tech tuesday

Tech Tuesday: Google Earth

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Google Earth:  More than “Miss, I can see my house!”

I remember when I first learned about Google Earth.  My students and I were fascinated by typing in our street address and zoom in so we could distinguish the roof of our school and then even the fence line of our backyards!  A view of our own little world and community from space provided us with a new perspective into how we related to the world around us.

When I was really on fire about Google Earth, I would pull it up, type in the name of a city or address or continent and display it for my classes to help them understand the geographical context of a story or author we were studying.  This was high-tech stuff for me as an English teacher. 

But, Google Earth goes far beyond “you are here.”  Did you know that Google Earth has features such as push pins, narration, tours, recording, annotation, embedding media, and so much more?!  Check out the  video to see some of the basic features while navigating in Google Earth.

For a hands-on experience, go to Tour of Google Earth’s features.

Of course, Google Earth is much, much more than merely zooming in and out to find landmarks.  Below is a list of popular tools in GE and how they can be used in the classroom (borrowed from Google Earth’s Education Resources): 

Classroom Resources: Features for My Class

Fly to the Sky: With Sky in Google Earth your students can explore Hubble telescope images, check out current astronomical events, study the proportions of different planets, measure their size, and observe the relative brightness of stars. You’ll capture the wonder of the universe without leaving your classroom. Learn More! Easy

View Historical Imagery: With the timeslider, view historical imagery to study the construction process of large buildings such as sports stadiums. You can also see how communities have developed by comparing the city layout of past and present. Learn More! Easy

View 3D Buildings :With 3D buildings Google Earth students have entire city landscapes at their finger tips. They can explore specific skyscrapers, public landmarks, famous ancient architecture, and even study city planning techniques and trends.  With Google SketchUp students can recreate entire ancient cities within Earth. Learn More! Average

Draw and Measure: Discover the world’s tallest building or the world’s highest mountain peak by using the ruler tool to measure skyscrapers and mountains. You can mark off specific regions you have studied, or want to come back to using the polygon tool. Learn More! Average

Create a Tour: Students can create customized tours to share with their classmates. For example, they can build context around a novel by creating a tour of all the places mentioned in the book. Or, they can make a tour to highlight all the major rain-forests effected by deforestation. Learn More! Average 




Google does a terrific job supporting educators and integrating Google tools into instruction.  If you are curious about how Google Earth could be incorporated into your content area, check out the Projects for My Subject page.

Google Lit Trips

As an English teacher and librarian, I am particularly excited about Google Lit Trips!  Teachers and students can browse the many Google Lit Trip tours already created to explore the geographical locations and landmarks in their favorite stories.  

Here is a tour featuring the mythological and present day locations of The Odyssey.  To view the tour, you will first need to download Google Earth and then download the kmz (Google Earth extension file name) for The Odyssey. Trust me–it is well worth the two clicks it takes to view it!  The tour includes a 3D map of the locations along Odysseus’ journey, excerpts from the epic, photos, tour guides with facts and further details about each landmark, and more!  


Check out this video using Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner as another example:





Not only can teachers and students browse the many Lit Trips already created, but they can create them as well for their favorite stories!  For more video tutorials on creating Google Lit Trips check out YouTube and Vimeo!  

Google Earth is also available as an app for a smart device, allowing students to view and create projects using their personal devices.  Perhaps a Google Lit Trip or similar resource might make for a great Flipped classroom introduction or “View” in VESTED!

So let’s hear it!  How could Google Earth be used in your content area?  


This entry was posted in flipped, google, tech tuesday, VESTED, web 2.0.

Tech Tuesday: The Flipped Classroom

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Tech Tuesday:  The Flipped Classroom 

(heads-up to the new buzz word coming down the pipe)

Are you flippin’ kidding me?!  Yet another buzz-word, topic of discussion for faculty meetings, initiatives, seeds, pilots…they just never end do they 🙂  Nor should they!

I, too, tired of the endless onslaught of programs, anachronisms, and pilots, but let’s keep some perspective and remember that the business of education cannot become static.  It is in our best interest to continue reflecting, examining, and being critical of the practices and tools we bring to our students.  Do they truly represent the demands and learning styles of a digitally-savvy generation?

Today I present you with a little nugget of an idea that a few of you have already started to nibble at:  the flipped classroom.

