Making a teacher’s work life easier is a promise that most technology companies promote, but very rarely are able to deliver. When you find a technology that is simple to use and makes everyday classroom tasks easier, you have to hold on and never let go.

My name is Amy Kelly and I am a high school social studies teacher in Western Maryland. I have been teaching for 9 years and have tested a lot of new theories and technologies within my own classes. When I discovered a company called Gradecam who promised to grade my assessments with any camera device and provide me specific data on students’ progress, I was immediately intrigued.

How could that be possible? How will that change my teaching? How will that change my grading practices? These are all questions that kept floating in my mind. Then I tried Gradecam, and time and again this technology proved to revolutionize how I taught and reflected in my classroom. It has created a culture of trust with my students in that they will receive immediate relevant feedback and that they can own their own grades and be held accountable to them.

At ISTE 2019, I was introduced to so many technologies. One however, stood out above the rest. That was the HUE HD Pro document camera. I’ll be honest, they had me at ‘hello’ with their design. It is small, sleek and in the coolest colors. I saw it in action and I couldn’t wait to try it myself. When the time came, I realized that it was so easy to set up and easy to move, which made it the perfect device to make it easy to score with Gradecam.

My students continue to comment on how awesome it is. With the Gradecam and the HUE document camera, I can get all my grading done before I leave for the day. The camera easily scans all the different forms that Gradecam offers and best of all, my students find it really easy to score their own assessments with the HUE document camera.

Then I discovered the video capture function on the HUE Intuition software that comes with the HUE HD Pro document camera and I quickly began to record How To videos in order to help my freshman learn the steps on using Gradecam. This device makes my teaching life easier daily.

Guest post written by Amy Kelly (Social Studies Teacher , Clear Spring High School, MD, USA).

Find out more, subscribe to our blog, download resources, contact us or follow us on social media.