QR Codes

I've been talking a lot to one of our fantastic school librarians about utilising QR Codes in the school library.  We decided that my class would have a go at creating QR Code reviews for our junior students.  As each class has 2 iPad 2's in their class, we thought that they could bring them to the library and use them to listen to reviews and recommendations about books.

After a bit of research and the amazing twitterverse I came across a site called QR Voice - which allows you to create voice QR Codes from text.  The only drawback is that it only allows 100 characters! Eek! But this worked out to be quite a fun element to creating our QR Code recommendations.

The following is the step through of the session for developing these in your class.

Developing Voice QR Codes using QRVoice.net

Prior to the creating the QR Codes:

Session 1:
Spend some time together talking about QR Codes - have the students seen them before? Most of my students had seen them out and about but only 1-2 had knowledge of what they were for.  We talked about where we had seen them and then I showed the kids an example of what we were going to do.  This had them hooked in as they loved the QR Code scanning process.

Session 2:
The students self selected a text from our school library that they thought would be a great read for a Year 1/2 student.  This was done a week before the session.  This gave them time to read it in class and to a year 2/3 buddy throughout the week.  It helped them to be more familiar with the text - which is important.

Creating the QR Codes:

We came together around the data projector and went over what we know about QR Codes.  The kids were buddied up in pairs, selected by the teacher for a range of abilities.  Each part was broken up to allow the students to work through each element.  As groups of kids finished I ran quick workshops sharing the next stage.  This worked really well as it allowed us a group of finishers who became experts helping out other students etc.

Step 1 - Creating the recommendation/review

To create the review we encouraged kids to come up with 2-3 keywords from the story that explains the story and would make people want to read that story.  We talked a bit about who our audience was - 5/6 year olds and what would interest them.  We discussed genres and how that would help someone decide if it was a good book for them or not.  The key here is to also remember that QRVoice.net will only allow 100 characters to be used for the QR Code it creates.

An example is the book Boy by Roald Dahl
(This was the class example I used with my year 5/6 students.  My students all used picture books aimed at year 1 and 2 students)

Keywords were:
Funny - funny stories
Tricks - Roald Dahl played a lot of tricks
Autobiography - Roald Dahl as a kid

The next step was to then use these keywords to create 2 sentences that landed under 100 characters.  They would form at least 2 sentences that used the keywords and recommended the book.

Example:

This autobiography is a great read for those that like funny stories and great tricks.

A great read for those people who like funny books, tricks, practical jokes and more in this great read.

An autobiography that shares Roald Dahls funny childhood. Tricks, practical jokes and more.  It's a must read!

From here they then used the 100 characters template to see if it would fit in 100 characters or less.

Step 2: Creating the QR Code

I created a folder on our server that contained everything the students needed for this session.  This included:

- A html link to the QRVoice.net website
(To create this just click on the website address and drag it down to the desktop - it will give you an icon you can quickly click on to link to that website.)
- The 100 hundred characters template
- 100 hundred characters example
- QR Code Template
- Folder for finished QR Codes to go into

You could easily do all of this through google docs but for this session we used Pages as the placeholder for the QR codes.  It was easier to collate them all again at the end and print them.

Students went to QR Voice and typed in their recommendation.

When they were complete they clicked on the blue button to the side and their QR Code was created.

The students then took a screen shot of the QR Code ready for the next step.

The QR Code template was then opened up in Pages.  Students deleted the example QR Code and dropped their new QR Code in it's place.  They then updated the title of the book and reviewer.  Once this was complete the students used 'File' and 'Save As' to create their own saved QR Code into the finished folder.

To help step through this process I included the instructions again on the bottom of the QR Code template - this allowed the students another place to refer to when creating their codes.

An example of the template is below:

The kids then stuck them to the front of their books.  We have been using the class iPod and student devices to access the codes using QR Reader or i-nigma.  The kids have loved sharing their learning with each other and seeing the end product.

QRVoice is a great wee tool - the voice is a bit robotic but it's a bit of fun.  Our next step is to continue using them with our fotobabble book sells and book reviews on our class blogs and websites to share more reviews with our school.  I'm really keen to keep utilising voice and video with the QR Codes to allow access for a range of students across the school.

If you have any other questions please leave a comment and I will get back to you.

You are also able to download the 100 characters template here.

Adding a Google Calendar to your blog

At uLearn I spoke about how I use a Google Calendar embedded into my class blog to help support communication to students and parents.  I've been contacted by a delegate from the conference to find out a bit more about how to make this happen.  So here is a quick and (hopefully) not to painful way to embed a Google calendar into your blog or wiki!

Log into your gmail account - you may need to create one if you don't already have one.

From here click on the 'Calendar' icon at the top of the page (alternatively log straight into your calendar using your Google account details).

Once you're into your calendar it's pretty simple to add appointments into your calendar by double clicking on the calendar and adding in the relevant details.

You can also add in stock standard calendars such as the NZ holidays calendar.  This is as simple as searching within the Google library of calendars down the left hand side of your calendar - click on 'Browse Interesting Calendars'.

When you are ready to share it you need to go to the cog on the top right hand corner of the screen which holds all of the setting options.  Here you need to click on 'Calendar Settings'.

Next is to click on the tab underneath the google logo that says 'Calendars'

All of your calendars will show up underneath the 'Calendars' tab -  you can have multiple calendars and set different audiences.

The first thing you need to do is click on 'Shared: Edit settings' and to then click on the tick box to make your calendar public.  This will allow people to be able to view your calendar without logging in.

Go back to your calendar settings, into the tab 'Calendar' and then click on your calendar.

