I came across a tweet from John Umekubo where he shared a 3D printed design for a pocket document camera that can be used to help a teacher display or record hand motions, sketches, images, or written actions or explanations without needing a second device, an external document camera, or an elaborate setup to balance a camera above your work space! The pocket document camera acts as a sort of periscope to reflect anything being done on top of his keyboard to anyone in his Google Meet.
John’s post went a bit viral on social media, and he compiled a comprehensive blog post where he listed a bunch of ideas/prototypes created by himself and other like-minded makers. I used our 3D printers in The CoLaboratory (Room 8L in the 610 building) to make two 3D printouts of these pocket document cameras — one that fit my MacBook Air and one that fit the Class III/IV Chromebook. I reached out to our colleagues in the Lower School who are teaching remote pods and told them about this little helper and shared ideas for how it might be used. Joy Barbosa (Class III) asked for a class set, and I printed 13 of these to be sent home to her students. Luckily, materials were already being gathered to send home to the remote Class III learners, and I was able to include this tool in the boxes.
Ju Yeon Kim (Class K) also liked the idea of having her remote Kindergarten students prop their iPad vertically and project whatever they are drawing or manipulating with their hands. Since I didn’t find any existing models for an iPad, It occurred to me that it would be much more helpful to have a universal device-agnostic mirror holder. I used Tinkercad to modify John’s design and created a model which can lay flat against any laptop or tablet (Macbook, Chromebook, iPad) and requires tape, clothespins, or binder clips to affix to the device!
Here’s a link to my most recent design on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4635969
I ordered a bunch of 2″ square mirrors from Amazon (recommended by John in his blog post) and affixed them to the plastic holder with a hot glue gun. Now to make a few dozen more…
Also, here are some mirrors/holders you can purchase:
- MirrorMeThis from BrightFingers
- iPEVO Mirror-Cam
- Hudoo base for iPad
- Clip version of Hudoo base for iPad
