Minolta DiMage Xt Digital Camera

$380, Windows, Macintosh

Teaches: photography, creativity, anecdotal records

CTR Review

Here's a little secret weapon for anecdotal records. This deck-of-cards sized camera lets you snap clear 3.2 mega pixel pictures on the fly. The best feature besides the size is that it takes just a little more than a second to warm up-- so you can quickly snap a picture of a child's block structure, drawing or first written words. Besides taking pictures, the camera also records sounds, so you can provide voice annotations for each picture. Be warned that the menus are complex, and plan on taking a weekend (or two) to figure out all the features, but once you do, this camera will become a trusted classroom companion. A charging cradle makes it easy to keep the batteries fresh (just keep it on your desk). While we'd like it to be easier to use, this is a powerful way to take anecdotal records. The camera plugs directly into any Mac OSX or Windows XP computer.