We started a few years ago with a few donated platform elmos from a private school. We also had a few donated Dell projectors. These were put into our4th grade classrooms and the teachers and students immediately loved them. The first realization was that they replaced the overhead projectors and as you alluded to, allowed all the students to easily view the material being shared. It's great that they no longer have to worry about transparencies and all of the overhead accruements and accessories. No more markers and cleaning. Besides the books and handouts, all objects were easily presentable. Even though the Elmos were older and analog (could not interact with a computer like the new Document Cameras), they were already a great teaching improvement.

After investigating the different products, we decided to test out Avermedia and they've come through with high marks for quality, price, and service. For me, service is the most important issue as there are so many competing products. The Avermedia organization has shown an affinity for supporting the educational community.

With the tremedous support of our PTO, all of our classroom teachers will start this new school year with a Avermedia 355AF document camera and a Dell 1210s Video Projector. We went with the 1210s as it's extremely cost effective at only ~$440.00 and really all you need for a classroom environment. The whole package of doc cam and video projector is a relative good buy compared to other solutions and allows our teachers to move into the next level of teaching tools.

I'm thinking of ways to use the donated Elmos as they are still great tools and originally cost in the thousands of dollars to purchase. They'll probably become stand alone learning stations that students might be able to operate. With an inexpensive monitor, they'll be a great learning center. Good luck with your effort to get a document camera into your classroom!