Here’s some food for thought:




Don’t you just love infographics?!  They make blogging so easy 🙂

Is this idea entirely revolutionary and unique?  No, there are many other names and variations out there (front-loading, anticipation guides, schema theory,  VESTED).  What might be novel to some folks is the idea of employing technology as a tool to do these things.  The infographic touts some impressive (and hard-to-believe) statistics for one flipped school.  I’d be very curious to see this tried in one class for one week. My Big Campus is a terrific fit for this approach with the extensive Library resources, ability to upload YouTube videos, and learning tools such as discussions, chats, and assignment.

Heck, I’ll even pitch in and help gather resources and organize the content into MBC!  Take me up on it, seriously, let’s see what happens just for one week…

For dessert, visit Khan Academy, and take a little test drive for some possible videos you could use as part of a flip:

http://www.khanacademy.org/

I even grabbed one for the electoral college to re-post just to tickle your taste buds…





This entry was posted in flipped, information technology, MBC, tech tuesday, VESTED, web 2.0.

Tech Tuesday: My Big Campus

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Tech Tuesday:  My Big Campus, a safe online classroom platform

What if we could create an educational mash-up of Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, Google, chat rooms, Twitter, and more?  Why couldn’t we?  In fact, it’s been done.  What began as Light Speed’s answer to providing safe access to YouTube videos for educational purposes has turned into a full online classroom experience.  My Big Campus, with it’s familiar look and feel, allows teachers and students to connect virtually during and outside the school day.  Complete with full filtering, tracking, and 24/7 monitoring, MBC utilizes the same LightSpeed system as on campus.
Groups–Getting started is easy-peasy!  Teachers and students are already registered.  In fact, when you click on your groups, you will see each class period and subject already organized into groups.Students will see each of their classes as well.  Click on a group to enter the online classroom for that class period.
Inside groups students can see announcements, respond to discussions, attend a chat session for tutorials, view additional pages, submit assignments, and view a dynamic course calendar. 

“Right now, I am loving the calendar feature.  Each morning I put our physics plan for the day on the calendar and in the description portion I let the students that are absent know what they will need to do in order to make-up their missing work for the day.  I no longer have to answer the dreaded question “I was absent yesterday, did I miss anything?” ~ Camren Robinson

In addition to groups, teachers and students have access to Conversations, a messaging feature, Schoolwork–the feature that allows students and teachers to create and access many types of assignments.  Bundles allow teachers to create online units of study to align with curriculum. Teachers can upload YouTube videos, pdfs, word docs, and jpegs to “bundle” together to create an engaging extended classroom.
“Your Stuff” provides students and teachers with an online drop box to save and access their work.  Since it is web-based, students can retrieve and upload their work anywhere they have internet access.

Both students and teachers can maintain a blog through MBC.  Blogs allow for a personalized platform to reflect on learning in any content area. 

“This year, I’ve been pushing for my students to improve their writing skills when describing a scientific process or concept. This gives me, as a teacher, a much clearer idea of what they understand and what they are confused about. Writing about science also helps the students to think critically (with an appropriate prompt) about the concepts and helps with retention. Through the first couple of weeks I was met with strong resistance and lazy writing samples. This aspect has vastly improved as the students become more comfortable with using writing to portray their ideas. Not too long ago, I introduced my classes to My Big Campus. That day was a shining beacon of engagement as the students were instantly hooked. My students now write science blogs using My Big Campus to practice writing while using a rubric. I had students get so excited about blogging that they wanted to go home and start their own personal blog. The students seem to be disconnected from the notion that blogging IS writing! My Big Campus, in conjunction with my teacher webpage, has been an invaluable resource for my classroom.” ~Brendon Lowe

One of the most useful features in MBC is the Library.  Teachers can search for content that has been uploaded into bundles to pull into a bundle for their class.  They can also upload additional content and share with team members.

My Big Campus extends the learning experience beyond the four walls of the classroom.  Students engage in learning through a safe, social platform drawing upon their digital awareness and habits to support learning in all content areas.  Teachers can now be a resource beyond the traditional school areas through features such as chat, conversations, and discussions. 
Stay tuned for a video introduction to MBC following the after school workshop on October 23rd.  (Link will be posted below)

This entry was posted in apps, MBC, tech tuesday, web 2.0.

