As my students are now very familiar with QR codes I have decided to integrate a very simple addition to my worksheets. To put it simply I have started inserting QR codes. Basically the QR code can be scanned to reveal extra information about the worksheet . For example a QR code could easily link to hidden text, a video on youtube, an automated SMS message, audio, pictures or any website you deem relevant to the worksheet. The best thing about it is the process of creating QR codes is very very simple making it all to easy to make your worksheets much more than a piece of paper. Here is how you do it.

1. When creating a worksheet, leave a spot for a QR Code
2. Visit a QR code generating website such as http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
3. Enter your desired information into the template and select ‘generate’
4. The QR code will quickly be generated and you can then copy and paste the code onto your worksheets

At this point it is up to the students to scan the code, which will then link to the content you have entered into the QR code, which could indeed be anything you like. No matter what you decided to include within the QR code, this idea makes it all too easy for you to extend a worksheet far beyond what is nothing more than a boring piece of paper.

This video is simply excellent and certainly supports the notion that we will choose to do that which we find fun over that which is dull and boring anyday. Thankfully, this has always remained at the forefront of my mind when planning my lessons. So what do you think? Isn’t it so true?

Thanks to www.thefuntheory.com

As some of you may be aware I have finally purchased an iPhone and couldnt be happier. To put it simply they are simply amazing and certainly get me really excited about the future of mobile learning. Anyway I decided that I would try to avoid posting too much about its features given the fact that most people still don’t have one, however I couldnt pass up the opportunity to share my ideas about using it to create virtual tours. So here it is…

The idea uses the Run Keeper app which comes in both a free and pro version ($12.99 AUD). Run Keeper uses the iPhones GPS to enable users to track their outdoor activities and then have them displayed on a Google Map for review at a later stage. Not only is your path recorded but your distance, speed, pace and elevation are logged making for a powerful workout analysis.  On completion your information is automatically sent to the Runkeeper website and can also be auto shared with social networks. Anyway the feature that becomes the most important element of my idea is the ability to take geotagged pictures during your activity which are referenced to the place at which they were taken.

For a more detailed explanation check out the screencast that will take you through all of the features and share a few ideas of how it could be used in classes outside of Phys Ed and Outdoor Ed.

Sound interesting? Check out the link to my tour of my town ‘Boort’, which includes some of the main attractions. Now we might not be at the stage where our students have iPhones, but there is no reason why schools couldnt invest in the technology. One iPhone would bring about endless possibilities with our students, including activities like this.

So what do you think? Could this be used in your classroom? How could you make a  virtual tour? What would your virtual tour be about?

All I can say is ‘Bring it On’……I simply cannot wait to harness the power of these new devices in schools when we have guaranteed saturation amongst our students. What sort of possibilities will this open up, what sort of problems may arise?

Credits go to www.mocom2020.com

Remember those books where at the end of every page you had the choice to turn to say page 15 or page 35 depending on how you wanted the story to eventuate? Well for a long time now I’ve been thinking about how well this idea would work with QR codes in the place of page numbers. Here’s what I want to do.

1. Go to a QR code generator website such as http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/
2. Select the ‘text’ option to bring up the template to create a QR code that contains text and select the barcode size as ‘Large’
3. Write a piece of your story or copy and paste from a document.
4. At the end of the section leave an option to “scan code 2 to …..” or scan code 3 to …..”
5. Hit the ‘Generate’ button to create a QR code that contains the text you entered in the template.
6. The reader then scans the CODE 1, to read the start of the story and then has the choice to scan different codes depending on how they would like the story to turn out (See the example below)

Once you have generated all of the codes you need you could then print them out and stick them onto an A4 piece of paper with the appropriate number written above. For example QR code 1 would be stuck onto a piece of paper marked with the number 1. You would then scatter the codes throughout the room or around the school and give kids a map that outlined the general location of all the codes.

They would then start scanning their codes, starting with code 1 reading the story and then ‘choosing their own adventure’ which would lead them to a new code and the next part of the story. This would continute until they had completed the entire short story and returned back to the original code.

Now I must admit an activity like this may take some time to set up, however the fact that it is very simple to create a QR code using the generator means students could easily write their own stories using this method.  In my opinion this would be well worth the effort and prove to be a highly engaging way to read and write a story. What do you think?

For information on how you can get QR code reader software onto your cell phone, you can read my previous posts here

As some of you may be aware I have been teaching a maths unit this semester, which although is out of my usual subject area of Phys Ed, Is probably shaping up to be one of my favourite classes. The unit is called ‘Space and Measurement’ and basically focuses on teaching perimeter, area and volume with a really strong emphasis on making the lessons hands on. With that last point in mind Ive tried to steer clear of the traditional approach to teaching maths and have moved towards running activities that get my students outside the classroom walls measuring and practising their maths skills in real world situations. 

