Low tech gives very high learning results. Teachers do not have to have a room full of tech gizmos to have great technology-infused learning. Whenever I hear teachers say, “I cannot do that because I don’t have xyz technology,” I emphasize what they do have and what they can do with what they have. We need to be “do-ers” and not “blockers.”
A digital camera is a universal technology that can be used in any subject area. A digital camera is fairly inexpensive, a $99 5 megapixel digital camera is more than adequate for the classroom. Digital cameras appeal to the millenial generation of sight and sound. Students can operate digital cameras with little or no instruction. If the camera has a built in megapixel sizes, many classroom pictures can be taken at lower megapixels and moved directly into other programs with no memory-reduction manipulation program.
Digital cameras can be used in any subject. Here’s a few examples:
Math – show math applied to real life such as construction; show various manipulates that add up to the same total; and demonstrate difficult concepts like add negatives
English- visualize the emotion in a poem; show the steps in a process; use as part of a persuasion speech;
Science – show the key parts of a lab; explain a science concept; see the details of plants
Social Studies – have images of the ethnic diversity of the community; show the pro and con of a debate issue; show the changes in an event.
Students can move these images into a PowerPoint slideshow; create an e-movie program; print out and add captions; make up instruction manuals; produce persuasive posters; create timelines; make history galleries; etc.
How have your students used a digital camera in your classroom?
© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007
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Education with Technology Harry G. Tuttle 
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