The lighting is just right, a succesful sound check has been performed and the students are aligning the perfect shot. The moment is tense and drama builds when all of a sudden the toad jumps back into the lake. This is an example of children filming the habitat of a toad or captioning the physical body structure of a toad or getting information to write a story about a toad and his lake friends. Imagine a simple media tool that can be used in classrooms by students to gather information and resources in an interactive and fun way. This tool would be the flip camera.
A flip camera is a small, pocket sized, video camera that records video at the touch of a single button. It is very student friendly even in the lower grade levels. I have included a YouTube video that demonstrates how to use a flip camera as well as creating situations in which to get the perfect shot. The flip camera holds two hours of video on the internal memory card, uses two AA batteries and has an USB arm on the side that can be directly plugged into the computer. These videos can be uploaded to YouTube, Facebook or other media sharing sites. The price point of $150 is also friendly considering the number of uses it has in all specific subject matters in school. The flip camera allows for a crative outlet for students inside and outside the classroom.
Having an interactive classroom is an important concept to engage students and helping them remeber information longer. It is also important to incorporate the expressive arts (dance, music, drama, literary arts and visual arts) into the regular subject lesson plan. The ability of students being able to create a commercial, put on a play, demonstrate to their teacher their knowledge of math problems and field trip video that can be wtched again at a later time. This can all be done by incorporating the flip Camera into the classroom. To see other uses for the flip camera in the classroom visit this website, https://docs.google.com/present/view?pli=1&id=dhn2vcv5_6tv55j7g9
Image used with permission from pics4learning