Tech Tuesday: Apps for Animation

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Tech Tuesday:  GoAnimate and Sock Puppets

A few weeks ago, Jennifer Morgan, French teacher extraordinarie, came to me with an idea.  “How,” she asked, “could I take advantage of one of these animation apps that I’ve found to engage my students in tasks that require them to use their conversation skills?”
Jennifer already had the free app, Sock Puppets in mind, as one tool, but she also wanted an option for students who did not have smart phones or tablets that they could bring to class.  We determined that the best way to bridge the technology gap would be to find a web-based animation application, similar to Sock Puppets that allows students to create characters, establish a setting, and record their voices for the dialogue.  GoAnimate.com provided several free templates to create animated scenes.
I’ve asked Madame Morgan to be my guest on the blog this week, and she graciously accepted. 
Here is our conversation as we reflected on her use of apps to support students in reaching their learning objectives:
What were your instructional goals for this project?
 My students needed to take a spoken test to show they could carry on a basic conversation in French.  By creating a video, they actually were able to show more of their knowledge, because they performed both sides of the conversation.  These videos were able to show me their ability with the language and the pronunciation of French.

Why did you choose GoAnimate and Sock Puppets?

Sock Puppets is the Apple app – both programs allowed students to record their voices onto pre-made characters to create short videos.  Both programs had different parameters, and I really liked both of them.  Sock Puppets will actually change the student’s voice (they can set it to go higher or lower) and that was really fun for them.  Also, Sock Puppets allows 30 seconds of recording time in the free version.  GoAnimate, on the other hand, didn’t have a time limit, but instead limits students to only 10 lines of dialogue.  In order to include all the required parts of conversation, my students definitely had to get a little creative!  GoAnimate does not alter voices, but it has a wide variety of settings for the videos, and you can change the emotions of the characters.
Can you tell us a little about how you prepared your students to use the apps?
               
 I had created a few samples on each program that I showed my students before they got started.  Then during class I also projected the program and showed them how to get started, up to how to record their voices.  After that, I pretty much let them work on their own – and most of them didn’t need any additional support.  Those that did I was easily able to help.

What obstacles, limitations, or surprises did you encounter?

I had booked the COWs [computers on wheels] for two days, “just in case” and boy did we need BOTH days!!  Neither of the programs we used allow you to save your work and edit/add to it later, so most of my kids spent the first day choosing their characters and settings, and testing out the program they were using.  Then on the second day they were able to come into class, get their device and start recording their final project right away.
Overall, how do you feel the use of these tools impacted student engagement and learning?  Will you use them again
 I think doing the conversations digitally was really fun for the students, and therefore they were definitely engaged in the process.  The videos also made the process much less stressful for my shy kids, as they tend to get intimidated by spoken tests where they have to approach me one-on-one.  Those type of tests still have their place, but this was a great alternative.  As a teacher, I personally really enjoyed many of the videos my students produced – they were really funny, so it was also more enjoyable for me to grade than having them come up to my desk one-on-one.  Although it took two class periods to complete, it would have taken that long for me to do spoken tests, and it was much easier to grade since I could re-play the videos at will.

What are the benefits to using applications and web 2.0 tools for animation?

  • engages students in the learning process as they synthesize content into a digital story
  • supports collaboration between students through the writing process:  brainstorming, story-boarding, drafting, revising, publishing
  • a task with an identified audience of their peers, other students, YouTube, etc. provides relevance along with rigor

We’d love to hear your thoughts regarding possible extensions and adaptations of this project in your content area!  Feel free to leave any questions or thoughts for Mme. Morgan as well.

This entry was posted in apps, digital story, information technology, tech tuesday, VESTED, web 2.0.

Tech Tuesday: Socrative, Mobile Classroom Response

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Tech Tuesday (again…late, by 6 days!  oy vey…):  Socrative.com

My apologies for my tardiness.  Last week, I was able to demonstrate a fantastic mobile app and website that allows teachers to create response activities for students.  The fifty or so teachers who sat in on my demonstration were so very patient with my technology flubs and mishaps.  I promised to be more organized in my blog post, so here it goes!

