating instructional YouTube videos from a digital camera. If you share what worked and what did not, then we all can become better.

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Digital Camera and the Classroom Websites: Visual Learning Irony

Published August 28, 2006 digital camera , FL , Foreign Language , Modern Language , student learning , Visual Literacy , website Leave a Comment

I have been preparing a presentation on using the digital camera to improve student learning in the various subject areas. I found tons of websites about the topic such as http://www.glenbard.net/Glenbard_North/pages/library/2005/services/audio-visual/help/digicam-sites.html

Most of them described a multitude ways in which teachers could use digital cameras.

However, I find it highly ironical that when a website tells about how teachers and students can use a digital camera in the classroom, it does not show actual photographs. If a website is emphasizing visual learning, then the website should use visuals! This seems to be the same as describing the Mona Lisa instead of showing her in an Art class. Imagine if a math teacher could not show students what a square or triangle looked like!

 

Students can be engaged in learning through digital cameras. Their abstract learning becomes very real when they have to demonstrate their learning. Students already know how to use cameras and probably the only thing for them to learn is how to reduce the memory size to make their PowerPoints or webpages

The following photograph taken in Tijana, Mexico can serve as

  • a writing prompt for descriptive writing for ELA students

  • a writing prompt for comparison writing (the man and the statue) for ELA students

  • an analysis picture for Social Studies students of the Mexican culture

  • a speaking prompt for Spanish students.

 

Mexican musican and statue

 

 

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