I was at a presentation today and saw the keynote for the pro-D day use a little camera to project a photo of his paper up onto the screen via the projector. I have no experience with webcams .... is there special software installed to run it? Can they be wireless? Was this document camera the same as a webcam ...?
Last week I had an ah-ha moment when I handed my wireless mouse out to the class and had them manipulate something on the screen then passed it around from group to group. [FYI - I was using the smart notebook software and they were drawing lines between like terms] It was a HUGE hit - all the kids were focused and engaged. Not an easy task in an adapted math class! I'm just sorry I didn't think of it sooner. Grade 9s just don't want to come to from of the class to write on the tablet OR play with the smart board (which is shocking to most primary teachers) With some sort of document camera, ideally wireless, I could roam around the room and be able to take a picture of someone's work to project onto the screen .... how cool would that be. No longer would I have to be doing all the work ..... I really think trying to get away from the talking head at the front of the class is really the way to go. Does anyone have an ideas or information about webcams/document cameras that could help me with this? This could be a really neat inquiry project for this first semester of LTT!
In my experience, we still have a ways to go before technology infiltrates the education system to the degree that it is being used elsewhere. Many educators are 'digital immigrants' (see Marc Prensky's work) and are not comfortable with their lack of technological knowledge. As a result, tech gadgets are taking way longer to get into classrooms. So the fact that you see a camera project a picture onto a screen in 2009, well, let's just say it may be 2010 or 2011 before you ever see it in a classroom other than your own.
ReplyDeleteOkay, enough of my ramblings. With my current equipment, I would be able to do what you saw but in a slightly different way. I've got a webcam with my laptop which I can use to take a photo. I would then have to go over and hook up to the projector using cables. However, there is software (e.g. Projector Online) that claims to turn regular projectors into a wireless ones, which you could use to avoid the cables. A less advanced method but equally as effective is to take photos with a digital camera and download them onto the computer (wirelessly or not). This takes a minute but if you plan ahead, you'll have your students' work on the screen in no time.
Susan Teed