Overview:

I’m the queen of sticky notes.  I love sticky notes for reminders,  annotations, brainstorming, and exit passes with my students.  Sticky notes were my go-to tool for a quick glimpse at what my students walked away with from our lesson that day.  Now, although still love, sticky notes are a little archaic (and costly).  Socrative (socrative.com) offers a way for teachers to engage students in checking for their understanding before, during, or after a lesson.  Students and teachers can access the various tools through the website or the free app. 
How does it work?
The teacher creates an account and is provided with a room number.  After creating an activity (multiple choice, true/false, short answer), students can then enter the classroom by typing in the number the teacher provides them.  That is all they need to do!  No creating an account, logging in, etc.  Easy-peasy.  Socrative asks for the student to enter their name before responding to the activity, allowing the teacher to see who submitted which responses.  Once the time for the activity is up, the teacher can view the results.
Applications
Socrative would be a quick and engaging way to assess student’s prior knowledge, enthusiasm, and attitudes towards concepts and topics that will be discussed in class that day.  During a lesson, students can also submit a response as a “check for understanding.”  At the end of the day, the teacher can post an activity as an exit pass that will help him or her plan for learning.
Limitations
Since Socrative allows for multiple students to use the same device, this is not one of those apps that requires one device per student.  
I invite you to try it out!  Let me know what you think.  Did this mobile tool help to enhance student engagement and learning?   

This entry was posted in apps, byod, tech tuesday, VESTED.

Glolgster…not your ordinary poster project.

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Tech Tuesday #6:  Glogster–Virtual Posters

Thanks to a very unwelcome visit from the stomach-flu fairy, I missed yesterdays Tech Tuesday posting :-(.  So this week I am presenting Tech Tuesday on Wednesday!

Everyday I have teachers ands tudents asking me about technology tools for class presentations.  They are eager to move beyond the traditional stand-and-present poster project or click-and-read PowerPoint (this makes my heart happy).  Today I present Glogster, an interactive poster creator.  Gloster allows the creator to create a mash-up of video, images, text, and graphics to create a virtual poster.  View the VoiceThread tutorial below for a basic introduction of the educational version of glogster (edu.glogster.com).


Ideas for Glogs:
  • Book reviews
  • Advertisements
  • “About me” presentations
  • Compare/ Contrast ideas or topics
  • Illustrate concepts
  • Extend and Deliver in VESTED


Have you or your students glogged?  Tell us about it!

This entry was posted in book review, glogster, information technology, presentation, tech tuesday, VESTED.

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Tech Tuesday #5

Google Custom Search Engines



I ❤ Google!  I love Google forms, Google docs, Google doodles, Google Scholar…the list goes on and on.  And, I have a furvent longing to one day attend Google Teacher Academy, if I could ever get around to making that dang application video…Today, I love Google Custom Search Engine (google.com/cse).  Let me tell you why:

Yesterday, I caught wind of a little research project being conducted in our English II pre-AP classes over a little book called Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.  The teacher graciously allowed me to take a look at the assigment handout, which led students through a webquest, exploring various topics relating to Nigerian history, culture, and the author himself.  On the assignment page, specific websites were listed for students to access depending on their topic.  I saw a library-infiltration opportunity and pounced!

(Time-out for a little soap-box on teaching students information and research skills.)




Used with permission from the creator, Sean Gallo, http://www.seangallo.com

 You may or may not be familiar with the addage, “How do you eat an elephant?…One bite at a time!”  This is the image that comes to mind when I am asked, “How do you teach high school students to be critical consumers of information, digital citizens, and researchers?”  One “byte” at a time, friends.

More often than not, research seems to be a “stop-and-do” unit of exhausting, lengthy days in the library or computer lab.  Students and teachers spend days and weeks pounding away at research topics, meeting minimal requirements for number of sources, note cards, direct quotes, working toward completing a checklist of research tasks rather than engaging in transformative, authentic inquiry.  Rather than pushing research back and back until afetr “the test” or reserving it until May when we’re eager to mark the days off of our calendars until summer, my proposition is this:  let’s teach narrow and in depth–one bite at a time. 

Google Custom Searches allow us to streamline one part of the inquiry process (exploring and searching) so that students can dig deeper into another part of the inquiry process.  Here’s what you can do as a teacher or librarian to help “cut the meat” for our young researchers:

2.  Select “Create New Search Engine”

3.  Give your search engine a title, description, and copy and paste websites that you have pre-selected as appropriate, credible sources for students to explore the topic in depth.

You can choose various formats and looks for your search engine, turn off the advertisements since you are using it for educational purposes, keep track of analytics (statistics that show usage), and even embed the CSE into a blog or web page.  If you don’t want to embed, you can copy and paste the direct link to share with students. 


Sometimes we need to be a Momma-bird and do a little “pre-chewing” for our students to ease digestion (tired of the zoological metaphors???  Got it.)  We can support students’ inquiry by providing them pre-selected sources so that they can then dedicate their attention to narrowing the focus of their inquiry, effective note-taking, documenting sources, synthesizing information, or presenting their understandings about the topic. 

