DigITaL cAmERaS and coMIc LiFe FuN!

Today was a fun day in Instructional Technology! We got the opportunity to use digital cameras, to create a fun geometry definition book for students. We started out by taking pictures of geometric properties in natural life. I love this idea! Children are naturally interested in the world around them. It would be so interesting to learn about Math, a hard subject, using the world, instead of manufactured pictures in a text book.

We also got the chance to work with i-photo. This was a wonderful Program. I had never used it before, but it was so easily accessible. I had no trouble figuring it out. I would love to use this program in a future classroom. I feel as though the children could easily work the program, and be successful in uploading photos to it. (Of course, I would have to hope that my classroom includes Macs!) 

The last thing that we worked with today was called comic life. I LOVED this program! It was so fun to use, and easy as well. I believe that it was created this way, so even novice computer learners can use it. A lot of times, programs that are created for beginners are mostly informational, but this was way fun! It was so easy to create the geometry book using this program! I would love to use this program in my classroom, the children could create their own projects, or open it to access my creations.

I really want to use this method in my own future classroom! I loved the idea of making the geometry definition book, but I would also like to extend this use to other subjects. I would love to use this method with english and literacy. I think it would be way fun to allow my students to take a camera home for a weekend, and take pictures of their natural world. Once they have taken pictures, they can return the camera to school. Then, as a class wide project, the children will  load their photos on i-photo and write their own story using comic life. I believe this will be a meaningful experience for the children. Not only will it increase their language and literacy skills, but it will be a personal project, one that they will be able to remember.