You will then get another screen which has all your sharing settings.  This is where you have 2 options to either take the web address of your calendar or to take an embed code to embed into a blog page/wiki page etc

 To embed: copy and paste the code from the box on the right into your blog.

I use the calendar address link as I prefer using the standalone page format for the calendar.  So, where is says 'Calendar Address' click on the blue HTML button and copy the page url that it gives you in blue.

You have finished with your calendar for now - it's always a good idea to leave your calendar open in a tab to come back to.  Just incase you want to go back and make changes to your calendar.

The next step is to take a screenshot or find an image that you want the kids to use to get to the calendar.  I used a basic Google calendar text image for the kids.

Now head back to your blog - this tutorial is using blogger so you will have to adjust it slightly if you are using a different blogging format.

In blogger click on your blog title e.g. Electric Eight and then down the left hand side select 'Layout'.

When the layout page comes up - click on the button that says 'Add a Gadget'

From the selection choose 'Picture'

You could also use a range of different gadgets here e.g. the html or text gadgets but I prefer to use an image that the kids can link to the calendar from so I use the 'Picture' gadget.

The Configure Image box will pop up.  This is where you need to paste the link you copied earlier from your calendar into the 'Link' box.  In the 'Title' box give your calendar a name e.g. What's on? Our Calendar! etc  You then need to click on 'Upload an image' and upload your image from earlier.  Once this is loaded it will show up next to the work 'image' in the box.  Lastly, click on 'save'.

You'll see in the layout window that your gadget for your calendar will be at the top.  You can click and move this gadget around within the list so that it's in the place you would like it to be.  It doesn't have to stay at the top of your sidebar!

Last step! Click on 'Save arrangement' to save your new gadget.

Then click on 'View Blog' and down the left hand side of your blog you should see the gadget you have just added!

Click on your image in the sidebar to make sure that your calendar is showing up!

You now have a class calendar!

Extra goodies for people that like pretty things!

Just a little bit of an extra step here if you are interested in tweaking your calendar or changing the way it looks.  Go back to your calendar settings, into the tab 'Calendar' and then click on your calendar.

You will then get another screen which has all your sharing settings.

Where you would take the embed code there is a small piece of writing in blue that says

'Customize the color, size and other options' click on this to customise your blog.

It will give you a screen where you can change the look and format of your calendar.

One bonus here is that if you click on 'Agenda' under 'Default view' it will give you a list format of the calendar that can easily be embedded straight into your side bar using the embed code and a html gadget.

Example of what an Agenda view is:

Hope this helps you get started with adding a Google calendar to your class blog.  If you have any questions or would like anything clarified or if you have a great tip to make this process even simpler leave a comment!

ECE Hui

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of being invited to present a workshop at the Central North and Upper North Island Early Childcare Hui at Pt England School. I had heard rumours that the day would be good, but I was blown away by the whole event and it's organisation. From the amazing people at CORE who organised it (Naketa and crew) through to the keen participants of the day - it was a well spent Saturday!

The day started with the 2 keynote speakers - Jane Nicholls and Derek Wenmoth. I am always interested in what these two people have to say about e-learning and the journey that is happening.

Image used under CC: AlohaMamma

The first workshop looked at how blogs had been used to as the portal for learning stories to strengthened the home-school partnership. I was amazed at how much time and effort had been invested by these teachers to upskill the students and the parents. 1-1 sessions had been undertaken where the teachers worked with families to teach them logging in, leaving comments and more. It has taken alot of hours to develop this and now the centre is working on a 'family asks' basis for the learning stories to be given this way and the families must ensure that they are willing to put in the same amount of hours as the centre. It was refreshing to see how much family involvement was going on with these blogs and how many of the families and students that had left the centre had undertaken ownership of the blog and carried it on. What a powerful way to show learning over the course of a school career or lifetime!!

My next session wowed me in the way the students own interest and passions shone through in what the students were doing and the way they were learning. Their passions were the learning. This is where a lightbulb really turned on in my head in regards to the degree of difference in what is happening in ECE to Primary education. The centre running the workshop talked a lot about students interests and passions and developing those in the centre as the central idea to the learning. Students were involved in learning experiences that breached home to school and back and involved a range of people. Having taught juniors but not spent alot of time in ECE centres this has made me re-think more about how the first year of primary is so far removed from what happens in alot of these centres.

While not on a whole, I think many junior primary teachers would get a shock to see what e-learning experiences their students are involved in before they enter their classes at 5 years of age. I had the chance to talk to several ECE educators about the transition period from ECE to primary and how hard it is. There seems to be several schools who are developing close networks with the schools around them to (see Grasslands Kindergarten blog and their links to Rhode Street School). We are currently looking at getting some of our junior teachers into visit some ECE centres. Also I am keen to look around at what is happening at our ECE centres where our students come from - how this meets with what we are doing and expecting from our students when they arrive at our school from these centres.

Booktalk - Creating Success Criteria

We started the process by utilising their prior knowledge of the genre of reviews. We discussed all the elements that make a good review, what would they want to read or know in a review?

The important elements included:
* Setting of the book
* It's interesting - makes you want more!
* Makes sense
* Author/Title
* Characters
* Plot
* Catchy introduction
* A rating system

We then used these elements to create a review plan that was a checklist for all the things we would expect to see in a book review. This was then created in Kidspiration (mind mapping software) so that it could be saved for students to use when planning their reviews.


















Success criteria for our reviews was then developed with the students. As a group they discussed all the things they would expect to see in a good review. They also took into consideration that the 2 digital tools we are planning to use (glogster and garagband podcast) for our first round are different due to the written and oral presentation styles and factored this into the success criteria:


















The next step was creating their rating system.