Document+Camera

Thanks to one and all who responded to my request for doc camera usage. Here are the responses I received.

1.Anything you use an overhead projector for you can use on a document camera. The great thing is you can use your document camera for displaying a page from a book, a picture, slides etc. Do a Google search for "uses for a document camera."

2. They are such a simple, neat thing, you will find many ways to use it. You can put anything under it that you want to show students. You can put your own notes, or pages from a book, maps, illustrations, an object such as an arrowhead or piece of jewelry, or anything at all. For library classes, show a table of contents or an index from a real book. For readalouds, if you have a large group and a small book but want them to appreciate the illustrations, use the document camera while reading the book.

One of my favorite things I ever did was showing closeups of my hands doing knitting techniques, and the other was reading from The Invention of Hugo Cabret. They were enthralled with the illustrations, which looked really great projected large.

3. I use mine for story telling. Students can sit comfortably on a chair and everyone can see the pictures as they are projected. I also use if for modeling if I am giving instruction for a worksheet. Recently I was teaching about text structures in nonfiction books. Being able to project the book up on the wall large enough for everyone to see a nice colored pictures and the different types of font sizes and colors used to highlight important features is much better than the old overheads. Once you start using it you will wonder how you every got along without it.

4. You could do zillions of things; anything you'd do with an overhead and more. I used one for information literacy lessons a couple weeks ago. I was teaching paraphrasing and attribution and I used it to share student work as we practiced paraphrasing from a particular quote. Use it as a capture device for creating presentations, to make any book a "Big Book" and much more.

5. I use the document camera to read a nonfiction book- point out format and model how to and then ask students to take notes answering an essential question. We then put the notes on the camera and display it and each add our own topic sentence and display the differences. I then model how to use notes to write a paragraph. This is in anticipation of research and reports. I also use the document camera to display the art of a picture book.

6. Our English teachers, foreign language teachers and science teachers have these in their rooms. When they bring a class in, they use them to give instructions. I keep it set up so teachers who don't have one in their classroom can use it in here.

You can put books under it and have the picture projected large enough for all the kids to see the pictures and watch as you read along. You can use the software to circle or mark on the image to highlight things.

You can put the closed book under it to have a visual while you book talk (or while the students give a book talk) - that seems to ease some stage fright, because the projector side of the room is darkened and the book cover gives the class something to look at.

With ours the images can be saved, so you don't have to repeat the motion of putting things under the camera, each class - you could even have the book talk or lesson prepared for an aide to present.

7. I use mine all the time, but more as a projection tool than for the camera aspect. For example, yesterday I was teaching almanacs and I could project the index on the screen, zoom in, etc. while the kids followed in their own books. I toggle back and forth from the computer screen to the document to show differences in print materials and online tools. Teaching note taking, for example, I can go back and forth between showing a note card and showing the NoodleTools model.

8. I use mine all the time, but more as a projection tool than for the camera aspect. For example, yesterday I was teaching almanacs and I could project the index on the screen, zoom in, etc. while the kids followed in their own books. I toggle back and forth from the computer screen to the document to show differences in print materials and online tools. Teaching note taking, for example, I can go back and forth between showing a note card and showing the NoodleTools model.

9. Sue, we have two document cameras (ours are Elmo models, I think) that are available to the whole school and I use them frequently. They are great for student presentations (eliminates "passing" stuff during class) especially when teachers have creative project ideas like a scrapbook that are too delicate or intricate to pass around and too small for the other kids to see from the back of the room.

I do a "Like, Like, Love" activity with all of my 6th graders where each student brings in two things they like and one thing they love in order to introduce themselves to classmates and they adore using the Elmo to share what they brought.

I also use the document camera for reading aloud - I just put the whole book under the camera and voila! I think books like The Invention of Hugo Cabret are really neat when presented in that format so that everyone can closely examine the pictures. Plus, middle school kids (I have 6-8) are fascinated with the whole idea, especially if you stick your hand under the camera to demonstrate how it works, and then zoom in - "Ew, gross! Look at all your wrinkles!" I love it.

10. First, I use mine like an overhead projector. Anything we are doing I project. I am also able to "capture" images with mine (thanks to the software that came with it), so I can use them in activities and lessons as  well.