Tech Trends Lesson Plan: Digital SLR Photography Basics

Every year the internationally recognized NMC Horizion Report as well as the regional NMC Technology Outlooks are part of the Horizon Project to review new and upcoming technology trends that they believe are going to have a significant impact on education around the globe in the next five years.  Using this report, I selected a technology that I feel can be integrated immediately into classrooms to help enhance the educative process.

The technology that I chose to integrate into my lesson were smart phones/tablet computing devices, and specifically for this lesson, an application from the AppStore/Android Marketplace.  My lesson is designed to teach novice Digital SLR camera owners the basics of taking pictures in manual mode, and adjusting the aperture and shutter speed themselves.  Specifically, I chose to integrate the Light Meter application from the AppStore to showcase how technology can assist and enhance a process that until recently, has not seen much of a revolution for a few centuries – photography.

In my lesson, students will learn the basics of adjusting their camera controls manually, the interrelation of aperture and shutter speed, as well as how to interpret the information that is provided by the light meter application, and how to implement that information to assist them in taking great pictures.  I feel that rather than using a traditional light meter and calculating the aperture and shutter speed manually, this process will give these amateur photographers the power they need to shoot in manual mode, but still the ease of use of shooting in automatic mode where the camera does all the work for you.

This project aligns with the following AECT standards:

• 1.3 Instructional Strategies – The sequencing of the events in this lesson will guide students to use their previous experiences to build and expand their knowledge to master the skill of manual photography.
• 1.4 Learner Characteristics – Previous photography experience will act as a foundation when explaining the interrelated nature of aperture vs. shutter speed, and sample images that students will have seen before such as hummingbirds and streaked lights on a highway at night will act as examples from which students can build their knowledge and understanding.
• 2.3 Computer-Based Technologies – Using microprocessor-based technologies such as smart phones and tablet devices will assist in making the skills more transferrable and applicable to the student’s everyday lives.

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