Teaching students how to use a compass to navigate has always been a difficult task. The reason being is that even if students had access to their own personal compass they needed a clear demonstration by the teacher before they were able to grasp the concept. Students tend to pick it up well during one-to-one instruction, however with large classes this can prove timely and may arise in students becoming disengaged. The other problem was that with a class group it is difficult to present to a large group at once, given that a compass is small and not a very sharable object amongst the masses. Well that was the case, until now….enter the HUE HD Webcam
Today my year 7 students (13 year olds) were learning how to navigate using the cardinal points so we can participate in an orienteering running race. To ensure that all students had access to a really easy to see, clear demonstration I did the following.
- Connect a HD Hue Webcam to my computer
- Run the AMCAP software bundled with the camera which sets up a live stream from the webcam
- Turn on an interactive whiteboard and enlarge the live video stream to full size
- Complete the demonstrations with the compass in full HD on a 70 inch plus screen for all students to see and replicate.
This basically meant that as a teacher, I didn’t have to struggle to hold the compass in a more viewable manner, meaning that my demonstration was ultimately much clearer and easier to follow.
So how might I use this in the future?
- Explore models of hearts, muscles, bones, lungs etc
- During Science experiments
- Within home economics cooking demonstrations.
How have you used a similar technology to improve your demonstrations? Share your experiences in the comment box below