The Power Of A Camera: 

Using The Chromebook Camera 

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

I was late to the party when it comes to smartphones. I hung on to my LG flip phone for as long as I possibly could. I was perfectly happy being able to make phone calls and fire off a few text messages. As the technology got better, and data and messaging got cheaper, I eventually caved and jumped on the smartphone bandwagon. Immediately I understood the excitement. There were so many apps and so many games that I could engage with and lose track of time! Now that I have had a few iphones I can confidently say that the most underrated tool on this tiny computer is the camera. I use the camera for everything from remembering where I parked my car at the airport to scanning a receipt that I will most certainly lose.

I think we often forget that our students have chromebooks with cameras built in and there are some tools there that are very underutilized. This post will give you just a taste of what your students can do. I would encourage you to encourage them to play around with the camera that is built in and give the tools a test drive. I think that they will find that the camera can be extremely helpful in the classroom. 

How to access the camera on a chromebook:

Click on the app launcher button and then click on the camera app.

When you click on the camera app the camera will be in use.

The chromebook camera allows you to:

• record still photos
• record videos
• record animated gifs which are 5 second clips
• scan a document and convert it to a pdf

Below are instructions for using the chromebook camera, but first, let's look at some of the settings. 

Within the camera app, you have several settings that you can adjust. Have your students give these a try!

• Change the size of the grid, length of the timer, or change the camera resolution
• Select "mirroring" to flip your image from left to right
• Select "grid" to view a grid overlay to help line up your shots
• Select timer to turn on a 3 or 10 second timer
• If you have a second camera, like a document camera, you can click on "switch camera" to change between your external camera and the one that is built in
• When taking a picture you have the option for landscape (default) or square

Where are my pictures?

The pictures will get saved to the Camera folder on our chromebook. To access the images, open the Files app then select "my files" and then "camera".

How do I edit?

You can open and edit any picture you have taken. Here is a list of the editing tools that are built in. It gives you the basics. There are lots of free online photo editing tools that can be used for more robust editing needs.

• Crop and rotate the image
• Rescale the image to resize it
• Lighting filters to adjust exposure, contrast, and saturation
• Annotate to draw on top of the image

Recording a video or GIF

1. Choose "video"
2. Choose "normal" to record a standard video. You have the ability to pause and resume as you need.
3. Or choose "GIF" to record a  5 second animated GIF

Scanning a document

1. Choose "scan" then "document"
2. Line up the document in the frame and take the picture
3. Click "retake" if you need to rescan
4. Click "fix" if you need to adjust the frame
5. Click "save as photo" or "save as pdf" to save your scanned document

Want more support or help for your students? Let us know. We're happy to help.

You can also give the Chromebook Simulator  a try.