Dr. Cam? No. Document camera. Remember those old overhead projectors? Yeah, those ones that required transparencies and had the light bulb that always burned out. Yes, I mean the ones with those knobs the teachers always fiddled with to try to make it clearer; it was like a trip to the optometrist: “Is number one better, or number two? Number three, or four? Now, or now?” Well the document camera (or doc cam) is the younger, more debonair, sexy relative of the overhead projector.
Doc cams come standard in any SCSU “smart classroom” along with a vast array of other tech gadgets that make teaching easier (on both student and instructor). Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of the doc cam is that there is no prep involved in presenting material with it. What does this mean for the composition classroom? Quick, easy workshops of student writing: there is no need to make a transparency copy, or plan ahead. In-class writings go straight to the doc cam and can be presented, critiqued, admired, lampooned, etc. by the entire class.
But why is the ability to immediately workshop student writing critical in the composition classroom? Isn’t asking students to bring in multiple copies of their papers for a workshop good enough? The short answer is no. Not only does that require students to print more copies (save a tree in paper; use a forest in bandwidth), but it also inhibits the spontaneity of the endeavor. In order to obtain as early a draft as possible, we need to use writing taken immediately from the hands of the author.
If a student knows his or her paper is going to be reviewed in class, they may work more diligently at the assignment (which can be good). But to get a glimpse at unadulterated student writing, it needs to be handwritten – no word processors will meddle, no extra time to edit and review. Doc cams let a classroom look at writing in one of its earliest tangible phases and see the core, that central component of writing. Question minutiae: is that a random dribble of ink or a comma? Is that pair of words that sit close to one another supposed to be hyphenated or was it unintentional? The goal: get students thinking about their writing. Often times, it is difficult to know if a mark in their writing is a semicolon or period or comma or colon or what.
They may think that handwriting doesn’t matter; if the writing matters, they say, it will be done on a word processor. But it is my contention that handwriting is the extension of how words, sentences, paragraphs are viewed in the mind: what the brain sees, the hand writes. If composition teachers can use doc cams to get students to think critically of how they form their sentences, use their letters and punctuation, they can get them thinking about writing in progressive, process-oriented ways. And that’s one of the biggest goals we can aim for in composition.
Last semester in my comp class, I had students work in small groups really often. The first time I did this, one group mapped out their discussion in a flow chart. When they went to talk about their discussion -- and they were the first group -- they began to describe their flow chart, and I waved them up to the doc cam. They used it really naturally -- explained themselves as really visual and then used the doc cam to reveal their thinking process. This instance set the precedent for students choosing to use the doc cam to present the results of their small group work.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to see how natural using the doc cam was for them -- and also to see how their use of the doc cam changed the class discussion. They clearly took pride in the results of their small group work.