ELMO: What is it and what are its applications in my classroom?

Today I received another piece of technology for my classroom - without training of course. The piece of technology is an ELMO, a document camera. So, I did a little research to find out what it is and does and came across this video produced by the manufacturer's of the equipment. I found it interesting that as part of the sale's pitch, the advertisers threw out a few terms in education lingo (NCLB, EETT, test scores, comprehension ) but really did not give concrete examples of applications to really achieve increased test scores, comprehension or NCLB compliance.

At any rate, I do see some applications in my science classroom. When completing class demonstrations that are very small and difficult for students to see, the Elmo would be able to project the demo so that all students could get the same view.

To focus all students on a specific part of text or a particular point in a figure, the Elmo offers tools in its software package that would allow me to circle particular areas on the document. Additionally, I could capture that picture and save it to my computer so that I could later use it for review, for assessment, for students who are absent...

One application that the video did address is the ability to project microscope slides. As a biology teacher, this will be very useful when I want to show the entire class a particular specimen but do not want to take the scopes out or when I do not have enough specimens for the entire class. It also will have good application when the entire class is doing microscopy and a student has a particular specimen that would be good for the entire class to see. Also, it will be helpful to introduce good and bad wet mounts.

Now to apply this technology to help differentiate instruction - it does seem to have a lot of potential for visual learners especially. The sale's pitch on the product is solely for whole class instruction. Although necessary in all classrooms, it is not the hallmark of DI.

However, having students share work they have done using the ELMO may have some merit, particularly in a centers approached classroom in which students are grouped and working on different activities. Using the ELMO with a small group of students as they discuss their work may be one application of a student directed activity.

Like with all new technology, there exists a learning curve - I expect as I begin to "play" with the ELMO, I will quickly progress to the exponential growth period in my learning and see a multitude of applications in science.