Tag: Poverty

360-Degree Cameras in Education: A Quick Introduction

Guest Blogger
Kasey Kennedy

Some say 360-degree cameras may be the next big thing in education. What is a 360-degree camera? It is a camera that allows you to capture photos and videos in a spherical format. The spherical format allows the viewer to pan around the entire image or video in a 360-degree fashion.

View this 360 degree image to get an idea of what these kinds of cameras can do.

Enjoy this video, What Happens in Your Body?, and enjoy a 360-degree exploration of your circulatory and digestive systems. Follow the directions below the video to navigate this spherical video.

Click on the following image for a 360-photo of the North Pole.

Using 360-Degree Cameras in the Classroom  

Virtual Field Trips: Take a moment to view this video. You could create a video to go along with whatever you are teaching, and the students could work themselves through the video to get more information. Another example could be using a 360 video to help students explore the cells of the body.

School Events: What if you could play the camera on the stage while a student performed? This would let the students view their work, and see the performance as the audience sees it.

Parental Involvement: This would be a great way to get parents involved. Most cameras will only record parts of the room, unless it is carried around. By using a 360 degree camera, a parent could pan around to their child, and watch their child the whole time. This will help the parents see what is going on in the classroom, and it will get them more involved.

Outside of the Classroom Field Trips: When on a field trip, the camera could be used to take pictures, or a video, and the teacher could replay it for the students as they do their reflections. This could also be an opportunity for any students who missed the field trip to receive the same experience. (Source)

Tips for Using 360-Degree Cameras

Geoffrey Morrison shares six tricks for getting the best photo and video spheres. 

I also recommend 10 Things I Wish I Knew before Shooting 360 Video by Vanessa Hand Orellana.

360-Degree Virtual Tours

The Lincoln Memorial

Luray Caverns

The Secret Annex of Anne Frank’s Home

Rainforest

From Trash to Treasure (A Must-See Video)

Clarinet Made from Trash

The following trailer is for a documentary about The Recycled Orchestra, a “group of children from a Paraguayan slum who play instruments made entirely of garbage. It is a beautiful story about the transformative power of music, which also highlights two vital issues of our times: poverty and waste pollution” (Source).

“People realize we shouldn’t throw away trash carelessly.
Well, we shouldn’t throw away people either.”

Seminar on Poverty with Ruby Payne, Ph.D.

Internationally renowned author, speaker and career educator Ruby Payne, Ph.D., will serve as the featured speaker at an upcoming fundraiser for HopeWorks.

From years of life lessons, Dr. Payne, founder of aha! Process, has written more than a dozen books on poverty. Dr. Payne is an expert on the mindset of economic class, the socioeconomic assumptions of class and the framework for effective social change. She has worked to educate communities across the world about the effects of class and poverty on our society. Her book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, provides practical, real-world support and guidance to improve one’s effectiveness in working with people from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Since 1995 A Framework for Understanding Poverty has guided hundreds of thousands of educators and other professionals through the pitfalls and barriers faced by all classes, especially the poor.

You may know how to use a credit card, checking and savings account, but do you know what to do when you don’t have enough money to pay your bills? As Dr. Payne eloquently illustrates, hidden rules and unspoken cues in social classes are numerous. Oftentimes, members of higher economic classes take the hidden rules of the lower class for granted. To break the cycle of crime and emerge from poverty, one must practice the rules of the middle class.

HopeWorks sees this, and encourages this with its students and provides the tools necessary for those in poverty to achieve success every day. Through our holistic approach to daily classes and meals, educational training and spiritual counseling, HopeWorks strives to give our students the tools they need to break free from the cycle that traps so many in our city. But what will serve our students even more is to help those in higher economic classes understand the hidden rules and challenges of those in poverty so that these individuals can be better served.

An Evening of Hope
Fourth Annual HopeWorks Fundraising Event
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Woodland Hills Event Center

Bill Nye Headlines 2011 Martin Institute Summer Conference

The Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence is excited to announce that Bill Nye will be the keynote speaker for the 2011 Summer Conference.

About Bill Nye
Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life. “My family is funny,” he says, “I mean funny in the sense that we make people laugh, not just funny looking.” Bill discovered that he had a talent for tutoring in high school, and while growing up in Washington, DC. He spent afternoons and summers de-mystifying math for his fellow students. When he wasn’t hitting the books, Bill was hitting the road on his bicycle. He spent hours taking it apart to “see how it worked.” <Read More>

Featured Speakers
Other featured speakers at the Summer Conference include Tom Barrett (a.k.a. @tombarrett), 21st century educator from Nottingham, England; Vaija Wagle, Harvard University Project Zero Group Leader; Carol Vukelich, distinguished educator in early literacy; and Tiffany Boyd, literacy coach and consultant with Heinemann Publishing.

Registration
Registration details for the Summer Conference are forthcoming. Sign-up to receive an email notification once registration begins. The 2011 Summer Conference will be held on Wednesday, June 15 and Thursday June 16, 2011, in Memphis, TN, USA.