Using Digital Cameras to Enhance Education

A digital camera is a relatively common piece of technology nowadays, and it can certainly be said to enhance education. It is often said that learning is enhanced when connections are made between curricular content and students' lives; the content becomes more meaningful to students and they become more likely to learn and retain the material. Using a digital camera is one way to bring this kind of immediacy and relevance to the curriculum.

For example, in a Science lesson about geology (or a Social Studies lesson about physical geography), photographs of local and recognizable landscapes and features could be incorporated. Or in a French vocabulary lesson, digital photos of the items being learned (e.g., various buildings in the community such as the hospital or shopping mall) would likely enhance student engagement and retention.

Digital cameras are accessible and user-friendly resources for teachers, and they can greatly enhance the learning that takes place in the classroom. While this may not be a complex or elaborate instance of technology integration, it is a small and effective measure that teachers can take to make curricular connections and engage their students.

The SMARTboard in Practice

In addition to my work with PowerPoint, I have been using SMARTboard technology in a way that I hadn't anticipated. Prior to teaching in a SMARTboard-equipped classroom, I had had serious doubts about the value of the technology. Indeed, I had thought that if I were an administrator, I would have a very difficult time justifying the purchase of a technology with such questionable utility. However, now that I have spent some time teaching in a classroom with a SMARTboard, I have seen that this technology has the potential to really enhance teaching and learning.

First, I should mention that using a SMARTboard does not require one to use SMARTboard software such as Notebook. Rather, the SMARTboard can be used effectively with many other software programs. My choice (as one might expect, given my previous post) has been to use the SMARTboard in conjunction with Microsoft PowerPoint. My uses of the SMARTboard have ranged from the very simple to the complex.

Beginning with an example of a simple use of the SMARTboard, I created a fill-in-the-blank worksheet as a review activity in a Science class, and then I put the fill-in-the-blank sentences into a PowerPoint presentation. When I displayed this presentation on the SMARTboard, students were eager to have a chance to go and fill in one of the blanks in front of the class. The students became engaged and interested in what would otherwise have been a less stimulating activity.

For a more complex use of the SMARTboard, I created a "Jeopardy!" game in PowerPoint for a French class. (This is more complex than the previously mentioned SMARTboard use because it requires the creation of a complex PowerPoint presentation with hyperlinking between slides.) Students were able to walk up to the SMARTboard, select a square on the game board and answer a question. This created a great deal of student interest in the "Jeopardy!" game and made them excited to get involved and volunteer to answer questions.

The SMARTboard was particularly effective in these instances because the class I spent the most time teaching was composed primarily of kinesthetic learners. Being kinesthetic learners, they enjoyed having an opportunity to get out of their desks, move around the classroom a little bit and have some tactile interaction with the SMARTboard. This, in large part, is what made the SMARTboard a valuable and effective teaching tool.

Microsoft PowerPoint in Practice

I have long been a proponent of using Microsoft PowerPoint in the classroom, but I have just recently begun using the program in ways I had not previously thought of.

First, PowerPoint's Custom Animation feature has allowed me to create visual aids that help students understand complex concepts. For instance, I have been using PowerPoint to teach Grade 6 students about air pressure and compression; the program's Custom Animation feature allows me to effectively demonstrate what happens when particles of air are compressed into a smaller space.

Second, I have been using PowerPoint in a much simpler way to teach Grade 6 French. In order to teach vocabulary terms to students, I displayed words and images on-screen using PowerPoint. Traditional paper flash cards can be difficult for all students in the class to see at once, mainly because of their small size. However, with PowerPoint "flash cards," the words and images are large and clear enough for the entire class to see. This allows students to establish connections between words and the concepts they represent.

Finally, another use for PowerPoint (also in French class) is as a means to model for students what their notebooks are expected to look like. For instance, in the example below, students were asked to create a French vocabulary chart, with English terms in the left-hand column and French in the right-hand column. Using PowerPoint for this purpose enhances the clarity of the teacher's instructions and allows students to write effective and organized notes and assignments.

Enhancing Education with Multimedia

There are many ways for teachers to use multimedia objects (e.g., videos, sound clips, animations, simulations, etc.) to enhance their lessons. However, multimedia, like most forms of technology, can be a double-edged sword, and the teacher must always evaluate its effectiveness.

Here is an example of how a teacher might incorporate multimedia into a Grade 7 Social Studies lesson. The multimedia object, in this case, is a Flash animation developed by Statistics Canada, and it can be viewed at http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/analysis/popdwell/vignettes/prairies.html. The animation uses a map of the prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba), along with a series of images, to explain how the construction of railway lines through these provinces encouraged European immigrants and settlers to move westward and form large settlements along these railway lines. Showing students this animation provides students (particularly visual learners, but also auditory ones, as the animation is accompanied by a voice-over) with an idea of where major railway lines were constructed and what effects they have had on contemporary Canada.


