2. Flower Garden: http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/lon/flowers/Flowers.html
What use is a digital image? Before you decide on whether or not to buy a digital camera for your school or classroom, you should think about what you can do with the digital image once you have taken the picture. Here are some possibilities: View the image on the camera using the camera's play back mode; either delete or keep the image. Add images to an electronic presentation e.g. Microsoft's Powerpoint. The third grade at Longfellow School did this to create a Tour of Brunswick during a study of the community. Show the images from the camera directly onto a television screen. "A day in the life of your students" can easily be done for an Open House. Store the image on a computer's hard disk or archive it onto a backup disk/drive. Create a slide show of images on a computer. In fact, digital images are ideal for any on-screen publishing or presentation use, since most PC screens are set up to run at resolutions of between 640 x 480 and 1024 x 768 pixels. Take vitual reality tours of your comminity using images from the digital camera. Use a digital camera to document a student's progress. Store an image with a student's electronic portfolio. Send digital pictures to e-pals (electronic pen-pals) around the world. Manipulate the image using graphics software e.g. crop the image, change the contrast/colour balance or carry out a whole host of 'artistic' touch-ups. Store on a computer and print out the image using a photo-quality colour printer such as the Epson Stylus 740. Print directly from the camera using a dedicated printer from the camera's manufacturer. Send a copy of the digital image to someone via e-mail. Upload digital images onto your own web site.
Before you decide on whether or not to buy a digital camera for your school or classroom, you should think about what you can do with the digital image once you have taken the picture.
Here are some possibilities:
9. Mary Carter from East Middle School in Youngstown, Ohio shares:
We have been using our digi camera at school to highlight all special events....we then use bulletin boards to display our pictures.... We had one on the Halloween Door Decorating Contest (large pictures displaying all the doors) and gave ribbons to the winners plus an ice cream party (we have 5 categories)...we also had an assembly called Teen Talkout....we made a long banner and displayed all the pictures from the assembly (used Print Shop/laminated banner) ...Our students like seeing the pictures after the event....
Students do book reports or reports of famous people. When they present their report, they dress in costume appropriate to that character. Using digital photos, their image is captured, put into a Kid Pix slide show and they provide a short voice over explaining briefly who they are and why they are famous. Third grade students documented the steps of a science experiment and put it into a slide show to share with other classes. A first grade teacher took digital pictures of familiar objects around the school and classroom. She then pulled them into Kid Pix and had the students draw (using the pencil tool) the shapes that they saw in the picture. She did it using very specific objects (the clock on the wall, the fire alarm box, an easel) and it was amazing to see the number of different shapes the children saw. She did this in her classroom using one computer and an LCD projector . The kids loved it!. She reported that she gathered the pictures and pulled them together during a recess break. She plans on doing this again and will try it with pictures taken out of doors focusing on "shapes in nature" or "shapes all around us" A fifth grade class took pictures of a field trip (to the aquarium) and then pulled them into a presentation format (they used Hyperstudio). Each student was assigned a picture. They put that picture on their HS card, described briefly what was in the picture highlighting new vocabulary words by using different colors/fonts. When the project was complete, they sent it to a school on the west coast to compare animal life in a Pacific ocean habitat. One of our teachers went on an extended trip and did an independent study on Native Americans (which is part of our 3rd grade curriculum) in the southwest. She took numerous pictures with the digital camera and was able to create a very informative and useful teaching tool combining the digital pictures with historical/factual data into a Hyperstudio Stack to share with other 3rd grade teachers in our district. I hope other teachers can use these ideas. If anyone has any questions about any of these projects, please have them contact me. Feel free to visit my Technology Tips for Teachers Web Page http://www.framingham.k12.ma.us/k5 and see what we're doing here.
Third grade students documented the steps of a science experiment and put it into a slide show to share with other classes.
