digital cameras

[Doug Johnson <palsdaj@VAX1.MANKATO.MSUS.EDU>]

Hi folks,

For folks interested in digital cameras, I offer the following bits of
experience:

-  We have a couple Canon Xapshots in our district and they work nicely for
*on-screen* needs. (Printing leaves something to be desired.) I wouldn't
expect a digital camera to replace a scanner.  It would be sort of like
using a Polaroid camera instead of photocopier - both have their specific
uses.  With most Macs, we too use ComputerEyes.  What really works slick,
however, is connecting the Xapshot to an AV 660 or AV880 directly through
the video jack.  The Xapshot also works nicely for creating "stills" in a
videotape productions. One mondo problem with the Xapshot is that the
popular, less expensive $400-600, model is no longer being sold, only the
expensive $1000+ model is available. This camera stores 50 stills on a very
small floppy diskette.

- I have been working with an Apple Quickshot digital camera ($650) for the
past couple weeks.  The camera is very simple to use and the pictures can
be imported directly into any Macintosh without using a ComputerEyes type
interface. The camera holds 8 high resolution pictures or 32 standard
resolution pictures at a time, then the pictures need to be downloaded to a
hard drive and the camera's memory erased for reuse.  One disadvantage of
the Apple product is that the images can't viewed or taped directly onto a
TV or VCR like the Xapshot.

I've used the pictures I've taken with both cameras in computer
presentations, and thought they worked equally well.

One of my big tasks is finding funding to get at least one "multi-media"
production computer in each of my schools' media centers where kids can
digitize pictures, sounds, movies, etc for use in the HyperCard or
HyperStudio stacks they will be creating. We have an AV660 at one of our
elementary schools, and a creative 2nd teacher has already made a
HyperStudio stack of student poetry.  Not only can one read every student's
poem, one can see the poet's computer-generated art work and hear the poet
read his/her poem aloud. (Talk about authentic assessment!) A brief
Quicktime movie ends the "book." Lots of fun.

I think this is an increasingly important format to consider when
fulfilling the part of our mission that asks us to help learners "process
and communicate" information!

Doug


Doug Johnson, District Media Supervisor | Not getting smarter
Mankato Public Schools, ISD77           | is getting dumber.
Box 8713, Mankato MN 56001-8713         | Tom Peters
507-387-7698                            |
palsdaj@vax1.mankato.msus.edu           |