The Death of the Doc Cam

In our last post, we featured the appearance of the “iPad as document camera” phenomenon in the educational marketplace. At about the same time, a friend who works in the document camera industry wrote a disturbing thought to me: “You are witnessing the end of the document camera,” he declared. Is it that simple? Will the classroom document camera met a premature demise? Will iPads conquer the visualizer universe? 

I don’t think so. 

Here are ten reasons why:

1. Document cameras can cost much less than an iPad.
2. A longer warranty (5 years for a visualizer, 90+ days for an iPad or tablet)
3. Interactive software features (and controls)
4. Gooseneck/arm flexibility for the limited space on teachers’ desktops or tables.
5. Compare the portability for traqelling teachers of an iPad mount with a small form factor visualizer: no contest.
6. Built-in lamps—ease of auto-focus: Choose one.
7. No charging—no battery life: Choose one.
8. USB media storage slot or SD card slot or USB cable for saving: Choose one.
9. Try hooking up a microscope adapter to an iPad.
10. Why would I waste the capabilities of an iPad by dedicating it to mimic the functionality of an inexpensive dedicated doc cam? Sure, I have extra iPads to spare. 

Still, these new iPad mounts are fun. They are interesting. But they are not transformational in themselves. Frankly, I see it as another business idea, a “next-up” gimmick to find a creative way to make money from iPad accessories. And they might be just perfect for those educational settings that lack dedicated funding to do technology in the right way. These mounts are nice tools for the creative few who must have them. They will colonize a few classrooms, but I don’t see this accessory conquering the classroom universe at either the university or K-12 level. After speaking with many dozens of teachers about this, I am now sure. Most teachers don't want to use their limited stock of precious iPads in this dedicated way. It makes no sense to them.

Incidentally, whether you use a document camera or a mounted iPad for visual teaching and learning, the ideas, strategies, and techniques highlighted in my Digital Shapeshifter book will apply richly to both.

iPads as Doc Cams

The newest craze in document cameras at the FETC and TCEA conferences this year is the attempt to turn the iPad into a document camera. Some of the products I found on the exhibit floor included those featured throughout this page. As you can see, they come in every imaginable size, shape, and color.

One of the products, produced by Belkin, come with an app to give document camera software functionality to the concept. Max Cases also offered an interesting table-grip approach. 

What do you make of this trend? Will it last? For now, just take a look at this interesting phenomenon. I will comment on the relevance of this development in a future post after I interview lots and lots of teachers about the concept.

(Note: I have completed my extensive teacher interviews and have posted the results here.)