The ELMO is the marriage between a camera and a projector. It takes classroom projectors to a whole new level. Imagine not being restricted to standing 6 feet in front of the board right in the middle of the classroom. Imagine having the freedom to move to any spot in the room and still lead the discussion for the class. Imagine being able to take a page from your favorite classroom book and have every student read over your should with only one copy. With an ELMO, all this and more, is possible.
The ELMO is a full color document camera that takes whatever you place under the lens and projects its on to the board. What’s great about this is that the projector and lens are two separate entities so you can set the projector up in one spot, and the lens somewhere else so you are not in the middle of the classroom blocking the view of students. You can take any worksheet, book, newspaper clipping, picture, painting, calculator, or anything else you want to share with the class and place it under the document camera. It will then project this image live on the screen. What I find particularly interesting is that the camera can freeze the image on the screen so you can take the book or whatever it is you were sharing with you as you walk around and talk to the class. Or, you can freeze half the screen only. This comes in handy when you are working out a problem and you want to keep the original question up there while having room to work out the answer.
Done are the days of transparencies and visa vi markers. Now all you need is regular paper and pens, or any medium for that matter. The diversity is what makes this so appealing. It doesn’t matter what you want to share, you don’t have to make copies on transparences before sharing with the class. You just lay it under your ELMO. The ELMO can also zoom in on part of a page. For example, if you only wanted to show problem 8 and 9, you can zoom in and only show these two problems. Also great for students who may have a hard time seeing the often small print that is usually on a transparency
One disadvantage to the ELMO is that it tends to have a lag time from when you display something to when it appears on the board. This is most noticeable when you are actually writing as you talk. The image appears a second or so after you write it. Not a big issue, but you must be conscience of it as you are talking so you don’t get ahead of yourself. Another disadvantage is that its not interactive like the smart board. But it does have a remote control to wirelessly zoom in or switch from freeze frame to live, ect. You can also store images that you freeze on a flash drive or to your computer.
The main audience that’s applicable to us is teachers, all grade levels. I think that more upper grades use projects and the like more than the lower grades, but I feel that all grade levels could benefit from such a tool. It also is beneficial for doctors, lawyer, businessmen, salesmen, or anyone else who common speaks to large groups of people. They have slightly different models as well that cater to each specific group.
I think this is a great tool to aid in classroom learning. I’ve been in several classrooms where this is available and while there is a slight learning curve to it, its benefits outweighs the costs of taking the time to learn how to use it. The students love it as well and I love that you can put any medium under the lens to share with the students. Then that newspaper clipping from last year becomes a learning tool that I can share with the whole class. Overall, I feel that it is a very useful tool.
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