Digital Photography and Special Needs Students

Again, another interesting resource explaining the benefits of photography in the special needs classroom. I like how the article explains that the camera helps touch on one of the five senses and can be used to reinforce a concept taught in class. A student who has difficulty in verbalizing can use the camera to take pictures of images. For example, if I were teaching a lesson on shapes I could have the special learner (perhaps with the help of a parent volunteer) take pictures of example shapes found throughout the classroom. Plus, it would be fun! Kids are exposed to cameras at home and on special events; they would just love to use one.

Ideas for digital photography in the kindergarten setting

I found a pretty good link with ideas on how to incorporate digital photography in the classroom. Some of the ideas are not foreign to my class as I have been doing some of the points. In any event, the ideas are for students and teachers too!

Tips for teaching students how to use a digital camera

So the student has a digital camera...now what!?!

I can image many pictures of the floor or out of focus or pictures snapped without any intention. To help my young students make good choices about taking pictures I found the following resource:

Teaching Photography to a 5 year old
-The above site is great as it explains tips to teach things like perspective, light and dark all to a 5 year old...I think I should be able to do this for a 4 year old! ;-)

The right tools for the job

Since we have been discussing digital photography in the classroom I stopped to think how I could adopt in my class. No doubt, there are many uses for a digital camera but, before I begin my digital photo adventure I had better get the right tools that can withstand a kindergarten pounding!
That being said, it would be foolish of me to purchase an expensive Nikon or Canon. There are just too many bells and whistles. I did some searching and reviewing and found the Kid-Tough Fisher Price camera. It costs $70 and can be found at Toys R Us. It is not so expensive that I couldn't get 4 or 5 for the class to share. I may need even fewer. This camera can take a punishment and it is easy for the kids to use. Thinking of some of the small things can go a long way later on!

Anyway, I do have a video commercial that I was able to obtain via Youtube. I was curious how to get a Youtube video and was able to download it via keepvid.com.

Technology for those with Visual Challenges

I'm not sure if this post is a better for the audio learner forum but it occured to me how we can get our visually impaired students to access the computer. This would be the opposite of the spectrum for these discussions. If I were to have a visually impaired student I would definately want him or her to use the computer. I was able to find some pieces of software that would allow for such a task:

1. JAWS - allows the computer to read aloud words displayed on the screen. This is much different than Kurzweil as it lets the visually impaired student navigate Windows and applications.

2. Zoom Text - allows for the student to zoom in on any screen to view enlarged graphics or text.

Source: http://www.2learn.ca

3. I also found a Microsoft resource guide for individuals with vision difficulties and impairments. Catering to the visual learner is an excellent strategy to employ. After all, we want to cater to a diverse group of learning styles. However, we shouldn't leave those who have exceptionalities behind in the dust; they can learn from this method too!http://www.microsoft.com/enable/guides/vision.aspx

Using digital photography in the classroom

I've included a link to a very interesting handout that identifies the various way we could extend lessons to use digital photography. The lessons don't concern themselves with learning how to use the camera per se but learning about the subject. In essense, that is what digital photography helps our students to accomplish; they will learn about the subject in a more engaging method than a textbook. The resource identifies extenstions to math, science, phys ed, etc. to name a few.

OSAPAC

In the threaded discussions we discussed the availability of Adobe resources for the classroom. It was made known that some Adobe resources were purchased and made available by the province. I decided to have a look at the Ontario Software Acquisition Program Advisory Committee (OSAPAC) web site to learn more. I found a listing of software titles available for my class to use in jk. Of course, there are other grade levels too but since we are discussing software resources for the visual learner it would be wide to see what is licensed for our computers to use. It is great that we are sharing resources but I often wonder if we are breaking any copyright laws installing some of the titles on our computers at school. In the case of the titles on OSAPAC, I can tell you with 100% certainty that we can use it and install it on a lab.