The use of this multimedia object in the classroom would contribute to the completion of Outcome 7.2.7 in the Social Studies curriculum: Students will assess, critically, the impact of urbanization and technology on individual and collective identities in Canada. At the same time, it would contribute to the following ICT Outcomes: students will evaluate the relevance of electronically accessed information to a particular topic (C.3.3.2), and students will demonstrate an understanding that information can be transmitted through a variety of media (F.1.3.1). Finally, the content of this learning object would provide students with an example of how, generally speaking, technology (in this case, the railroad) can have a tremendous impact on our lives and societies.

Safety, Responsiblity, and the Internet

The Internet is an extremely vast source of information that readily lends itself to use in the classroom. Teaching strategies that make use of this massive resource, such as WebQuests, can be very effective (for instance, click here to check out the WebQuest I designed using TeacherWeb).

However, despite the Internet's positive potential for teaching and learning, it can be exceedingly dangerous. Students must be taught how to use the Internet safely and responsibly in order to maximize its utility and minimize its dangers. One way of teaching students about appropriate Internet usage is to have them complete the "Jo Cool or Jo Fool" web awareness activity and quiz developed by the Media Awareness Network (the activity and quiz are available at http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/jocool_jofool/kids.cfm).

"Jo Cool or Jo Fool" takes students on a "CyberTour" of different fictional websites in order to determine whether they are safe and responsible or unsafe and irresponsible. It covers the basics of acceptable Internet use, including: protection of private information, legitimacy of sources, respectful participation in chatrooms/forums, online marketing ploys, and awareness of illegal Internet use (such as illegal music downloads).

Bringing these online dangers to the attention of students is an essential prerequisite for Internet use in the classroom.

The Value of Discussion Boards

Discussion boards carry a great deal of educational potential. However, much like blogs, discussion boards come with considerable risks. As noted in one of my previous posts, The Potential of Educational Blogging (posted on September 13, 2007), there are serious privacy issues that must be taken into account before blogs and discussion boards are incorporated into teachers' lesson plans. Young people may lack the maturity or capacity to fully understand the intricacies of freedom of expression in the public domain. However, there may be security measures, such as the password-protection of discussion boards, that will address many of these concerns. Another potential problem with discussion boards is that individuals cannot participate outside of class if they do not have a computer at home. If a teacher asks his or her students to contribute to a discussion board, he or she must be aware of the reality that not every student has access to an internet-enabled computer outside of the classroom.

Despite these potential pitfalls, discussion boards have numerous possible benefits for teachers and students alike. For instance, they allow teachers and students to devote considerable time and attention to discussing important class topics. Because they take place outside the classroom, discussion boards can extend students' exploration of concepts and ideas beyond the classroom. Also, discussion boards promote greater student involvement and participation in these class discussions, particularly for students that are shy or reluctant to share their views in class. Along these same lines, discussion boards encourage students to produce higher-quality work, since students know that their peers will be reading their posts. This is not just a benefit for students; teachers, too, enjoy the benefit of reading/viewing/grading better work. Teachers also have the benefit of having a record of the class discussion. Perhaps most importantly, discussion boards offer students plenty of opportunities to improve their written communication skills.

Taking into account both the pros and cons of discussion boards, there are plenty of ways that they might be integrated into the classroom.

Discussion boards...

1 ...can be used to facilitate class discussions. This is perhaps the most obvious use for a discussion board, and it is an important one, for many of the reasons outlined above. It is an effective way for students and teachers to be engaged in discussion, without consuming class time.

2 ...can serve as online study groups for students. If students are having difficulty understanding an important concept prior to an exam, or having trouble developing ideas for an essay, he or she can use a class discussion board to ask classmates for help. I have personally been involved in university-level courses where the class discussion board is extremely active the evening before an exam. Students help one another out by providing answers and explanations, and I can see the same thing happening in upper elementary, middle, and high schools.

3 ...give teachers a place to post links and assignments. Teachers can post assignments or links on a class discussion board, and this has numerous benefits. For instance, it allows students that are absent from class (say, athletes that are required to travel often) to keep up to date with course requirements. Also, posting assignments on discussion boards ensures that students (and perhaps their parents as well) will have access to the information they need in order to complete the assignment (e.g., instructions, due dates, etc.).

4 ...give students a place to post their work. Discussion boards may be the end of the age-old excuse, "My dog ate my homework." Students can submit their homework assignments via discussion boards, which is more efficient (not to mention more "green") than handing in hard copies of assignments. This also has the aforementioned benefit of motivating students to produce higher-quality work, as they know that their peers will be seeing their assignments.

5 ...offer an interesting alternative to the standard position paper. If students are required to state their position on a certain topic in a discussion board, as opposed to handing in a copy of their position paper, their views are open to criticism and responses from others. This allows students to learn not only how to state a position, but also how to defend that position against counterarguments (which is in fact part of the social studies Program of Studies).

Overall, discussion boards carry plenty of potential for classroom integration, despite their potential drawbacks.