1. [Digital Cameras] 2. [Free video equipment] 3. [Technology and whole class teaching]
4. [Product Reviews]

Digital Camera

One of the must buys for building your web site is a digital camera. The children can take instant pictures and get instant results. You can have photos of the school and records of school work. How about an Art Gallery or a photographic galley on your web site? If the children are including recipes why not take photos as the cooking progresses? They are great to use with a school photography club.

Take a look at how Rose Grove Nursery have used their Sony Mavica camera to take photos of their favourite things.

For useful and practical information on using and buying Digital Cameras click here - to see part of Geoff Titmuss's excellent presentation at the Becta ICT Online Conference Nov. 20 - 22 2001. 

Geoff recommends having more than one camera per class (one school I know uses 5 cameras with one class), each child getting opportunity to take several photos. He recommends a camera with at least 640x480 resolution (the kids don't mind the grainy finish he says!) with a screen on the back so they can see their results. Cameras with a USB connection are best because the photos can be loaded onto the computer quickly. 

If you are working with secondary children and the quality of the photography is important (such as in Art) you will need a camera with a higher resolution. I have a Nikon Cool Pix which takes fantastic photos. (Take a look at the slide show on www.gardenlaw.co.uk for an example). Nikon cameras tend to be expensive so the quality must be the reason for buying one. Web photos do not require such as high resolution and definitely require a small file size for fast loading. Best quality photos on my Nikon are all around 400k which is far too large for the web and have to be reduced in size before I can use them.

I would also recommend a removable Smart Card or a floppy disc rather than built in memory. Having removable cards or indeed floppy discs will mean that each class can have their own "disc" or card. The Sony FD73 has a floppy disc.

I use a ZIO! connector into which I place my removable Smart Card and you can transfer all the photos from the card in one go. I used to transfer photos from the camera to my computer using a cable connected through the USB port but this was so slow and frustrating. The ZIO! connector is like having an extra hard drive and extremely fast. I would definitely recommend one of these if the budget stretches to it although mine was not expensive and I purchased it from PC World.

Make sure the camera you buy uses rechargeable batteries. Keep one set of batteries on charge and one in the camera. Digital cameras soon run out of charge. I would say re-charge the batteries daily. There is nothing more frustrating for the children if the camera doesn't work especially if you have planned for it and the children are looking forward to using it in a particular lesson .

For information on purchasing digital cameras try:

Digital Still Cameras (May 2001) 
Becta information sheet. Describes how digital cameras work; advantages and disadvantages and issues to consider when purchasing.   

Free Digital Video Equipment for Schools

Would you like some free equipment? Becta is looking for 50 schools - primary, secondary, special and specialist - from across the UK to take part in a study to evaluate the benefits of pupil use of digital video editing equipment. 

Becta is seeking a diverse range of schools across Scotland, Northern Ireland, England, and Wales to test out the equipment and software. They are keen to hear everyone from confident ICT users to those who a little more nervous with technology.

For more information:  Digital Video Equipment for 50 UK Schools

Technology and whole class teaching - excellent link to Becta's ICT online conference seminar on the use of televisions, projectors, whiteboards etc in whole class teaching

For Product Reviews:

www.vnu.net

www.pcpro.co.uk

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