At Seton Hill University, our "smart classrooms" are equipped with these wonderful document projectors, called ELMOs. "ELMO" is the name of the company that makes these "visual presenters," but on our campus we use the term affectionately as a pet name for these two armed wonders. They work by using a digital camera instead of a mirrored lens like the usual overhead projector -- ELMO projects anything a camera would: documents, book pages, photographs, and even 3D objects that you place under the lens onto the big screen. They're GREAT!

Like most of the faculty on my campus, I typically just use the ELMO as an overhead projector to show handouts, but without having to go through the trouble of making a transparency, since it will project anything you put on it. In my mind, it's even easier to operate than a PowerPoint presentation, and I'll sometimes print out a quick outline for any lecture or class plan (in large font) and just project it, moving as we go through the class outline, keeping the hour organized. But I also like to experiment with the ELMO and see what other things it is capable of doing. After all, people's eyes are naturally drawn to a big screen spectacle and there is a way to tap into this for educational purposes and to reach out to visual learners. These devices are fantastic for visual aids, but I haven't seen professors using them very creatively, let alone with much expertise. It's something worth taking advantage of to not only project information, but to put into action to keep a class' attention (without, of course, using it as a DISTRACTION).

The ELMO (and I really should be calling it the HV-5000XG, since that's the model we're using) can zoom in, zoom out, auto-focus, and more, by pressing buttons on the "stage" at the base. The "stage" can be backlit from underneath or use the two large arms to cast light on the front of the page. But tonight I decided -- after four years of using it -- to actually read the technical manual (online pdf). And though there are some buttons on the machine that I've never used, I was surprised to learn it can do even more than I imagined.

For example, there's apparently a remote control for adjusting the focus and so forth, hidden in a compartment on the stage. So I can walk around the room and zoom in on something if I need to (though the infrared sensor might be shielded by the lecturn). I notice quite often that lecturers will neglect to "enlarge" whatever it is they're projecting, but one should remember to zoom in so that one line of text on the handout will occupy the entire width of the screen and make it easier to read. Students really appreciate this, even though you sacrifice height for width (i.e., you won't be able to see the whole paragraph or passage of text -- or the whole outline...but paper can be slid up and down to accommodate this as you need it). I like to try to use the frame of the screen to both focus and block out things as I go; sometimes the mystery of what's still to come as we make our way through an overhead keeps students alert and taking notes.

I also learned that the lens on the camera can pop off and reveal another lens inside the camera. That means that what we're using as the default lens is actually a secondary "close-up" lens! I had no idea. But I have often played around with the camera by swiveling the camera head around to project the class itself up on the screen (among other things), and now I know how to make the image less fuzzy. There's also an "iris" function on the remote, which might be useful for my film class, when I teach the idea of the "iris" and also might make for some interesting transitions (since we have a switch to turn from the ELMO to a computer monitor and back again). The ELMO has an option to include a small LCD monitor (which we don't have equipped on ours and I wish we did...so I wouldn't have to turn to look at the screen behind me everytime I use it)...perhaps I could use a laptop or the computer monitor in its stay?

The fact is, because the ELMO is a digital capturing device, with enough ingenuity (and the right cables), one could use it as a camcorder or still capture camera for a variety of pedagogical reasons. One could point it at huge maps on the wall and thereby project them onto the screen to make them even larger, or one could zoom in to, say, one region to expand it so everyone can see it from a distance. Or lectures and student speeches in large lecture halls could be simultaneously "shot" and projected onto the larger theater screen, concert style. Student exhibits, speeches, and more could possibly even be recorded using the ELMO and a cable routed back to the computer or a laptop. I'm wondering if my PDA could work with it somehow. Indeed, now that I've read the manual, I see that there are numerous types of connections that could be made on the fly.

I do like to tickle the ELMO. I will often, as I said above, twist the camera head to point at the students en masse, showing them what the class looks like from my perspective. When I'm not directly talking about a handout, but want to keep the ELMO warmed up for when I will, I put objects that are interesting to look at on the stage. A bottle of water, shot from above, makes an interesting spiral pattern. An extreme closeup of a small element of the textbook cover reveals a nuance previously ignored. It's handy to have artwork or a comic at the ready for filler. But anything will do. If I'm showing a film later in class, I project the DVD cover on the wall, or a still from the movie (or image from the textbook) that I want to analyze. Sometimes I'll put objects in motion, lifting them off the stage and bringing them closer to the camera lens, creating my own zoom effect without relying on the awkward push-button technology.

Any document editing can be shown well using an Elmo, so it's a great device for a writing classroom. I'll often have students walk the class through their writing intentions using these devices on their manuscripts -- or we'll workshop a piece as a class and collaboratively edit it by hand that way. It can be used for off-the-cuff show-and-tell, too -- in poetry class, for example, I'll often show "concrete poetry" that isn't in our book using the device, so students can analyze the shape in addition to the words themselves. I could imagine a biology teacher using it to show how to dissect a real frog live, or a sign language teacher using it to project images of hand signals.

When I project using the ELMO, I sometimes get self-conscious because my hands are projected as uncanny looking body parts onto the screen. I notice the dirt under a fingernail, the odd coloration of my skintone through the projector, the inkstains on my thumb. So I might use a pen or some other device as a pointer, or use a laser pointer on the screen.

For more tips on using the ELMO, I refer to Ray Moses' advice for lawyers on how to present evidence in the courtroom using a document camera... (he talks, for example, on how to use a ruler to show scale or what color marker works best for hilighting). More can be found using Google.

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