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Worth 1,000
Words
By Pat McInerney
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Available multimedia technology gives the old
saying “A
picture is worth a thousand words” new meaning. Using a computer
connected
to a VCR, laserdisc player, scanner, cable television, and the
Internet, along
with video and still cameras, allows teachers to harness the power of
pictures
in their classrooms.
The work described in this article was funded by a minigrant
from the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (www.vste.org), an ISTE Affiliate.
Over the past five years, I have developed methods for using images gathered
from various sources, manipulated and compiled on my computer, to enhance all
phases of instruction in my fourth-grade classroom. This has allowed me to personalize
instruction that inspires my students. The color pictures help liven things
up, and I recommend that teachers not spare the ink when printing copies for
students. (See Copyright
and Educational Use.)
Technology
now makes images readily available; thus students need a certain
amount of graphic
literacy. It is as necessary, for example, for students to recognize a
picture
of the Great Wall of China as it is to read about it. Students
studying Virginia
history should be able to recognize a painting of Thomas Jefferson or
a photograph
of Booker T. Washington. This recognition, I find, triggers recall of
pertinent
facts and important concepts. Using pictures also makes the curriculum
more
user friendly for my students with learning disabilities. They are
able to use
visual clues without struggling with text.
At the
same time, using pictures has allowed me to create more challenging
assignments.
I can give more open-ended assignments and evaluations that allow
students to
tell what they know instead of answering specific questions. These
assignments
strengthen their critical writing skills.
I have also found that it is the graphic material on the World Wide Web
that is most useful to my fourth graders. With multimedia technology, pictures
have become as easy as text to produce. In the classroom, teachers can tailor
images to their instruction, allowing increased creativity. I have found that
I can produce many of my own materials using pictures from various sources that
fit the bill perfectly. (See Image
Size and Resolution.)
It is
just as important for teachers and students to take their own
pictures. They
might record the growth of plants for a science unit or the
metamorphosis of
a butterfly. They can capture the process of making a tessellation
with pattern
blocks for later analysis. Kinesthetic activities are made more
valuable when
videotaped for later use in writing or evaluation. You can record
process learning
and use the video for follow-up activities. A digital camera has
become one
of my most important teaching tools. Let the following activities act
as springboards,
and adapt them to your own needs and curriculum.
Wisconsin
Fast Plants
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In this science unit on botany and experimental design, brassica rapa (Cruciferea,
a member of the cabbage and mustard family of plants, http://fastplants.cals.wisc.edu)
plants are grown. I use the digital camera daily to keep track of plant
growth. I use these pictures in a final evaluation (Figure 1). Students
write about what they observe in the pictures based on what they learn
about plants during the unit. We work hard on making observations in journals
during this unit, so this is a most fitting evaluation format.
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Figure 1. Wisconsin Fast Plants.
Click on the thumbnail graphic to see the entire figure.
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Tech Note
I work with my pictures using AppleWorks (formerly
ClarisWorks). Make
sure that your pictures are in a usable format such as JPEG or PICT. I
use a
Sony Mavica FD81 digital camera. You simply use an Insert command to
bring the
pictures into a word processing or drawing document. I store most of
my pictures
on Zip disks indexed by subject.
Carry Me
Back to
Old Virginny
Figure 2. Carry Me Back to Old Virginny. From
the Sheet Music Collection, Brown University. Click on the thumbnail graphic
to see the entire figure. |
Over the
past three years, my home state of Virginia has struggled to find a new
state
song. The old song, “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” by James
A. Bland,
was racist, with its dated references to slavery. Using images of the
original
sheet music from the American Memory Collection (Figure 2, http://memory.loc.gov),
I have designed an activity that lets students decide whether the song
is objectionable
and why. I print copies of the music and hand them out to students. I
ask them
to begin by looking at the graphic on the front cover, a fanciful view
of slavery.
I point out that many of the slaves seem happy and that slavery was
often portrayed
this way in the 19th and early 20th centuries. I then have students
examine the
lyrics. Words such as “darky,” “massa,” and
“missus”
appear. The lyrics portray the typical slave lifestyle as slaves who
worked happily
for their masters until they died. I conclude the lesson by asking
students to
discuss what type of man the composer must have been. They are always
surprised
to learn that James Bland was African American. This is an important
lesson in
the irony of American history.
Tech Note
I highly recommend the American Memory Collection (http://memory.loc.gov) as a social studies
resource. It’s a treasure trove of documents and graphics covering most
of U.S. history. Make sure that you learn to save and print pictures from the
Web. (See Image
Size and Resolution.) They are invaluable for lesson planning. For this
activity, I print sets of graphics for groups of three students. This saves
a bit on ink. I also display the graphics on my classroom television, which
is connected to the computer, so that I can easily direct the entire class to
pertinent items in the graphics. I have expanded this unit to include a final
project: an AppleWorks slideshow containing graphics related to the assignment
(e.g., pictures of James Bland).