A first grade teacher took digital pictures of familiar objects around the school and classroom. She then pulled them into Kid Pix and had the students draw (using the pencil tool) the shapes that they saw in the picture. She did it using very specific objects (the clock on the wall, the fire alarm box, an easel) and it was amazing to see the number of different shapes the children saw. She did this in her classroom using one computer and an LCD projector . The kids loved it!. She reported that she gathered the pictures and pulled them together during a recess break. She plans on doing this again and will try it with pictures taken out of doors focusing on "shapes in nature" or "shapes all around us"
A fifth grade class took pictures of a field trip (to the aquarium) and then pulled them into a presentation format (they used Hyperstudio). Each student was assigned a picture. They put that picture on their HS card, described briefly what was in the picture highlighting new vocabulary words by using different colors/fonts. When the project was complete, they sent it to a school on the west coast to compare animal life in a Pacific ocean habitat.
One of our teachers went on an extended trip and did an independent study on Native Americans (which is part of our 3rd grade curriculum) in the southwest. She took numerous pictures with the digital camera and was able to create a very informative and useful teaching tool combining the digital pictures with historical/factual data into a Hyperstudio Stack to share with other 3rd grade teachers in our district.
I hope other teachers can use these ideas. If anyone has any questions about any of these projects, please have them contact me.
Feel free to visit my Technology Tips for Teachers Web Page http://www.framingham.k12.ma.us/k5 and see what we're doing here.
11. LJP shares:
I use my digital camera to take pictures of my first and second grade special needs students to use in books. First we decide what we want to write, then we take pictures of the children. With lower level children using the digital camera and making their own books is very exciting, for some it is a key difference in learning to read. They love to read books about themselves, expecially with their own photos. I have a Sony Mavica, which makes this process easier. I am able to keep each child's pictures on an individual floppy disk directly from the camera. Using the Print Shop 6.0 and/or 11.0 we transport the pictures on to a page where they can write or type their text. I use card stock for printing the books as they are well read and this makes them more durable. We print 2 copies of each child's book, one stays in the classroom and one goes home. This way they share their writing with other children ( again, very motivational). To bind these books I have 2 options. I can use the schools binding machine, which is in the office work area so children are not allowed to help in the process, or I recently discovered poultry bands. Poultry bands are colorful plastic rings similar to the metal rings on key chains. They are available at any Agway or similar farm supply store. This has been our prefered method of late, as the children are able to bind their own books by punching holes with a 3 ring punch. For our latest book, my first grade students decided to make a book about things they could do at school. The text was very simple and repetitive. We wrote the text on chart paper with a box to indicate where each child's picture would go, and they all made the same book, with their own pictures. The text was as follows: Look at me! I am reading. Look at me! I am writing. Look at me! I am coloring. etc. My school is rather active and there is always something special going on. Children in my Special Needs (1-2)classroom use my digital camera ( not the school's-that one is for teacher use only) to take pictures. Later we add headings and other text to the pictures. These are displayed around the school and a copy is also made on plain paper for the photographer of the day to take home with them. I keep another copy in a binder in the class library. Children can take this book and look at the pictures and read the text during independent silent reading time. This is a favorite book in my room, they know all of the characters, or have at least seen them.
I use my digital camera to take pictures of my first and second grade special needs students to use in books. First we decide what we want to write, then we take pictures of the children. With lower level children using the digital camera and making their own books is very exciting, for some it is a key difference in learning to read. They love to read books about themselves, expecially with their own photos.
I have a Sony Mavica, which makes this process easier. I am able to keep each child's pictures on an individual floppy disk directly from the camera. Using the Print Shop 6.0 and/or 11.0 we transport the pictures on to a page where they can write or type their text. I use card stock for printing the books as they are well read and this makes them more durable. We print 2 copies of each child's book, one stays in the classroom and one goes home. This way they share their writing with other children ( again, very motivational).
