WEB CAM LIST OF INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES

My experience with web cams:

The EduHound web cam brought up some undesirable listings so I decided not to use that one. Same thing happened at Webcam list. This site did have a link for a family friendly list, but it wasn’t hyperlinked. So, I went with DiscoveryChannel which is more reputable by name, but the link from McDaniel’s assignment page didn’t connect so I went directly to discoverychannel.com and still didn’t locate web cams. (I did locate a nice kids portion of this site with videos and another link to a preschool portion.) Possibly web cams contain too many risks as some use them for unwholesome attention seeking.

I discovered that its best to search with term ‘educational’ web cams. It seems to me that it would be best not to use mega listings of webcams, but to go to a website that you trust and use the web cams they list.

I also observed that some web cams are showing pictures at night so things appear fuzzy. Some web cams appear fuzzy anyway. Some are called ‘streaming video’ or ‘audio only’ using Real Player. I see now that DiscoveryChannel did have web cams; they were called videos and I didn’t realize it was the same thing…possibly the same thing, but either way, close enough to have a similar value. There are videos on volcanoes here at discovery channel.com

The brief article I read below believes that web cams can be used for educational use so I continue my search…. Possibly, the website for the Washington, DC. Zoo suggested by Valenza. I also learned, from this article, that some web cams allow the viewers to chat with each other and that web cams are unmanned.

Valenza, Joyce Kasman Webcams Can Bring Slice of Life to Classrooms abstracted from "Putting Webcams to Educational Use" (July 1, 2000)
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=1501
Retrieved 6/6/06

Webcams can be updated at different time intervals I found out from South African Large Telescope http://www.salt.ac.za/public-info/webcam/
Retrieved 6/6/06

The Washington DC site has animals to click on with information provided and a web cam. Teacher beware that buffering may take quite a bit of time. Buffering is the term used for loading the supposed web cams that are visual and/or audio streams. Webcams can be useful for planning vacations and checking the weather.

At Weather Images, for activity 2, some pictures had dates and were identifiable as web cams and some just appeared to be photos. There were a multitude of countries to choose from and this appeared to be a very safe site to use. The web cams have the native language as text on the each page.

Earthcam for Kids, used in activity 4, appears safe or safer. The web cams listed can take you off their site as, it appears, only three are on their site.

Activities

‘Disclaimer‘: For all these activities, viewing time may possibly be beneficial updated as various time intervals. Some may be updated by the minute or by the hour for example.

Student Activity 1
Watch the web cam for the animal of your choice by clicking on its picture at the bottom of the page. Scroll down so the caption, under the web cam, is not visible. DO NOT read the caption….yet. Watch the web cam. Explain all that you can hypothesize by watching the web cam. What does the animal look like? How big is it? How fast? How old? What is the animal’s habitat? What does it eat? What does it do? Now, go back and read the caption. Which of your observations were correct and which were not? Great activity for developing the concept of perceptions, that there is "more than meets the eye", and difference between assumptions and facts.
Just for Kids at the Washington DC Zoo
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Audiences/kids
Retrieved 6/6/06

Student Activity 2
Pick a country. Pick a web cam from that country. Notice the setting. Describe it in detail. Use engaging words. Use a thesaurus if needed. Great activity for developing ideas, story writing and setting exploration.
Weather Images
http://www.weatherimages.org/weathercams/world.html
Retrieved 6/6/06

Student Activity 3
Read these two articles about using web cams for patrol of the border at Mexico. What are the advantages stated? Reasons against? Respectfully state your opinion on this issue of using web cams for border patrol. Make at least 3 points in a paragraph. Paraphrase or quote any ideas taken directly from the article and cite as (Gonzalez) or (BBC News) Great activity for current events and to use information presented to form and articulate own ideas.

Web users to ‘patrol’ US borders. BBC News. (June 2, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5040372.stm
Retrieved 6/6/06

Gonzalez, John W. and Ratchliffe, R.G. Eyes of Texas to be on border. Houston Chronicle (June 2, 2006)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3921778.html
Retrieved 6/6/06

Student Activity 4
Choose a web cam of a city that include buildings. Compare and contract these cities, with a peer, based on information shown by the web cam. What are the buildings like? The people? The activities? What do you think might be represented by what you see? What conclusions can you draw? Make a list of ideas and then discuss it with the person next to you. Great activity for enrichment, analyzing, developing conversational skills, and listening to others’ contributions.
Earth Cam for Kids- Cities
http://search.earthcam.com/search/ec_kids_search.php?cat=SOC&subcat=G
Retrieved 6/6/06

Teacher Activity 5
Read this article and click on the links brainstorming what may helpful to your students. This is an article that I wished I had found hours ago. May it help us as we weed through web cam sites to find those that will be useful in teaching!
Web cams bring lessons to life
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech/tech100.shtml
Retrieved 6/6/06

Debby Hare, MS
June 2006