Comment are great! Thank you.
My sessions will be 40 min each, once a week, for ALL four fifth grades and ALL four fourth grades: 225 students, including Special Ed. I probably cannot send anyone to the office... I have to have a discussion with the Principal on a few of these logistics details. But I am strict about behavior in a classroom. I have taught this age in my own classroom.
Oskar: I didn't say they would write for my class. I have taught writing and have experience asking kids to "improve" something. They say back, "I did the task." Yes, we will use oral analysis and comment. They will be graded on several axes that I will be clear to them are evaluated. You raise interesting ideas that are beyond the scope of what we are allowed/I have promised to do. The parents don't have lots of cameras, either. I tried to be clear: this is not a town with any extra money and I don't want some kids to have and others not. Plus I have to have aforementioned 225 kids share the capture devices from whatever source. Your idea about an aggregator entity that would move older digicams to schools is interesting. Teachers don't usually want a set of different items to manage, get software updates for, etc. The school will definitely NOT be willing to manage a project with disparate gear. They don't have the IT bandwidth and the teacher mandate does not include any IT complication. I was very different for having a lot of older computers in my classroom -- but it was because I could maintain them. I have four weeks to put this all together. With holidays. With much-missed daughter home from grad school.
Peter: super ideas. Love the viewfinder and I think I might have them make it! Card stock is my friend: fold, cut out the 4:3 rectangle (I will preprint the lines) and they unfold the 8.5x11 sheet to have something to hold up in front of them. I had already made a list like yours: lines, pattern (I love to teach Math so I will weave that in.) Color (we'll talk RGB color wheel for computers as the Art Teacher still uses the yellow blue red configuration. But subjects like that have to grow organically from their experiences, not be lectures. Hmmm, Apple TV. I will ask the school. I think I have to move from room to room, pushing my iPad cart. It's a factor I have to nail down. I could contact Adobe and see where their head is at for inclusion later in the spring. Yes, they might head off into Photoshop la-la land but it would be thrilling for some. AND meet one of my objectives: "photos can fib."
I did want to get to telling stories. I started out in photojournalism. I will bring in the local newspaper, which is not too horrific for pictures. BTW, I did my Masters thesis on newspapers in education, because I long ago worked for a little while at the Boston Globe shooting. Super great time!
I will have to see if I can arrange printing. There are NO color printers out on the network except in a few senior-level offices. That's out, but I have to work out a site they can send to. The fears out there about pix of kids that are "on the Internet" are VERY STRONG. So because there are images of each other the school may not want even one hornet stirred. Even on password-protected sites. Still left to negotiate. See, than I could ask for the ink to print them each week. But keeping track of whose shot I am printing is interesting, unless there's a way to put the kid's name in the EXIF headers. But any instruction on that will not be followed by lots of kids... maybe a good lesson right there! No entry, no print for you.
I hope re:protection I can use Guided Access in iOS6 and yes, I hope the cases can stand the handling... <grin>
Just writing all this is keeping me excited about doing this. Sounds like you get it, too.
jonathan7007