Document Camera for the Classroom
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.
Not too long ago, I bought a portable document camera to try out. I have to say…it’s so great!
I didn’t have anything like this when I was teaching, but I know that it’s very common for classrooms to have something similar. A lot of document cameras work with your laptop and projector so you can share pictures, books, science demonstrations, or whatever else with your students!
Here’s how it works:
- Connect the document camera to your computer or projector. The HUE HD Pro Document camera made that a breeze! I simply plugged it into the USB port on my computer and it was ready to go. I didn’t even have to download any software to my computer.
- Since I use a Mac, I opened up QuickTime to use the camera. Windows Camera would also work.
- Then I just placed an item underneath the camera and a larger version appeared on my laptop. If I was in the classroom, I would hook this up to the projector so a bigger picture would be shown to students.
The point of this camera is to show close-ups to students. I’m sure you all know that feeling when you’re trying to show the whole class something, but not everyone can see. This solves that problem!
Ideas for the Classroom
- Show science demonstrations
- To show students words or pictures in a book
- Explain math problems with manipulatives
- Show & Tell items
- Demonstrate how to write alphabet letters or numbers
- Model how to do an activity
- Show concepts of print from a book
- Display students’ work
You can also use this for virtual learning!
I love that this document camera allows you to take snapshots or even videos of what you’re demonstrating under the camera. The neck is adjustable so you can position it however you’d like.
Here are some other features of this camera:
- built-in microphone
- auto-focus
- manual zoom
- can be used for video chat
This is really a cool addition to any classroom!
How would you use a document camera in the classroom?
These are so awesome! I have one in my classroom already, but I like
The look of these better! Doc cams are so helpful!
Love this. Thank you for introducing it
Thank you for the give away. This would really help me with all types of learning this year. It will be fast and easy for remote, in-person and hybrid teaching. Good luck to everybody!
This is so cool! I no longer teach but that would be so helpful in a classroom!
I need one of these for my house.
Wow. This would be neat even for homeschool showing the girls the same thing across the table.
So great. Very useful for the classroom.
Last year I was a remote teacher so I was familiar with the one my school gave me (it was a game changer) but now I’m in the classroom in a lower grade. This one looks so sleek and easy to use rather than the clunky one I had.
This doc cam would be so useful in many ways. I could see it saving much time when teaching about primaary documents in social studies for example.
I’d love to win this so I could gift it to a new teacher in our building. We do not have a lot of tech, but a few of us have something similar. Unfortunately she does not.