I just found out our school ordered a document camera. I was unnaturally excited. Why? Because now I could use children’s books in my classes AND share the images with my students.

Document cameras are better than the camera on your laptop (bottom right image) because they do not reverse the image being projected. Words appear the same on the screen as they do “in real life.”

Some ways I might use this tool:

1. Share fragile primary sources with the whole class
2. Share small group work ideas generated on paper with the class.
3. Get instant huge versions of maps, figures or images from the textbook. This allows for the option to annotate on the Smartboard.
4. Show information from Smartphone.
5. Bring in “mystery” object, students guess its use
6. Score classroom games
7. Model proper note taking techniques

Here’s a PDF document with some more ideas. useyourdoccamera

IPEVO, one brand of document camera, suggests a host of activities one can do with the benefit of LIVE camera. 50 Ideas for the Educator

More ideas for the Document Camera

Got one you can use? Download the software.