Believe It or Not!

Aquarium. Oceanarium. Vivarium. Terrarium. Imagine all of these and more. Yes, I saw the first partially submersible document camera at ISTE. I guess I’ll just call it the water document camera. Not at all related to the water buffalo, it’s an intriguing tool developed by Ken-a-Vision for difficult-to-capture, yet powerfully immersive-submersive learning environments. I cannot find any mention of it on their website, but here is a short video showing what it looks like and how it works:

They also carry something called the Aqua Flex 1470, which is totally submersible. This is definitely science geek material.

The Best Secret Ever!

Here’s the best secret ever for using your classroom document camera in a transformative way. It's really quite simple. You see, the better we get at using our document camera, the more students will use it—and the less we will use it as instructors.

Have you tried these ideas?

Students take turns modeling note taking in front of the entire class

Students solving a problem in front of the class

Students assembling a cut-up chart, with classroom feedback

Student presentations

Students teaching take turns showing how they solve steps in a math problem

Students teaching a short lesson

Students doing a lab or procedure demonstration

Students using manipulatives in front of class

 

Do you have any more ideas? Please post your own successful strategies for involving students by using the comment section below.