by Cameras should play an essential role in any classroom. They need to be freely accessible and abundant. Cameras can tell stories, document learning adventures and produce images for inclusion in student projects. Today, still and video cameras are converging with each doing the other quite well and inexpensively.
The following are my current favorite cameras at all price points and for use by kids of all ages.
Killer still camera with HD video
The Nikon 1 V1 is somewhere between a point-and-shoot and DSLR. It is mirrorless, works great in low light, shoots up to 60 frames per second (capture a balloon popping) and records beautiful HD video, with slow-motion available. It’s a solid camera with really fine compact lenses. The battery life is terrific. The 30-110mm lens isn’t much bigger than the 10-30mm one and my photos at a Jets game look like I work for Sports Illustrated.
This is the camera for the teacher you love most (yourself)
For Chubby Little Fingers
While supplies last, you can buy a waterproof and rubberized Kodak Playsport Zx5 video camera. This camera takes a licking and keeps ticking. It shoots stills and HD video. The quality is not as good as the other cameras I recommend, but this camera fits in your pocket, is waterproof and has a battery life capable of recording an hour or so of video for $95! I’ve bought several of them.
Jack of All Trades
The tiny $!51 Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 16.1MP Digital Camera with 3-Inch TFT LCD takes great photos and records 1080P HD video. Unlike the other cameras, this one has a flash if that’s something you like. Every classroom should have a few of these babies!
For the Daredevil
If you need a classroom monkeycam or to strap a rugged high-definition video camera onto an underwater skateboard, then you need the $250 GoPro HD Hero2 Edition. This tiny camera is designed for extreme activity and is capable of time lapse photography as well.
Veteran educator Gary Stager, Ph.D. is the author of Twenty Things to Do with a Computer – Forward 50, co-author of Invent To Learn — Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, publisher at Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, and the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute. He led professional development in the world’s first 1:1 laptop schools thirty years ago and designed one of the oldest online graduate school programs. Gary is also the curator of The Seymour Papert archives at DailyPapert.com. Learn more about Gary here.
I definitely agree, Gary, that all classrooms should have cameras for all the reasons you state. I would not advise buying dedicated cameras, however.
Just go with the camera in your iPod, iPad, Nexus, iPhone, Droid or already existing, multi-function device. You can even edit with the same hardware. Oh, and you shoot and edit movies. The days of the dedicated device for all but the pros are fading, I think….
And if the district does BYOD, every kid can have his or own camers 😉
Doug
Wow Doug,
That is terrible news for all of the edtech directors who will no longer be needed since most of their job seems to be deciding what to buy!
Oh yeah, they can continue making the network infrastructure unreliable enough to justify their food pellets.
As for making a “film” on a phone or iPad, I say, “You first!”
Gary