Solar
System Stamps
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The best discipline plan is excellent teaching, but in the real world,
incentive plans are sometimes helpful. During the quarter that we study
the solar system, I use a collection of pictures of the planets. I print
these onto label paper to make stamps. I also make a stamp-collecting
book where students put the stamps as they earn them. Under each stamp
is a box with information about the planet stamp needed there (Figure
3). Students earn the stamps for correct answers and other good deeds,
such as exemplary cooperative work or a quick clean-up.
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Figure 3. Solar system stamps. Click on the
thumbnail graphic to see the entire figure.
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When
students have collected all 12 stamps, they turn them in to me for a
pack of
Starburst® candy. Students love to earn the stamps, and
the fact
that they have to stick each one in the correct place helps reinforce
the concepts
of our science unit. You could design stamp plans for many units. I
have another
one with pictures of Virginians who were important during the Civil
War.
Tech Note
This particular group of pictures, which happened to be a good
size
for stamps, came from NASA’s huge Web site (www.nasa.gov).
Solar
System Stacks
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My students create a HyperStudio stack about taking a trip through the
solar system (Figure 4). They do library research for their facts and
use a file of pictures I have collected for them. The pictures come from
various videodiscs, videos, books, and the Internet. These pictures really
jazz up the stacks and inspire the students to tell all they have learned
in their research.
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Figure 4. Solar system stacks. Click on the
thumbnail graphic to see the entire figure.
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Tech Note
These stacks take a lot of storage. Fortunately, my school has
a network
server with lots of storage space. This allows me to create files of
pictures
for my students to insert into their stacks. They save their work on
special
folders on the server so that they can access their stacks from any
computer
in the school. If you have limited storage, you might want to make a
class stack
where groups of students each create one card.
Civil War
Rogues
Gallery
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For this project, I collected a number of images of people, famous and
unknown, from the Civil War era, which is the first era we study for which
photographs are available. I show the photos and give important information
about each person. Students use their notes in selecting a “rogue.”
To bring the historical figures to life, the students manipulate black-and-white
pictures of themselves and paste them onto the historical figures’
bodies (Figure 5). The time the students spend reviewing the choice of
photos to make “their own” is valuable, and they also caption
the picture. The idea of placing themselves in that period of time is
invaluable and inspires them to learn more.
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Figure 5. Civil War rogues. Click on the thumbnail
graphic to see the entire figure.
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Tech Note
It is best to use a paint program for this project. Paint
programs allow
detailed cropping and even let you blend the edges of your insertion.
It’s
a good opportunity to expand children’s skills on the computer.
They get
excellent practice in mouse control when they do this lesson, and they
learn
the features of the paint software.
Field Trip
Picture
Reports
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Each
year we take a trip to Jamestown and Yorktown. I always
encourage my students
to bring cameras to take pictures. They bring their pictures to
class,
and we scan some of the better ones to form a digital file of
pictures
from the trip. The students then use these pictures to make a
“photo
album” page on the computer (Figure 6).
This
is an excellent way for students to show what they learned on
the trip.
It gives the trip more lasting value as students work on this
project.
It is also a more interesting way to write about what they
learned. The
pictures help them remember what they saw and trigger recall of
important
facts.
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Figure 6. Field trip picture report. Click
on the thumbnail graphic to see the entire figure.
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Tech Note
I always carry a digital camera on field trips. This allows me
to take
instructional pictures as well as pictures of the children on site. I
add these
pictures to the digital file available to students doing this project.
I’m
also able to use the pictures for a host of other activities, such as
trip promotion
for next year, scrapbooks, and further teaching and evaluation
activities. I
have found that these digital images are more useful to me in the long
run than
video footage.
Monthly
Scrapbook
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We
keep a scrapbook throughout the year. Each month we do another
page. Students
are encouraged to bring in things representative of what they
have done
that month. I also give them a page of pictures that represent
the things
we’ve been studying. The page for February (Figure 7)
featured pictures
of famous Virginians we studied, a brassica rapa plant we grew,
and Abraham
Lincoln, in honor of his birthday.
This
provides a monthly review for children to reflect on what they
learned
as they write captions for the pictures. Before they begin, I
review the
content of each picture to assist them with caption writing.
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Figure 7. Monthly scrapbook. Click on the
thumbnail graphic to see the entire figure.
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Tech Note
For this project, I search the Web and save the pictures. I
then print
out a sheet for each student. This is much faster than having the
students search,
though searching is a valuable activity for older students. This
technique can
work many different ways. For instance, you could select images about
the Civil
Rights movement, print out copies, and have students create posters
from them
with captions that give further information.
