Students can take pictures with a digital camera and then download them onto a computer to add to their presentations.  This is how I obtained all of the pictures for this photo essay.  I've had very little experience using the digital camera and my pictures aren't as good as I hoped that they would be. Using a digital camera to add photos to a presentation is a lot quicker than adding analog pictures.  As I've said digital pictures can be directly downloaded onto the computer, but getting analog pictures on the computer isn't so easy.  After taking analog pictures negatives must be made, taking both time and money.  Then the negatives can be scanned into the computer if a special scanner is available; if not, the negatives must be developed.  Developing the pictures takes time and money as well.  Once the pictures are developed they must then be scanned into the computer using a regular scanner.  Although this process may take much longer than using a digital camera, the analog pictures may be of better quality.

Top   In Project World students use different mediums to create presentations on their academic research.  One of the preferred mediums of presentation is Hyperstudio.  Students also use Power Point and Netscape composer to create presentations.

Top All the computers at Sanborn (a large percentage of them anyway) are connected, via Ethernet, to a powerful computer in the library (the server), creating a network.  All teachers and some students have accounts in this network where they can save their work and then access it from any computer in the school (any computer with the program to run their work).  If a student doesn't have an account then he can save his work in the account of the teacher of his class.  It is the goal of the Technology Department that someday every student in the school have their own account. I've had my own account for almost the entire school year and I'd have to say that it has been very helpful, especially for Project World but for other classes as well.  I've been able to save work in Physics and Individual Reading that I did at my home onto my account so that I could access it in school to work on some more.

Top The student in this picture is using special computer software to edit a broadcast.  This is the method of editing.  Sanborn has its own local TV station where school events and student productions are aired.

Top Before the Sanborn TV Station obtained the software mentioned above, videos had to be edited the old fashion way, using the mixer.  Two videos, from two different VCRs, are fed into the mixer.  The editor can then switch back and forth between videos adding effects as he chooses.  This can be done with two different tapes recorded from different points of view at the same event, after the event is over.  Or it can be done during real time while an event is occurring to obtain a final product at the end of the event (If Sanborn TV aired live then this is how it would be done).  If the editing is done during real time all the equipment has to be moved to the site of location which can be annoying.  Believe me, I've been involved with this process several times.

Top In order to study the microscopic aspects of the wetlands a microscope is necessary.  Using a special video camera, the Digital 5000, owned by the Science Department, it is possible to record the microorganisms of the wetlands.  The video camera mounts onto the microscope and is then hooked up to a TV and the TV is hooked up to the computer.  Using a computer program called Apple Video Player, video and pictures can be downloaded onto the computer to add to a presentation. My first project of this year was on the microorganisms in the wetlands and I had the chance to use this technology.  I collected water samples, made slides, recorded what I saw onto videotape and then digitized selected parts of the tape and added pictures to my presentation.  The student shown in this picture is studying microorganisms from the wetlands, as I did, and has learned from my process, sending the images directly to the computer skipping the VCR which I inefficiently used.

Top Using Microsoft Word, nowadays, isn't considered advanced use of technology.  But print journalism students are using Microsoft Word to create newspapers and booklets.  Using Word they type in articles, put them into columns, add pictures and graphs, and print out their newspaper.

Top One student in Project World has undertaken the task of surveying our wetlands using the equipment shown --quite a job.

Top For journalism, the student shown in this picture is creating a web page using Netscape Communicator, specifically Netscape Composer.   I used Netscape Composer to create this web page as well.  The thing that is strange about the editor, Netscape Composer, is that it is WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), but it isn't really.  When I added pictures and text to this web page I had to keep switching to the browser to look at the placement of the text in relation to the pictures.  This was extremely annoying and took a lot of time.  Something else that was annoying in the creation of this web page was creating space between pictures so that they didn't overlap.  In order to do this I had to make the space in the editor and then place a period at the end of the space so that the computer would recognize it.  There may, however, be another method to do this that I am unaware of.

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