Should document cameras be ubiquitous in the classroom? A colleague pointed me to the following article, to which I penned this response.
I take away three significant uses of document cameras:
- Magnification: in classes that work frequently with very small objects, a document camera may show more detail/be more convenient than simply passing the object around the class.
- Sharing student work: in classes that frequently share student handwritten/drawn work, a document camera may increase the convenience of making the work of an individual student visible to the entire group.
- Manual manipulation: you can project a piece of work as you draw on it.
Playing devil’s advocate, a document camera would provide little advantage in the following situations:
- The class shares objects of larger size (can be easily seen or too large to fit under the camera).
- Holding the object, not just seeing it, has high pedagogical value.
- Students complete work to share with small groups, the teacher, parents, or themselves, not the entire class at once.
- The teacher doesn’t spend much time teaching from the front of the class.
- The teacher prioritizes aural or text-based instruction over visual.
- The class is primarily organized around student-led projects.
- The depth of the object is important (3D vs. 2D).
- The classroom is physically organized around “activity centers.”
I guess I find document cameras a good fit for the teacher-directed or whole-group classroom, not for the project-based, small-group, or student-directed classroom. Your thoughts?