LCSD technology director helps create digital teaching device

Mix one part necessity with two parts ingenuity and what do you get? For Brian Bray, Lebanon Community School District technology director, the result was Cam-Tikki - a combination overhead projector, lesson recorder and video camera.

Document cameras that can project lessons and notes have replaced ancient and bulky overhead projectors that required special transparencies in today's classroom - useful to be sure, but a bit pricey at $1,200 a pop.

Looking for off-the-shelf technology that was cheaper and more versatile than a document camera, Bray came up with the Cam-Tikki. Comprised of a microphone stand, digital video camera and a specially-designed mounting adapter, the entire setup costs about $300.

"To the highest degree possible I try to make our technology off-the-shelf," Bray said. "The other thing we do with technology is try to make it so bone-simple you can't not know how to use it."

Using the video camera, teachers can record lesson plans as they teach and make them available to students in a variety of digital formats including CD-ROM, flash drives and even by cell phone. The camera can be used separately as a movie camera and to take high resolution still photos.

Although the microphone stand and digital camera were readily available, there were no suitable camera mounting adapters on the market. Bray contacted Connecticut-based On-Stage Stands, which saw a market for musicians who also wanted the capability to mount video equipment on stands. The results of a collaboration between Bray, an On-Stage engineer and a manufacturing engineer in China was an adapter that allows for 360-degree pan and movement and 180-degree tilt of a video camera.

As compensation for his contribution to the adapter design, On-Stage gives the district distributor prices on its equipment. The adapter retails for $20, but the price break allows the district to buy them for about $7.

Bray demonstrates the potential of the device by showing a recording of an algebra lesson recorded on a flash card viewable in a PlayStation Portable video gaming device.

"I think when students see it's possible to record the solving of the odd number in the math book and they can watch it again and again, they'll ask teachers, 'may I have that too?'"

There are about 70 of the camera systems now in district classrooms. Bray is confident that as Cam-Tikki use becomes more widespread, teachers will come up with additional applications.

Lebanon High School English teacher Josh Smalley was one of the early adapters of the Cam-Tikki.

Being able to face his students while using the Cam-Tikki is an advantage over an overhead projector, Smalley said.

"It lets me assess their grasp of the material by watching their reaction to the lesson," he said.

One use Smalley wants to explore is playing a recording of himself explaining a lesson while he monitors students in the classroom.

"Essentially, they'll be two of me in the classroom," Smalley said.

Disappointed by the lack of classroom technology while student teaching in Western Washington, Smalley jumped at the chance to teach at LHS two years ago when he learned of the district's emphasis on technology.

"One of the biggest draws was the technology options here," Smalley said. "There isn't technology like this (in Washington) and there also isn't someone who asks, 'what do you want in your classroom?"