Would we want to give them a CSE everytime they do research?  No, they need to learn to take the first bite, but perhaps we give them support in another area instead.  Once they have all the smaller pieces mastered, then they can fully engage in the transformative power of inquiry-driven research…and fully enjoy the elephant in its entirety (couldn’t help it that one).

Talk to your librarian about collaborating to create Google Custom Search Engines for your next research adventure!  Take a look at the library page I created to support students as they conducted research relating to Things Fall Apart.  Special thanks to Christina Salcido and Erin Mathews for allowing me to crash their research party 🙂

Sneak peak for next week’s Tech Tuesday blog:  Social bookmarking for student collaboration…Pinterest, Diigo, and Delicious

Check out some CSEs that I’ve created for various inquiry units:

This entry was posted in google, research, tech tuesday.

VoiceThread: Online Collaborative Presentation Tool

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Tech Tuesday #4:  VoiceThread

We’ve all been there.  Sitting in a meeting, our eyes start to cross, ears start tuning out as another PowerPoint presentation clicks, clicks, clicks through various slides.  Not that PowerPoint isn’t a terrific tool to present information, but with all of the options for today’s students to synthesize and publish information in unique ways, perhaps we should begin to consider it as an option rather than the default.

Today we’re exploring a free, web-based tool that allows students to create video presentations by mixing images, videos, documents, presentations, and comments (voice and text).  VoiceThread (voicethread.com) allows the user to create a project and share it with collaborators.  They can then create a project together but remotely, solving the problem of when and how they will find the time and resources to create a presentation in a single file. 

To demonstrate the various tools and uses for Voice Thread, Here’s a VoiceThread on VoiceThread! 

What possibilities do you see for VoiceThread with your students?  Leave us your comments 🙂

This entry was posted in digital story, information technology, presentation, tech tuesday.

Remind101: A Safe Communication Tool for Students, Parents, and Teachers

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 Technology Tuesday #2

Yesterday, I was at my parents’ house for our Labor Day smorgasbor. My niece Kylie, a high school senior, received a message on her phone during dinner (not an uncommon phenomenon in our family).  Our conversation continued as normal while she flipped to her text message screen.  “Oh, good,” she said, “I’m glad she reminded us.”  Immediately, my ears tuned-in with the topic of today’s blog fresh on my mind.  Something told me I was witnessing an example of the exact tool I hoped to share with you for this installment of Tech Tuesday.  I decided to be nosey and ask her about the message.  She turned the screen my direction and sure enough, I was right!  From an unidentified number, the message read, “Don’t forget to bring your ASL II textbook to class tomorrow.”  



Signing up is free and easy!



Kylie was eager to tell me all about the ways that her ASL teacher was using this new website, remind101.com.  The site is a free tool for educators that allows them to send messages via text to their students through an private number.  Privacy is retained on both ends of the message;  the student does not have access to the teacher’s private phone number, nor does the teacher know the students!  Cha-ching! In addition to texts, students and parents can receive messages through email. I asked her what the class thought of the tool, and she shared that her classmates loved it and wished that all their teachers used it. 



Create classes with custom tags.
 students enroll themselves through text or email. 
Select which classes will receive the message.
You can even tell it when to send the message
 if you want to schedule them in advance.



I hear a lot of rumbling from colleagues about communication with students.  Often times, teachers are “encouraged” to use district-created sites that are burdensome and difficult to maintain to communicate with students and teachers.  While ideally, all teacher pages would be networked through the same service, contain the same features, and tools, these sites can be just as difficult for students and parents to access, involving multiple “clicks” and browsing to locate an individual teacher’s page.  The reality is that teachers want  to get information to their students and students want to be informed.  Distributing your pesonal phone number to students, although convenient, may not always be the safest way to maintain communication.  Many districts have created privacy policies that prohibit teachers from contacting students through personal numbers or Facebook pages, citing federal privacy laws. (See more about Texas’ student privacy laws and FERPA ) 
Students feel connected to their teacher when they recieve updates, reminders, and announcements through text or email.  The teacher is “speaking their language.”  For educators, remind101 allows them to distribute information quickly and safely while complying with privacy laws and policies. 
With Open House right around the corner, you might consider setting up your classes on remind101 and invite parents to subscribe.  The website provides .PDF handouts with your customized information that can be distributed to parents and students.  There is very little work for the teacher when creating classes as students and teachers subscribe themselves to a class using a customized number and code.   
When communication is clear, concise, and consistent, students are free to engage in learning rather than becoming bogged in the amount of information and tasks distributed to them over the course of a school day. Parents, too, appreciate the free-flow of information as stakeholders in their child’s education. Remind101 is one of many free services that helps students become task-managers and supports their success.
A video tutorial is available on Vimeo for Remind101. 
Curious about other web-based tools that can support communication and even be integrated into instruction?  Check out Twitter!
Twitter in Education
Quentin Donellan’s Blog about using Twitter as an instructional tool.


