After two years of helping teachers utilize a document camera and providing ideas for how they could use them, it became my turn when I got back into the classroom. Unfortunately the classroom setup is a little odd, but utilizing other tools, I am able to use the camera in an effective manner with my students.
I am a fan of my document camera and you can learn more about the model I use and ways to use one by reading some blog posts about it. Granted I have not completely reached full potential with its use in the classroom, but I am getting to the point where I or my students use one everyday.
Below are some of the ways that I have been using the Document Camera in the classroom:
1.) I had students graph data related to population growth in the United States. I was able to easily go through the procedures on how to label the graph by placing it under the document camera. I also was able to take graphs from previous classes and showcase them so that students had a good idea of what I was looking for. Using the image capture I took pictures of them so that I have them for later.
2.) Students are always asking "What page is that on?" Using the document camera I am able to easily show the page to the students, and highlight the area they should be looking. It has been great when discussing images and charts that are in the book...something that was much more difficult when I did not have one.
3.) I gave a test and when I was done grading the test I was able to share the various levels of responses with the classes and obscure the name of whose test it was. Students were then able to see what I was and was not looking for in their answers. With transparencies that was possible to do, but it was time consuming.
4.) Every handout that I use I could easily display a copy on the board for my students to utilize.
5.) Instead of having students answer questions aloud, I have students come to the board as they are working and "write" responses to questions that they have completed and then as a class we can discuss them.
I have realized that the best aspect of a Document Camera is the ability to view larger what my students are also looking at. It makes discussing topics much easier and more beneficial in engaging my students.
How are you using a Document Camera?
I am a fan of my document camera and you can learn more about the model I use and ways to use one by reading some blog posts about it. Granted I have not completely reached full potential with its use in the classroom, but I am getting to the point where I or my students use one everyday.
Below are some of the ways that I have been using the Document Camera in the classroom:
1.) I had students graph data related to population growth in the United States. I was able to easily go through the procedures on how to label the graph by placing it under the document camera. I also was able to take graphs from previous classes and showcase them so that students had a good idea of what I was looking for. Using the image capture I took pictures of them so that I have them for later.
2.) Students are always asking "What page is that on?" Using the document camera I am able to easily show the page to the students, and highlight the area they should be looking. It has been great when discussing images and charts that are in the book...something that was much more difficult when I did not have one.
3.) I gave a test and when I was done grading the test I was able to share the various levels of responses with the classes and obscure the name of whose test it was. Students were then able to see what I was and was not looking for in their answers. With transparencies that was possible to do, but it was time consuming.
4.) Every handout that I use I could easily display a copy on the board for my students to utilize.
5.) Instead of having students answer questions aloud, I have students come to the board as they are working and "write" responses to questions that they have completed and then as a class we can discuss them.
I have realized that the best aspect of a Document Camera is the ability to view larger what my students are also looking at. It makes discussing topics much easier and more beneficial in engaging my students.
How are you using a Document Camera?
Please don't limit yourself to paper! Every new piece of equipment that I expect my students to use gets put under the document camera. Digital cameras, calculators, scales, rulers, protractors. What an easy way to teach partial inches. Put REAL money under it - instead of overhead money. Things you want the kids to see - but not touch. Foreign money, autumn leaves, dissections. Lastly, the Avermedia doc cams have a head that can be turned. Don't limit yourself to the top down view. Teach the kids how to measure in a beaker, teach them how to read a scale. The possibilities are endless!!!
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