I enjoyed this article because it emphasizes the fact that digital camereas can be educational tools. According to Supon (2006), "Digital cameras are educational tools that support purposeful instruction with a clear vision on curriculum, instruction, assessment, and reflection." She goes on to state that, "Teachers need to adapt their instructional methods to enhance the visual literacy abilities of students while enabling learners to develop higher level thinking processes" (Supon 2007).
Here are some main points from the article:
Classroom Impact
- Our society has become incredibly dependent upon images.
- "More details and data are obtained visually than any of the other senses" (Supon 2007).
- Teaching our students to become visually literate will help to prepare them to enter the modern workforce.
- "Consider the usage of digital cameras to determine the extent of how the usage is aligned with the curriculum, one's teaching, and the classroom assessments" (Supon 2007).
- "Abide by school district policy and make certain the available documentation is in place before allowing individuals to be photographed" (Supon 2007).
- Provide the students with
- instructional tasks
- instruction in how to use the equipment
- instruction of basic photography principles
- guidelines of use
- feedback on use
- "Multidimensional learning integrates different memory strategies to facilitate the learning process and is heavily dependent on illustrations and graphics" (Supon 2007).
- students must use their memories to generate new information
- digital images act as triggers to help students retain information
- digital images often encourages/motivates children to write (and write better!)
- developing a fluent writing style then leads to write better for other purposes
- having students actually "take" the photos promotes ownership and leads to a higher quality of work
- Example: "Kerri Peloso had second grade students at Nescopeck Elementary School (Nescopeck, Pennsylvania) take pictures of objects in the classroom. They used their pictures to create writing pieces that were showcased in the room. A compilation of the pictures was made and this became a classroom book that was checked out by students to take home to develop/increase their literacy skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and spelling. Digital camera usage increases analytical skills and can be used as a means of assessing student performance. Having students know what high quality performance is can effectively be documented through photographs. When students recognize similarities and differences of their performance through photos, students become more reflective and effective with self-assessment. This process increases better performance" (Supon 2007).
Sabrina
2 comments:
Hi Sabrina,
I enjoyed your article. I also find that using digital images with students or letting them take the digital images gives them more ownership of their work. That seems to make them want to put a bit more effort into their products because it's something they created, not just given to work on.
I would be interested to compile a huge list of ideas for using digital images. Have you found any resources that really hit a bunch of different ideas?
Annette
This was a very informative posting. I think using digital cameras in the classroom is a great idea and opens up the playing field to a lot more higher level thinking activities. It lets students step outside the box a little bit and think how they can approach a subject in a different manner.
One comment you made was about how our society is very dependent on images. I never really thought about it like that, but it is very true!
Great post!
Jenn
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