"Ask, and it will be given to you."
The Christian Bible
In November I wrote a Donors Choose project for a Document Reader. With the help of many gift certificates, in January I got it. Well, it has arrived.
I am totally excited to have new media in the library. For those of you who have not experienced the awesomeness that is a document reader, I ask you to think of the overhead projectors that teachers have used in their classrooms for the last 20 - 25 years. An overhead projector is a light bulb that shines through dark writing on a piece of plastic, and then projects that onto a screen. You need a bunch of sheets of plastics to use them, although I know teachers who just wrote on the glass. What this means is that if you want to read something to a class that they can see, you need to create transparencies first, which wastes both time and plastic.
A document reader, however, is simply a camera that you attach to an LCD projector, that then projects whatever you put under it onto a screen. Like homework that you're correcting. Or a book that you're reading to the class--so that they can see the words. Or an old copy of the Declaration of Independence that you don't want to pass around, because student hands are often sticky. Or anything to make teaching more accessible to students. It does not require you to create transparencies. It requires you turn it on and then place something underneath a camera.
At this point, I've used it while teaching my two classes, during workshops and meetings, and with my after-school class. I have literally used it every day I have had it.
I am thrilled that the Webster community--and anyone who contributed falls into that category--thought that this was important enough to place in our library. Thank you.
Happy Reading!
I am totally excited to have new media in the library. For those of you who have not experienced the awesomeness that is a document reader, I ask you to think of the overhead projectors that teachers have used in their classrooms for the last 20 - 25 years. An overhead projector is a light bulb that shines through dark writing on a piece of plastic, and then projects that onto a screen. You need a bunch of sheets of plastics to use them, although I know teachers who just wrote on the glass. What this means is that if you want to read something to a class that they can see, you need to create transparencies first, which wastes both time and plastic.
A document reader, however, is simply a camera that you attach to an LCD projector, that then projects whatever you put under it onto a screen. Like homework that you're correcting. Or a book that you're reading to the class--so that they can see the words. Or an old copy of the Declaration of Independence that you don't want to pass around, because student hands are often sticky. Or anything to make teaching more accessible to students. It does not require you to create transparencies. It requires you turn it on and then place something underneath a camera.
At this point, I've used it while teaching my two classes, during workshops and meetings, and with my after-school class. I have literally used it every day I have had it.
I am thrilled that the Webster community--and anyone who contributed falls into that category--thought that this was important enough to place in our library. Thank you.
Happy Reading!
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