I have chosen to do a tutorial on the Kid Tough Digital Camera. My center actually purchased a classroom set to use for the preschool classrooms. So I thought I would see what it all has to offer and share it with you! I think it is safe to say that most of you know how to use a digital camera, but the software allows you to do other things to the original photo than to just print it.
Adult Tutorial via manual
Children’s Tutorial- After some pre-teaching on the expectations of handling a camera, I would hand out the cameras and we would explore them using our senses. I would copy pages 4,6,8,9 of the adult tutorial and play a matching game. Can they find the same button that is in the picture on their own camera? Talk with them about what you use a camera for and listen to the experiences that they may have had.
Taking pictures is just half of the fun. Getting into the software and learning how to create photos to print is the other half. Using the software is something that we would have to do together and I would explain how to use it as we were going through it individually.
Children at this age would be learning about a form of technology that they can use. They can also learn about other various concepts through picture taking. Using the software to enhance the photo will also provide options in learning.
Ideas
It is one thing to learn how to use the technology. It is yet another to figure out how you can best utilize that technology. Here are some ideas to use pictures in an educational setting.
- Take pictures of things that start with a certain letter of the alphabet. Use the writing tools and write the letter the objects begin with and make an alphabet book.
- We could take pictures of all our friends and put our names on it to make our classroom book. How about taking pictures of shapes (ex. our classroom door is a rectangle) Then, you guessed it- make a book of the shapes in the environment.
- Take a picture of two trees and then a picture with one tree. Put the printed pictures in the pocket chart. How many trees are there in all?
- The software sizes the photos various ways so we can talk about size comparisons.
- Since we are studying bugs, children can take pictures of bugs. Then classify them and add it to the word wall.
Do you have any ideas of how I could use the digital camera and software to incorporate into my teaching?
I liked that you put the manual online. I could see using these in my high school classes. Students can do scavenger hunts taking pictures to prove they found items, they can take pictures of things that represent concepts in your lessons. These sound really cool. How much are they?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the added ideas. These cameras cost around $40.00 so not to bad when your talking electronics.
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