Home PublicationsL&LIssuesVolume 26 (1998-1999) May (No. 8)

Keeping track of who’s who in the classroom, especially for teachers who have several sections of a particular class or classes, has just gotten easier. In this feature article, St. Cloud State University professor Richard Mowe describes how he combines digital photos with word-processing tables to create effective seating charts. Even better, the students do half the work!

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As a new teacher, one of my challenges was to produce a seating chart so that I could quickly learn my students’ names. I tried several schemes from the crudely handwritten to the commercial variety that featured pockets and small identification cards using text that were arranged in the pockets. Years later, I used a word processor to create seating charts that were perfectly aligned and in an elegant typeface. The computer allowed me to do what I had done before more efficiently.

Eventually, when digital cameras became more commonplace, I saw an opportunity to produce a seating chart that included students’ photos with their names. Technology allowed me to do something easily now that had previously been possible but a lot more trouble than I had wanted to endure. The project had another benefit: It generated a lot of student excitement. Students often may seem bashful, but most of them like to have their photos taken.

This article will describe how to create a pictorial seating chart using photographs you can easily take or have taken with a digital camera. I first describe how to get started, then how to take and import the photographs into a file, and finally how to create the actual seating chart by using a table function in a word-processing program.

Preparations

The Camera

Many digital cameras are available. I use the Casio QV11 (Figure 1). It has three features that make it suitable for the project: (1) an LCD digital display that lets students see what their photos will look like; (2) a swivel lens so that the lens and the digital display can both face the students so that they can take their own photos; and (3) a capacity of 96 photos, which is sufficient for all but the largest classes.

The digital camera holds four AA batteries; they have enough energy to take 96 photos and transfer them to a computer. An AC adapter is available to use instead of the batteries. Although the adapter will pay for itself quickly by cutting down on battery costs, it does make the camera less mobile. The adapter is best used for taking photos at a stationary location or sending the photos to the computer.

Preparations are helpful before any photos are taken. First, make sure the camera has a clean lens and clean LCD display. Second, by clearing the camera’s memory and perhaps replacing the batteries, you’ll be assured of enough power and storage space. Third, the camera should be set to display photo numbers, which is helpful for matching the students’ names with their photos.

The Classroom

Before the photo shoot, I make sure all of the classroom lights are on. I learned this the hard way. I once had students pass around the camera and take their photos after I had dimmed the lights for a Power-Point presentation. The images were extremely dark.

If you want to have photos taken in a special location, then you might arrange a special background and set up a tripod to mount the camera. An AC adapter would also help by conserving battery life.

Taking the Photographs

Planning the photo-taking process makes it run much more smoothly.

Who will take the photos? For me, part of the excitement in this sort of project is in having students take their own photos. But there are other options. Students could take each other’s photos in pairs or groups. A teacher, an aide, or a designated student also could take the photos.

Where will the photos be taken? I pass the camera around the classroom so I can monitor the process as I conduct a whole-class activity. Taking the photos in a special location, though, could produce higher-quality photographs with a consistent background and that are useful for something other than a simple seating chart.

When will the photos be taken? I take them during an ordinary class activity, but they could be taken at a specially scheduled time.

Finally, how will you train students to use the camera? I pass around a sheet of directions, which makes it easier for several or many students to use the camera. But if you have just one person taking all of the photos, then only one person needs training.

Consider a sheet on which you provide not only the students’ names, but also camera directions and spaces in which the students can supply the camera photograph number and the number of their seat location. A sample of one such sheet is shown in Figure 2.

Photographs

With all of the preparations complete, the students initial the roster that accompanies the photo-taking directions and enter the number of their photo and their seat position (row and seat number). I remind students to remove their hats and lock their elbows when taking their photos (both points are in the directions, but many of them either don’t read them or forget about them). Students wearing hats are sometimes hard to recognize, and if they do not extend their arms, the photo will cut off their foreheads or chins. Figure 3 shows the correct photo-taking form.

Usually I have the camera circulate among the students on the first day of class as I discuss the syllabus. Occasionally, I’ll offer a helpful comment to a student who seems to be having problems or who looks confused.

Transferring the Images

Digital cameras store their photographs in memory so that they can be transferred to a computer. They are then available for use in word-processing and graphics documents. Most cameras transfer their photographs through a computer’s serial port. Before you start, you need to decide where to store the image files and what file format to use. You can store photos on floppy disk, hard drive, or other storage media. Each image is about 12kb, so one 700 KB floppy will hold about 60 images, or you can fit all of the images on one 1.44 MB disk. I create a folder on my hard drive to store the photos.

As the photographs download, they must be saved in a format that your word processor will recognize. You may have to change the file format. The QV11 saves by default in a proprietary format that is only readable by the camera and the software that comes with it for file transfers to the computer. To store the photographs, I use the export rather than save option in the software to store the photos in JPEG format, although the software allows other formats such as bitmap and TIFF. I chose JPEG because of its modest storage requirements and compatibility with Word 97.

The transfer time is 30 to 40 seconds per image, so 96 images takes approximately one hour. If the batteries run out of power anytime during transfer, the camera shuts off and the images have to be transferred again with fresh batteries. For this reason alone, the AC adapter is good for conserving battery life.

Creating a Seating Chart

The seating chart is best created by formatting a table in a word-processing program and inserting photographs and student names.

We’ll consider a simple room with three columns of desks, five desks per column (Figure 4).

Tables have several features that make them desirable for creating a seating chart. You can (1) precisely control alignments of photos in a grid, (2) resize each photo to a specific size, and (3) have space to include a student’s name in each cell.

I use Microsoft Word 97 on a PC, but other versions of Word on both the PC or Macintosh platforms support tables.

Tables form a grid and are made up of rows and columns (Figure 5). Rows run parallel with the front of the room and columns run parallel with the side rows of a room.

Photo sizes are related to the number of cells in the table, the page margins, and the orientation of the page (portrait or landscape—Figure 6). Image size usually doesn’t present a problem unless the table has a lot of cells. Or if you’re making a seating chart of a room that is wider than long, then you may have a problem with small photos. For instance, I teach in a room with rows 14 seats across. I set the margins to 0.5 inch and the page orientation to landscape.

Now enter the information at the top of the chart–for instance, the class name and section. Then create the table. Word 97 and Word 98 both have a toolbar button that lets you drag the cursor to set the table’s dimensions. The number of columns should be the same as the number of seats across the room, and the number of rows should be double the number of desks in each column.

Entering Information

Once the table is created, format the name rows with a center alignment and type size of 8 or 9 points. Now you can actually enter the information. To insert a photo, click on a cell to set the photo location and then use the “Insert Picture” command from Word’s Insert menu. If you don’t already know the location, you may need to browse your hard drive to find the folder or directory where images are stored. The last two characters of the file name will match the camera photo number. After inserting the photo, move the pointer to the cell below it and enter the student’s name (Figure 7). Continue until all photos and names have been entered (Figure 8).

Now print your seating chart. Color printing, of course, will make even a dull chart more interesting, but even a black-and-white printer can be set to show shades of gray. Either way, you’re bound to have made an attractive chart.

Richard Mowe, mowe@stcloudstate.edu

Resources

Microsoft Corp., One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399; 425.882.8080; www.microsoft.com

Casio Computer Co., LTD. (HQ), 1-6-2 Honmachi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 151-8543, Japan; qvsupport@casio-usa.com; www.casio.com

Copyright © 1999, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). All rights reserved.