Visualisers - A Teachers Review
Credit - Anne Blandamer Fairfield First School June 2009
Over the last few years I have been aware of visualisers and had seen them at conferences and in catalogues. I appreciated their potential to enhance teaching and learning and so they had been on our ‘wish list’ for the school’s ICT budget. However, they had never become a priority as we did not fully appreciate the benefits and flexibility of such a device and how they could support many aspects of ICT.
Earlier in the year we were reviewing ICT using Becta matrix and it became clear that we needed to address further embedding the use of ICT in cross curricula areas and I wondered if this would be an area where an visualiser would be beneficial. At a meeting of local ICT co-ordinators, I raised the issue of the benefits of visualisers and I was offered the opportunity to test one. After discussing this with my head, we agreed that this would be a great opportunity to investigate the potential of the machine, familiarise staff with the benefits of the equipment and the practicality of using it in our setting .This would enable us to establish whether one would be a value for money use of our ICT budget.
I work in a small village first school with four classes. Each class has a whiteboard but not all the same type and I felt that this might be an issue for us when considering purchasing a visualiser. The staff are already familiar with using digital microscopes, digital cameras and the school already has scanners in two classrooms.
The first visualiser I tried was a “Smart Camera”. This already raised an issue in our setting as we do not have Smart boards in all classrooms. The visualiser connected to my laptop which then enabled images to be displayed on the whiteboard. The instruction book which came with the visualiser was quite intimidating and a ‘quick start’ with steps broken down into pictures would have been more useful as a starting point for a first time user.
The software with the machine installed easily and worked first time. It opened up a Smart Notebook screen and images produced could be easily annotated and saved. The images on the screen were of excellent quality. The next task was to investigate its potential to support learning. I was working with a KS 2 class of mixed year 3 and 4. The visualiser provided the children with the “wow” factor. The children told me that they felt excited and impressed when they first saw what the visualiser could do and they mentioned that they could see things in greater detail even when they were at the back.
To begin we simply used the visualiser to enable children to use a big book without needing to move from their places and it ensured all the children had a clear view of the book and could take part in reading the text.
(New Literacy Framework - 7 Understanding and Interpreting texts
Year 3 –use syntax, context and word structure to build their store of vocabulary as they read for meaning.
http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/strands/34758/34268/110204)
Also during a literacy session, we were able to share children’s instructions immediately with the whole class and highlight whether key features of this genre had been included by using the software.
(Ref New Literacy Framework -9 Creating and Shaping texts
Year 3 Make decisions about form and purpose: identify success criteria and use them to evaluate their own writing.
http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/strands/34758/34268/110206)
In science we were able to use the images produced by the visualiser to enable all children to look at bones and teeth as an introduction – before reinforcing initial thoughts by handling items themselves. They looked at the teeth of some animals and we identified the teeth which provided us with clues to the diet of the animals.
(Ref National Curriculum Science KS2 SC2 p85
Life Processes p85– Humans and other animals
Nutrition -Pupils should be taught about the function and care of teeth)
The use of Smart Document camera did have a positive effect on learning. If you are using a Smart board it interacts smoothly with Smart Notebook software and is a flexible addition to tools available in the classroom
I was then given an opportunity to try out a second visualiser. The second visualiser was the AverVision 300AF. This machine immediately appealed to me as it was smaller and seemed more robust. The visualiser took up less space than Smart Document camera however it is still essential to have additional space around the machine to place books and artefacts.
The software which came with the machine installed easily and was easy to use (but it too would benefit from a quick start guide). This machine connected via a USB connection which also made its set up more intuitive.
The children were now familiar with the possibilities of a visualiser. We began by using this machine simply to look at some items brought in from home by the children as part of history topic e.g. school reports from ex pupils, certificates etc. These items were quite fragile but the children were able to use them as primary resources without running the risk of damaging them.
(National Curriculum History KS 2 Historical Enquiry p105 4a: pupils should be taught to find out about the events, people and changes studied from an appropriate range of sources of information, including ICT-based sources)
In science, we investigated rocks looking particularly at how know how these rocks have been formed. The children decided on how a rock had been formed and then used the image created by the visualiser to highlight to others how these had been formed and to label where layers could be found.
(Ref National Curriculum Science KS2 Sc 3 p87
1 d: to describe and group rocks and soils on the basis of their characteristics, including texture, appearance and permeability)
Literacy work produced by the children was quickly and easily displayed on the board. We were able to work together to identify aspects of the writing which had matched our learning objectives and worked together to improve the text further. This supported peer group assessment.
(New Literacy Framework Yr3, 1 Speaking
Sustain conversation, explain or give reasons for their views or choices
http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/strands/34758/34268/110198 )
Extracts from a story were used to look for evidence about different characters in a book leading to many discussions. Words can be easily highlighted on the screen to show how these judgements had been made.
(New Literacy Framework Year3 8 Engaging with and responding to texts
Identify features that writers use to provoke readers’ reactions
http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/strands/34758/34268/110205)
During a literacy lesson, the Head took my class and my lesson planning included the use of the visualiser to display a text. She had no experience or training to use the AVerMedia visualiser and she was impressed with how easy it was to use the machine and the quality of the image produced but more importantly the children’s reaction to the activity due to the level of engagement facilitated by the visualiser.
For a busy teacher there are a number of benefits I can envisage from having a visualiser in the classroom. For example, it saves preparation time which may have been spent scanning images as images produced by the visualiser can be saved in the same way as a scanned images and then imported into other documents.
Consideration is needed when deciding on the location of this equipment as a space nearby is needed to enable big books and artefacts to be used with the visualiser.
Pupils of this ‘digital age’ expect to have access to high quality images, which can be seen by everyone and are instantly available. A visualiser can definitely support this. As I was really only borrowing the visualiser, and am a part time teacher ,the visualiser was not available for every lesson. This limited the opportunities I had to use the visualiser as one of its key benefits is its immediacy. I realise that if the visualiser had been permanently attached to the laptop there would have been opportunities for its use every day to enhance learning and teaching. It is truly a cross curricula tool.
Of the two visualisers I tested, the AVerMedia 300AF was the model I preferred. If we were considering buying one for our setting this would be my preferred option.
Reproduced with thanks to Anne Blandamer, Fairfield First School, June 2009