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The IPEVO document camera – a cheap alternative to a visualiser

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The IPEVO camera set up that I received consisted of three separate parts – the document camera itself, a carry case and an extension stand to give it extra height.

The packaging that the camera arrived in had foam cut-outs which could make the carrycase an unnecessary purchase in this time of restricted budgets. The build quality of the camera looks a little cheap, although it doesn’t feel like it is going to drop to bits when you hold it. The camera comes with a clip (which my year 9′s showed me how to attach to my laptop) and a stand for functioning as a document camera. The extension stand is really needed to give extra height and should really come bundled with the camera rather than as an optional extra.

The camera functioned well, although when left in continuous/autofocus mode it would often keep adjusting the focus, so the manual focus mode was preferable. The way it focussed on objects meant I was able to get a sharp clear image (although when the focus was lost it took a couple of seconds to refocus). I found the images in good light clearer and sharper than those of my Avermedia visualiser. The camera could also be pointed around the classroom or used like a webcam to show demonstrations adding to its versatility.

The software for using the document camera is simple to use, well thought through and very good. Again I prefer the IPEVO camera software to the Avermedia software that comes with their visualisers.

Time will tell how durable the camera and stand turn out to be, but I would expect a slightly better build quality at this price point, however for those looking for a document camera this could be a worthy purchase.

From Amazon – IPEVO camera £55, Case £19, Height extending stand £22

What I liked about the IPEVO cam:

  • The software
  • The stand makes it easy to position the camera
  • The camera has many uses – and the laptop mount just adds to these

What I didn’t like

  • The build quality
  • The price – I’m not sure if the advertised price includes VAT but if it does it needs to be reduced
  • The case and stand being sold separately – they should be sold as a bundled package
  • I got interference patterns on images of paper when using artificial lighting
  • The camera often refocuses when on auto-focus

 

Collaborative Writing using Google Apps (Google Docs)

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Getting students to write can be difficult.  Google Apps is a free service for schools, which includes email, document and calendar sharing.  It is possible to use Google Apps so that several students can work on the same document simultaneously (and see the edits of their co-workers in real time).  On the video below I set up a group of four students to work on a single report, with colour coding to show each students where they have to write (these were SEN students).  Other ideas include collecting data into a shared spreadsheet  or creating shared presentations.

The video:

 

Please leave a comment if you have any questions.

Google Apps for Education – keeping students on internal mail only

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If you haven’t tried Google Apps I can thoroughly recommend it – it is a brilliant tool for doing collaborative work including small group shared writing (several students can edit the same document in real time) and gathering lots of science data into a single spreadsheet (also in real time).  Best of all – it is free to schools!

It is now possible to easily limit the email facility so students can only send internal mail (for safe guarding reasons).  I have posted instructions before explaining how to use Google’s Postini service to quarantine mail heading to or from external email addresses.   Google have now simplified and improved the ability to limit sending of emails outside the domain and this is how you do it.

Organise your users into groups

I put all my students in a single group  (you could have groups for different year groups if you want some to be able to send email).

Configure the email restrictions from the Advanced Tools tasks

I have restricted the students group to only allow email to/from the domains I specify (you can add domains from partner/link schools here so they aren’t blocked).

Test

This is the error message my students get if they try to send email outside of the domain

That’s all there is to it – it is now easier than ever to control email to and from student email boxes.  All we need now is a free message archiving facility Google!

Using Delicious(.com) to search for useful teaching resources

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This is a piece I wrote for the regional newsletter of the Association of Science Education.

Using Delicious(.com) to search for useful teaching resources.

Delicious is a social bookmarking site owned by Yahoo!  You can save, share and discover bookmarks with other people.  Because the opportunities to interact using this service are quite limited, it is often allowed in schools where other social sites are filtered out. Delicious is extremely useful for teachers and can be used in two main ways.

Saving and organising your bookmarks.

When planning lessons from home, if I find a resource that will be useful to me in future I save it to delicious (sometimes with a note of explanation).  This means I can access my list of bookmarks from home and school.  I now also have an online backup of my bookmarks in case my laptop dies.  When you save your bookmarks you can choose if you want them to be private or public.  Public bookmarks are very useful because you can share them with colleagues and even students.  All I have to do is give students the web address to my delicious page  (delicious.com/fiendishlyclever) and they can look through my bookmarks to find the site they want.  More tech savvy teachers can embed this list on the school VLE as a way of sharing links very simply with students.

Searching for new resources and information

People only bookmark sites that are worth revisiting.  Searching the collected bookmarks of users from across the world should return better and more useful sites than just searching Google.  Simply visit the delicious.com main page and use the search box at the top.  Search results (example below) also show how many people have bookmarked each site and key words (tags) added to the bookmark when it was saved.  The search will also return any sites that match the search query in your personal collection.  (There is a save button next to each bookmark so you can save it to your personal list if you find the site useful)

Whilst many teachers do use Delicious to save and share links, many forget that it has tremendous value as a search tool.