Flora and
Fauna
of South Florida
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The
most important content on the Web for my students is the
pictures. For
this activity (Figure 8), we read a book called The Missing
’Gator
of Gumbo Limbo: An Ecological Mystery (George, 1992). The
story tells
about many plants and animals native to southern Florida. My
students
make magazine-style pages by researching some of the plants and
animals
mentioned and displaying them National
Geographic–style on
a page. They collect the pictures and facts from the Internet
and online
encyclopedia and combine them on colorful pages like this. This
activity
helps with reading comprehension by giving students more
background knowledge.
You could extend this activity with an investigation of local
plants and
animals.
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Figure 8. Flora and fauna of south Florida.
Click on the thumbnail graphic to see the entire figure.
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Tech Note
My students searched for the pictures in this project using Yahooligans!
Only rarely did we leave that search engine. As they found pictures, they saved
them in their personal folder on our server. I usually have them use the click-and-hold
technique. That is, click on the picture, wait for the menu, and choose Save.
They also took limited notes about the plants and animals they found. Often
the reading level of the written material is too difficult for them on the Web.
They put the words and pictures together in a ClarisDraw document using techniques
they learned in previous projects. (See Searching
for Images.)
Demonstrating Geometry
Terms
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The kinesthetic learning modality is often neglected. In Figure 9, we demonstrated
the concepts of perpendicular and parallel by using our bodies. Later,
we used the pictures to practice the concepts. To do this, I displayed
them on the television from my computer. Students wrote the concepts they
saw in their math notebooks as one more way to practice. We also made
a book about the concepts using these pictures.
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Figure 9. Demonstrating geometry terms. Click
on the thumbnail graphic to see the entire figure.
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Tech Note
These pictures were taken with a digital camera. I displayed
them on
a television monitor using the presentation system on the computer. It
is easy
to appreciate the convenience of the digital camera when the pictures
can be
taken and displayed in the same 45-minute class period.
Acting Out
Figurative
Language
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So often we do process-learning activities, and when they are over, they
live on only in memory. I like to record the activity in pictures using
the digital camera. This allows me to extend the activity with some writing
or even to use it as an evaluation. In Figure 10, students were acting
out idioms as part of a unit on figurative language. One group acted out
the adage, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” We
used the pictures to make a book of idioms. I printed a copy of each picture
for each student in the group so each could write about what the idiom
means based on how the group chose to act it out.
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Figure 10. Acting out figurative language.
Click on the thumbnail graphic to see the entire figure.
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Tech Note
A video camera would certainly work for this activity. If your
VCR is
connected to your computer, you can even make stills from video.
Digital stills
are nice for capturing moments. For informal dramatic renderings of
this sort,
I find that stills are perfect and make it much easier to capture the
“essence”
of the event. Children can assemble stills with captions on a page for
reinforcement
and culmination.
Final
Thoughts
Tailor
these activities to your curriculum and individual program. The
“Civil
War Rogues Gallery” could just as easily be a World War II Rogues
Gallery.
Journey Through the Solar System could just as easily be Journey to
Colonial
Times. Consider using collections of pictures to help students create
virtual
museums to share on school Web sites. Preschool and kindergarten
teachers at
my school have had success using pictures of ordinary items around the
classroom
and school to communicate with their nonreading students. Take
pictures of pattern
block designs, maps made of sand, or base-10 block arrays to make a
record of
an activity that would not normally have a surviving product once the
blocks
are put away or the sand piled up.
Multimedia
technology gives us the power to be more creative than ever in
planning our
lessons. No longer must we adapt our lessons to materials produced by
others.
You don’t need a lot of computers to do this. Actually, if you
have one
really good computer with the necessary peripherals, you can change
the way
you teach. This isn’t just about putting children on computers;
it’s
about using technology to harness the power of pictures to change the
way you
teach. Replace that Polaroid camera with a digital, connect your
computer to
the VCR, fire up the Internet, and write the textbook yourself.
Resources
Apple,
Inc. publishes AV Player, ClarisDraw, and AppleWorks. Visit your local
Apple
retailer or www.apple.com.
HyperStudio
is published by Knowledge Adventure (www.hyperstudio.com).
The MVC-FD81 (and other models) Digital Mavica Camera is available from
Sony at www.ita.sel.sony.com/products/imaging/mvcfd81.html.
References
George,
J. C. (1992). The missing ’gator of Gumbo Limbo: An ecological
mystery.
New York: HarperTrophy.
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Pat McInerney (pmcinerney@fc.fcps.k12.va.us)
has taught elementary school students for 16 years. He currently
teaches
at the very-state-of-the-art Deer Park Elementary School, 15109
Carlbern
Drive, Centreville, VA 20120; 703.802.5000; fax 703.802.5097.
Technology,
particularly multimedia technology, has always been an important
aspect
of his teaching practice. A self-described Renaissance man, Pat
is inspired
by the creative possibilities that this technology offers. His
long-time
commitment to technology has paid off: on March 27, 2000, Pat
received
VSTE’s Technology Educator of the Year award.
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Copyright © 2000, ISTE (International Society for Technology
in Education).
All rights reserved.
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