I have about 3000 slides in boxes in my closet. These slides were taken over many years and were used in my lessons. Today it is nearly impossible to find a slide projector and today's students are not thrilled about being whisked into an ancient era. Scanning them and making them digital is a task best left to my retirement days. Isn't this the story nearly every second language teacher could tell?

As sad as it is to abandon a treasured supply of pictures, it is best to begin again with a digital camera. The pictures are immediately ready to be shown through a computer in any classroom. On a recent trip to Germany, for example, I took over 500 pictures and later organized them into 15 slide shows, burned them onto a CD and I use them often in my classroom. I gave copies of the CD to all the participants on the trip, too. If you need help with preparing pictures and making slide shows, you can find this information on this site.

The best samples of how my students and I use our digital camera in school can be seen on my school web site, check it out at: http://www.neisd.net/mac/german/ And on our web site project: http://www.germancontest.org/germansa/

I would like to recommend the Sony Mavica as the educator's best choice of a digital camera. The Mavica uses cheap 3.5 floppy disks(now they also use cds), takes great pictures in all sorts of conditions, including close-ups and low light, uses the Sony Info Lithium battery which can be used in most Sony products, and takes MPEG 30-50 second videos. It is the cheapest digital camera with this feature. It is easy to use and requires no special cables or special hardware. My school district bought them initially because saving files to a regular floppy disk is so convenient. The disks may be used on PC or Macintosh machines.

The initial cost of a digital camera may seem high, but remember, you can take as many pictures as you want to. No more film purchases. No more costs for developing film. This is a plus for education where monetary resources will always be limited. You can digitally document various events, field trips and projects. The ability to record straight to floppy disks is a great feature for those looking for simplicity, without having to buy more equipment than the computer you already have. I usually buy lots of floppy disks and have one for each student. Students love pictures. Everyone loves pictures.
You can get 100 cds or floppy disks for about $20. The floppies can be reused. And if you don't like a picture, you can delete on the camera, or from the disk on the computer.

The more recent Mavicas have a memory stick that fits into a special floppy disk and will give you more space. I have one for up to 120 pictures. Four models (FD87,FD90, FD92, & FD97) are designed to be compatible with the Memory Stick as well as the floppy disk. Only the FD75 won't accept both. Now you can get memory sticks up to more than 1GB.

How does one get pictures ready for a  digital slide show or a web site? By reducing the resolution of the photos, they will download quickly to your computer. With Adobe Photoshop you can use automated batch actions to quickly resize a whole folder of pictures at one time, so they are set for a slide show or for the internet. Photoshop is expensive, but there is a special price for educators. There are less expensive programs for sizing and organizing digital pictures. Click below on " Academic discounts on software".

Answers to questions may be directed to:ME
 

Digital Photography Resource Page	where to buy Sonys	Describes the Mavica total tutorial	How to save jpgs and change names,etc
GraphicConverter		Academic Discounts on Software	Complete list of Photoshop tutorials