| If you live in a country where camera phones are ubiquitous, it is a good idea to let students use those instead of digital cameras, which they may not own.
Modern camera phones can shoot both still pictures and moving image video. Note that sending photos or video to a computer via email is likely to be expensive. If the phone allows it, it may be better to copy the photos or video to the computer via a USB cable, Bluetooth connection, or memory card reader. Since the number of phones that can connect via USB or Bluetooth is still limited, while all 3G phones can accept a memory card, the last choice is recommended. Memory cards are inexpensive these days. If students do not own a card, you could lend them one to allow the pictures to be transferred from their phones to the computer. The card is not necessary when taking photos as these can be copied to it later. When shooting video, however, certain formats can only be saved to a card. In Japan (and probably in other countries as well), most phones use one of these three types of card: Mini SD Micro SD Memory Stick Pro Duo Cards are inexpensive these days. In May 2008, these were the prices at a large Japanese computer store: Lexar Micro SD 512 MB ¥2,280 Panasonic Mini SD 256MB ¥2,480 Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo 512 MB ¥1,980 Note that the computer needs to have a memory card reader. It is not necessary for the card reader to have specific slots for Micro SD, Mini SD, or Memory Stick Pro Duo, as these cards are sold with step up adapters. The reader should simply be able to accommodate the regular SD and Memory Stick cards. If the computer does not have a card reader, you may consider purchasing a USB one. This has the advantage of being easily shared among computers (e.g. in a lab) as it can be connected and disconnected. While pictures taken with mobile phones are regular JPG ones that can be opened by any computer, video shot with mobile phones is compressed in special formats. The software you normally use to play or edit video may or may not support certain formats. For example, Windows Media Player and Windows Movie Maker cannot open .3gp and .3gp2 files. The player that supports the widest number of file types is the VLC Player. This is free for both Windows and Mac. You can download it here. When editing video, you may need to convert files to a format your software can work with. To do that, you can use a free online converter such as this. |
Last modified: Thursday, 29 May 2008, 09:23 PM