People love pictures and students are no exceptions. They especially love having the camera in their hands.

In addition to this being fun, it has a few other benefits: photos can be used as reference points to talk about learning on a daily, weekly, monthly or other basis; photos are a digital media that can be used in a number of creative ways in classroom projects; everyone taking turns taking pictures can help create a sense of community; the collection of photos is powerful qualitative data that can be used by instructors in a number of ways … and the list goes on.

Digital cameras are incredibly inexpensive, and you may already have some sitting unused on your school site. Have your class take them for a spin.