Improve Curriculum Delivery with Document Cameras

Posted on 17. Jan, 2010 by in All Posts, Cool+Creative, Tech Stuff, Techniques

If there is only enough money in your budget to splurge on one piece of equipment for the art room then a document camera, in my opinion, is it.

A document camera is not a fancy overhead projector but a versatile piece of equipment that can help improve the way you deliver curriculum. The most obvious function of the camera is that you can place any object, drawing or small piece of equipment under the lens and it will be projected in full color onto a large screen.

What is often overlooked is that the document camera can be highly interactive, save on equipment and space, improve classroom management and produce it’s own art. Below are several different ways I’ve incorporated the document camera into my art room and some of the techniques that might work for your room as well.

Still Life Drawing

Turn the document camera lens out and project a still life that the whole class can see. Instead of having to find multiple objects and set up numerous still life displays use your document camera to enlarge one set of objects. It cuts down on the materials that need to be collected and saves space in the classroom by only needing one display. Another perk is you can instantly change to another still life when a different grade comes. You also can easily control the lighting to show a full range of values and actually demonstrate how artists select portions of a still life to draw.

The kids love to watch me reposition the still life by turning the stand multiple directions in combination with zooming in and out on different sections of the objects. It allows me to show the entire class the concepts I’m teaching such as light source, highlight, shadow and reflected light. My document camera also has a feature that allows me to turn the image from color to black and white. I’ve found this to be especially useful when teaching rendering /shading or to help a class focus on drawing the actual object shapes and not be distracted by color. I’ve traveled to four different schools in my district, each with a different document camera, and they all had the black and white feature. You might need to do a little experimenting to find that feature on your camera but it will most likely have it.

Here’s how I used my camera to project a still life (click the image to enlarge):

First, find a table or platform at the right height to display your objects. I used a sturdy music stand. It works beautifully for light to medium weight materials and it easily can rotate or slide up and down for demonstrations. Next, turn the lens or rotate it out so that you can see the objects you want to display. Now you can zoom and reposition the stand to focus on different sections of the still-life. Then add a light source to create depth and shadows. You can get a utility light that clips from the hardware store, use a desk lamp with a flexible arm or a flash light. My motto is what ever works and is cheap.

Microscope

Change your perspective and the classes by taking advantage of the microscopes used in science class. I use a great lesson I got from my colleague to take an artist’s view-point when looking at fall leaves. Originally the class would collect leaves, draw an outline of the leaves they observe and then fill in each leaf shape with tiny circular shapes to represent the molecular structure. We took the artistic license to imagine what the cellular structure looked like but since getting a document camera we  don’t have to imagine. I call up students to put samples of the leaves they collected under the microscope and focus the lens. Then we discuss what we observe and how we can relate it to our art. We are able to make greater connections to what we see and tie back into the science curriculum at a deeper level.

Here’s how I use the document camera to project the microscope (click the image to enlarge):

Artwork

Don’t just use your document camera to project an example piece of art or a demonstration. Let the kids use it to create their own original art. I was inspired by the illustrator and caricature artist Hanoch Piven’s book My Dog is As Smelly As Socks: And Other Funny Family Portraits to have 2nd graders create their own assemblage portraiture.

I showed students several of Hanoch Piven’s books and talked to them about assemblage and discussed different ways to use found objects in our art. I had students draw the shape of their own face and hair and add color but no facial features. Students put their picture under the document camera and added facial features with different found objects (i.e., buttons, sea shells, bolts, nails, rubber bands, small toys, pieces of yarn, candy, art supplies, tools). Then students would take a picture with the document camera. Most of the document cameras came with software to use in conjunction with a computer for recording, editing, adding annotations and taking pictures. You’ll have to investigate how your particular document camera takes pictures. All of the found objects would then be put back into the box for other students to use. The images can then be printed, shared through a classroom website, used in an enhanced podcast or in a voice thread.

You can view more photos of using the document camera in the art room at The Teaching Palette’s Flicker photo stream.

An Alternative to Adobe: Aviary’s Free Design Tools

Posted on 18. Jul, 2009 by in All Posts, Cool+Creative, In The News, Multimedia, Neat Video, Organization and Preparation, Positive Reinforcement, Reviews, Tech Stuff, Techniques, Technology and Gadgets, Tools and Miscellaneous

aviary-tools-2

If you’re looking for the image editing power of Photoshop or Illustrator without the hefty price tag you may want to consider trying the Aviary Suite.  It’s a free web 2.0 technology with a pro version available for $24.99 a year. Aviary is not only an image editing tool but it’s also a visual social network.

Users maintain a profile, contacts, favorites, access to chat boards, tutorials and more. Images created in the Aviary Suite can be shared with the community or kept private in a user account, and then saved in a variety of formats or downloaded to your computer.

Plus, users can import images from a URL, Aviary Library, Flickr, Picasa or Facebook directly into any of Aviary’s five programs – Phoenix, Falcon, Peacock, Toucan and Raven.

Phoenix does image editing and has tools like layers, masks, effects, undo history, and more. Peacock is what Aviary calls their “visual laboratory”. It features toolaviary-toolss like generators, effects and controllers. Toucan is their color swatches and palettes. It features many of the usual color palette tools but what really was interesting to me was their color deficiency preview tool. It allows you to choose from a list of color vision deficiencies and see how someone who is color blind would distinguish your color palette. It would be a great way to teach students how other people see the world. Toucan is a simple tool, but in conjunction with the other programs in the Aviary Suite you can create some amazing images. Raven is their vector editor program and the first of its kind on the web.  It allows you not only to create complex vector art but to carefully scale and create logos, clip-art, large print ready graphics, and t-shirt and clothing designs.

The newest program is an image markup tool called Falcon. It allows you to capture images from your desktop or a web page and edit them in your browser. It is similar to Skitch or Jing but with additional capabilities since it can be used in conjunction with Aviary’s other programs. Just install Talon, a Firefox extension for Aviary, and you can quickly annotate, mark, crop and resize your captured images. Or you can transfer the images to any of the other Aviary programs for more in-depth editing. Falcon would be a great tool to have students critique an image of their own, a classmates or from a pool of stock photos.

If you teach a computer graphics program at a middle or high school and are looking for an exceptional resource or additional tools to extend beyond the classroom lab, Aviary might be a solution for your program.  Students don’t have to stop creating once they leave the lab since they can log on and design anywhere there is an Internet connection.

Below are two videos featuring Aviary’s Raven and Falcon programs.

(Trouble viewing this video? Try this link.)

(Trouble viewing this video? Try this link.)