To bind these books I have 2 options. I can use the schools binding machine, which is in the office work area so children are not allowed to help in the process, or I recently discovered poultry bands. Poultry bands are colorful plastic rings similar to the metal rings on key chains. They are available at any Agway or similar farm supply store. This has been our prefered method of late, as the children are able to bind their own books by punching holes with a 3 ring punch.
For our latest book, my first grade students decided to make a book about things they could do at school. The text was very simple and repetitive. We wrote the text on chart paper with a box to indicate where each child's picture would go, and they all made the same book, with their own pictures. The text was as follows: Look at me! I am reading. Look at me! I am writing. Look at me! I am coloring. etc.
My school is rather active and there is always something special going on. Children in my Special Needs (1-2)classroom use my digital camera ( not the school's-that one is for teacher use only) to take pictures. Later we add headings and other text to the pictures. These are displayed around the school and a copy is also made on plain paper for the photographer of the day to take home with them. I keep another copy in a binder in the class library. Children can take this book and look at the pictures and read the text during independent silent reading time. This is a favorite book in my room, they know all of the characters, or have at least seen them.
12. Jane Plaskon from Chippewa Valley Schools in Macomb Township,Michigan shares:
I love the digital camera site. We have been using the digital camera in our learning disabled classroom at Iroquois Middle School for about four years now. Many of our students lack motivation when it comes to writing. We take pictures of all the students and they save them to individual files. After typing a document, they add their picture along with clipart for decorations. You would be surprised at how a simple self portrait can motivate students to write their best compositions! We get permission at the start of every school year. Pictures are found everywhere in our classroom!
13. Mary C. Midgette from Framingham Public Schools in Framingham, MA shares:
Art classes at our middle schools used digital cameras to take pictures of themselves to create a digital self portrait. This was part of a series of portraiture projects. With this particular project, students: 1. used digital cameras to take their pictures 2. brought these pictures into a graphics program where they could manipulate the layout, color, special effects. etc. 3. scanned in or took digital shots of other pictures, poems, objects of meaning to them 4. imported these symbols into their portraits and layered their image with items of meaning to create a collage effect. 5. final products were then uploaded to the Cyberfaces web site at http://www.cyberfaces.org 6. final products were also printed on a color banner and placed into a slide show to display at open house, parent-teacher nights, etc. 7. students were then asked to write brief essays about their creation process, explaining their use of color, objects, words, etc. for interpretation. This could very well evolve into part of an interdisciplinary unit. You are also welcome to come and visit my site (still and always will be a work in progress) at http://www.framingham.k12.ma.us/intech 12. KatieTyrrell of Yarmouth, Maine shares: We use the digital camera to take pictures of items around the room that a particular student with autism either wants or needs. Where the Mayer-Johnson symbols have not been successful, this student is learning to communicate using symbol-size photos. It is very exciting.
Art classes at our middle schools used digital cameras to take pictures of themselves to create a digital self portrait.
This was part of a series of portraiture projects. With this particular project, students: 1. used digital cameras to take their pictures 2. brought these pictures into a graphics program where they could manipulate the layout, color, special effects. etc. 3. scanned in or took digital shots of other pictures, poems, objects of meaning to them 4. imported these symbols into their portraits and layered their image with items of meaning to create a collage effect. 5. final products were then uploaded to the Cyberfaces web site at http://www.cyberfaces.org 6. final products were also printed on a color banner and placed into a slide show to display at open house, parent-teacher nights, etc. 7. students were then asked to write brief essays about their creation process, explaining their use of color, objects, words, etc. for interpretation.
This could very well evolve into part of an interdisciplinary unit.
You are also welcome to come and visit my site (still and always will be a work in progress) at http://www.framingham.k12.ma.us/intech
12. KatieTyrrell of Yarmouth, Maine shares:
We use the digital camera to take pictures of items around the room that a particular student with autism either wants or needs. Where the Mayer-Johnson symbols have not been successful, this student is learning to communicate using symbol-size photos. It is very exciting.