This entry was posted in information technology, tech tuesday.

Prezi and QR: The Next Wave of Information Delivery

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Tech Tuesday #1

Welcome to the first edition of Tech Tuesday!  Each Tuesday I will post a blog that highlights technology tools for instructional use.  This week, I thought we’d take some time to explore two tools that I shared with the staff at Fossil Ridge High School as part of library orientation:  Prezi and QR Codes.

Both of these tools have the potential to engage an audience by disseminating information through Web 2.0 tools and smart apps.  Both are free (whoop!) and both are rather intuitive for the presenter and the audience.



Click on the logo to go to the site



Prezi

Prezi has taken the 20th century PowerPoint presentation into the 21st Century by creating a program that is web-based–enhancing accessibility for creators–and adding dynamic layers, motion, and animation to present a variety of media and information.  Imagine an animated mash-up of your best PowerPoints, videos, images, and text and voila!  Prezi. 

You might consider using a Prezi when introducing a new concept, unit, or theme (Think “view” in VESTED).  Even a three-four minute “viewing” could jump start students’ natural curiousity and help to build background.  Open House is coming up soon; play with transforming your PowerPoint into a Prezi to wow your parents.  Using the html code, you can even embed your Prezi on your class web page to provide an engaging introduction.

Students can use Prezi as a vehicle to synthesize information and create original presentations through a “mash-up” of media .  Since it is online and free, access is open to all students.  Students can collaborate to create the Prezi together on their own devices whether from home or at school. Prezi has also created an iPad app that allows the user to download and view shared and saved presentations.  The editing feature, however, is limited and not very conducive to enhancing the presentation through the iPad.

To get staretd, go to Prezi.com, create an account and watch a couple of their easy-to-follow video tutorials.  Start small and give yourself plenty of time to become comfortable with the tool before trying it out on an audience.


Check out some of these teacher Prezis for more ideas!

Class Introductions:

http://prezi.com/2htasu7bcu5p/gateway-to-technology/
http://prezi.com/e2makxvuy4xg/la-rentree/

MLK Jr.
http://prezi.com/wxyivaj-4yoq/martin-luther-king-jr/
Jazz History
http://prezi.com/uh_7jvp0ykpf/great-jazz-bassists-and-their-influence-through-the-ages/]

 

Quick Response “QR” Codes





QR codes are customizable barcodes that allow the presenter to provide quick links to online resources such as pages, videos, blogs, forms, etc.  To create a QR Code, go to one of the several QR Code Generator sites such as:
After pasting in a link, the generator will provide you with a downloadable .jpeg or .png file that can be inserted as an image into a document. QR codes can even be scanned off of a screen during a presentation (you might remember the funny looking barcode at the end of my library orientation presentation).
Your audience can then use their smart phones to scan the code and go directly to the information.  All they need is one of several free QR Reader apps:
Different apps are available for various cellular devices (Android, iPhone, etc.). 
What type of information works well with QR Codes?  Online forms, videos, blogs, teacher websites all work well on smart phone devices.  You might stear clear from using QR codes on smart phones for pages that include a lot of visual information or text as they can be difficult to read on a phone unless the site has a mobile version.  QR codes work great when integrated with instruction to respond to surveys and forms or to quickly link students to class pages and frequently used sites.  One school last year posted their individual class websites on each teacher door at open house.  Parents scanned the QR code and automatically received contact and class information to their devices.
Check out this article from t.h.e Journal showcasing one high school science teacher’s experiences with integrating mobile device technology and QR codes into his classroom.
We are continually bombarded with information delievered in innovative and engaging ways.  Rather than rowing against the tide, let’s harness a few tools to help our students be more critical consumers who can create new solutions and innovations as a result of the unlimited amount of information at their fingertips.
Have you used a Prezi or QR code in your class?  We’d love to hear about your successes and struggles in the comments below!

This entry was posted in apps, information technology, presentation, tech tuesday, VESTED.