Digital photography provides an opportunity for students to develop creativity, acquire higher order thinking skills, and improve basic skills in the content areas of the curriculum. The use of a digital camera offers students ways to use hands-on activities to find, record, and use data, to illustrate books, stories, or moments in history, and to conceptualize math concepts in everyday life. These projects, whether simple or complex, require students to work in teams, think ahead, plan, and to create and present an original product. Thus, the skills important in today’s adult workplace become part of the regular classroom curriculm.

Digital photography can be used at every phase of an instructional unit. If used at the beginning, students might take photographs for a particular purpose, such as recording a class field trip, and write captions for each photo back in the classroom. Digital photographs may be used during or in the middle of a project or module. Students can observe and digitally photograph the daily growth of mold on bread, or the seasonal changing colors of leaves on deciduous trees. Later, they can write and report on the captured, observed changes. Students might write a draft of a story or historical event, then take pictures to illustrate their story, editing their written and photographic work as they progress. Digital photographs also make a great final presentation for projects in the classroom, as well as yearbooks, newsletters, and school newspapers.

From the very beginning of a digital photography project, students must understand the features of the camera, and make thoughtful decisions based on their understanding. Photography, whether print or digital, is not just finding and composing the picture you want. It is important to understand how the camera works, and what the differences are between traditional and digital cameras, including the advantages and disadvantages of each. Furthermore, digital cameras have many features and options to understand: for instance, what are portrait and landscape shooting modes? When do you use these? Should you zoom in or out? What is the difference between fixed, manual, and auto focus? Which should you use?

Some classroom tasks do not give students the time or opportunity to experiment, evaluate, improve, and try again. In the world of digital photography students can see instantly whether they got the shot you want or not; if not, they can immediately erase the mistake and try again. Students can experiment freely and often and, don’t have to wait to see results. This encourages creativity and inspires students to improve and perfect their work.

One great feature of digital photographs is the ability to improve them. Students can crop and edit raw photos in many ways to create a better finished product using a photo editing program. Once the photograph is finished, students will have more decisions to make. How will the photographs be used? Publish them on the web or send them with email messages? Make hard copy prints? This becomes an important part of both the planning and presentation phases of a project.

Unlike paper and pencil tasks, photography is a process that learned by doing and experimenting. Each photo and photography project teaches students something new they can use the next time they try. Digital photography allows students to try again quickly so they begin to build up a useful body of experience and knowledge right away. With each succeeding project, they will begin to know when a shot is worth taking, how best to compose a picture to tell a story or create a feeling, and how best to present their work.

With the availability of simple digital cameras in today’s classrooms, teachers and students can enjoy a new, motivating method of teaching and learning from each other. Project-based learning enhances the development basic skills, including public speaking, and can transform and energize the classroom environment.