A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

Using digital imaging has an important place in the classroom as it can enhance learning a great deal in very innovative ways. Who would have thought a few years back that we would be using a digital camera in the classroom to illustrate geometry to students. Where students can look for lines and shapes by taking a picture of a sidewalk to illustrate that the cracks in a sidewalk are examples of parallel and perpendicular lines, or how bricks on a wall are put together to form a right angle.

When I was first thinking about digital imaging in the classroom, I was mostly thinking how we as a class could create a large database of pictures that we could access at any point in time. I felt that we would feel more connected to the images if we took the pictures as oppose to finding other images that already existed, but I soon found out that the web is a gold mine for digital images and by allowing the students to explore and select these imagines on the web, it seemed to give them all the freedom that they needed to be creative and expressive with their work.
This is a great tool for visual learners. Students can display pictures and images in ways that make information easier for them to understand and to help see relationships and patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. This is especially true for math, science, language, geography, history and music. I guess all subjects.

I work in a Catholic school and this year my grade 7 class performed the “Stations of the Cross” for the school. They worked really hard at getting their tableaux just right. I took pictures and after taking this course I thought I would put together a digital story for the students (please see attached powerpoint). They absolutely loved it and so did their parents. I did have some issues around the size of pictures, but our systems are so old at school. Perhaps someday that will change, but for now I will work with what I have.

After reading some of the discussion on our discussion board about the Egyptoligist, I will be sure to put together a digital story of our trip to the Grand Canyon this summer. I will include pictures, video, and text in my story. I will not only take pictures and images for our personal memories, but for educational purposes as well. I will also ask my students to do the same when they are on vacation this year, I will ask them to take pictures. It will be much more exciting to see and read about their summers holidays when you can actually see what they did.

Someone on the discussion board was talking about pictures of students for graduation. The teacher takes pictures of their students and ask them to bring in a baby picture for graduation day. I was thinking that this idea could be taken a step further but it would require the commitment from every teacher in the school. I was thinking that each student could put together their own yearly digital story. Students take pictures and movies of the activities they participated in, field trips they were on, play day, sports events, etc. Then students add text to their images and continue each year to add items to their “school year journal”. As the students become old enough, they would be responsible to create and maintain their own journal. Students would have a permanent record of their years at school and when it came time to graduate, the work has already been done by the students. Each one of them would have the opportunity to tell their own personal truths of their school age years. This “school year journal” could also assist the teacher in getting to know his/her students in much more personal way.

This digital imaging and story telling can also be used in science class, by taking time lapse photography of seasons, of plants, of animals, experiments etc. Students can actually see how things change over time.

Another really neat idea is to play a piece of music and ask students to visualize what the music is telling them. Then students would find images that match their visualization and then they would marry the images and the images together to make a powerful presentation to the rest of the class.

In June my grade 7 class is taking a field trip to “Heartland Forest” in Niagara Falls. Their task is to not only listen to the world around them and to the tour guide but to take digital images of what they see in order to come back to the classroom and write a story about their experience. They will not only be taking pictures interesting things, but they will also look for evidence on how people impact the natural environment. I’m really looking forward to this experience and so are they. They will then present their findings to the class.

Digital imagery is also a useful tool for those with disabilities. Students can show you or tell you what they need or want through pictures. I also have a student that finds it very difficult to write. This technology will allow her to tell stories through images.

This technology is also useful for taking pictures of what a center, shelf, area should look like when it is clean and neat. The image reminds students where items need to go when they are finished with them. This is helpful for children with ADHD as it helps students to visual the end results.

This technology is also very useful for young children before they learn to write. They can begin to tell stories through pictures. All that one has to do is provide them with a database of pictures, teach them about the technology and before you know it, the young students will be telling their own stories. How exciting is that!