I’ve also introduced a variety of tools into the class such as Google Earth Nintendo DS and more recently Google Sketchup.  The later tool has shown excellent potential in teaching a unit such as ‘Space and Measurement. For those unfamiliar Google sketchup  basically it is a FREE software that you can use to create 3D models of anything you like.  On first glance you think that it would be extremely hard to use, but it has been designed so that people of all skill levels can use it effectively. After a couple of lessons completing some of the ‘New User Tutorials’ that can be found on youtube your students will be able to build some really cool models. Given my students are now up to this very point, I will be completing a variation to a Maths test inside Google Sketchup that will test their knowledge and understanding of area, perimeter and volume. Here is the idea;

1. Using Google Sketchup I will design a variety of 3D shapes such as triangles, squares, rectangles and composite shapes.
2. All of the shapes will be scattered across the modelling surface and be labelled with numbers.
3. The sketchup file will be saved and students will be given a copy along with a worksheet with numbers matching the amount of shapes
4. They will then need to use the ‘tape measure’ tool to measure the different shapes inside Google Sketchup and based on these measurments work out the perimeter, area and volume of the shapes recording their answers on the worksheet.
5. Still not sure ? Checkout the video below for a run through of first 4 steps

So what do you think? Does this idea have merit and would it allow my students to demonstrate their understanding of perimeter, area and volume in a more meaningful and engaging way?

In a change of focus from my regular posts, I’ve decided to share with everyone the current situation at my school Boort Secondary College. The school is about to undergo a major transformation, in the form of a brand spanking new building and the merger of both existing primary and secondary schools.  This basically means that the existing secondary college will be demolished and a new school will be built, that ultimately, will need to accommodate both the primary (5-12 yr old) and secondary (13-18 yr old) students.

At this point we have been given a draft of the basic master plan that highlights the buildings we are entitled to based upon the number of students we currently have. Anyway to get to the point the buildings we have been given are all 21st century classrooms with an emphasis on open learning spaces and break out rooms.  Now this is all very exciting and I look forward to teaching in flexible rooms that aim to inspire learning, however as you would expect there are a number of people who don’t feel as comfortable with the designs as I do. This is to be expected in a change as big as what our school is about to undergo. The main problem is around the fact that the new buildings do not include a dedicated library area. The new designs call for a more flexible approach to a library that would be spread around the school. Ideally we would have the library in one room, however the problem with this is that any single room isn’t going to be big enough for the merger of two libraries. As you can imagine this is causing quite a lot of concern amongst members of both schools.

One thing I also need to mention is that the new school has been planned to last at least 50 years. This made me think about how the role of the library may be different in the future. It would be reasonable to think that the abundance of books that exist in libraries of today, would be replaced with online versions. Now I hope we never get to the point where we completely remove all printed texts, however we certainly need to recognise the shift in our reading habits. My reading has moved completely online thanks to my google reader account and RSS, which automatically brings me my new reading material from the sites I’m interested in when new content is updated. This shift is also highlighted in the Michael Wesch video ‘A vision of students today’ where one of his students mentions that they “will read 8 books a year, but over 2300 webpages”. With this being a reality for our students in the year 2009,  how much will it differ it year 2029? Let alone year 2050 when the new building will still be in operation.

So this leads to the point of all my rambling, how important will a physical library be in the future? Will it need to be as large as those of the current day? Or could we get away with a small selection of the most important physical books with most of our reading being completed in an online form? This is made all the more possible by tools such as Google Books  and Wikipedia which make acess to information free and accessible from anywhere on the earth. Add to this mobile devices and we now have the ability to read and find out anything…….. at any time.  Quite amazing when you think about it. Now I’m certain that there are quite a lot of teachers around the world who will mention how “they” prefer to read from printed texts (I also enjoy this).  Now this is well and good, but can we honestly say that student’s of the future will prefer this way of reading?  I’m not so sure …

So what should Boort Secondary College do?  Should we waste space by filling a large room with dusty books that rarely get read or borrowed? Or utilise some of the smaller spaces for a smaller more efficient library?  If we did this would this free up the larger spaces for other things and finally do you feel that students will read differently in the future?

After reading a blog post from Andrew Douch who reminded me of the service www.mymiamia.com I decided to try it out for myself. The opportunity arose when one of my students asked the question below…… 

 Now if you are unfamiliar with My Mia Mia basically, it is a service that allows you to find out the answer to any question you like by simply sending an SMS or leaving a voice message with My Mia Mia. The service is supported in a host of countries and from what I can gather costs the equivalent of a standard call or SMS. After sending your question through to My Mia Mia you simply wait and within about 5 minutes you will receive a reply SMS with the answer to the question you posed.

In this case I was almost certain that they woud be unable to answer the question that I had asked, however shortly after sending it through, I received the answer below;

 So what does this mean for students and the classroom? Could this be used as a genuine tool for learning?  Please leave your thoughts below to complete the post.

Yesterday I arrived home from an excellent outdoor & environmental studies camp in which I took my 19 year 11 students to the snow fields of Mt Buller. While relaxing on the bus after a very busy and tiring trip an idea popped into my head that immediately made me want to turn back the clock on the camp and trial it out.

The idea is simple and utilises the incredibly powerful website www.polleverywhere.com. For those of you not familiar with this service, basically it lets you create polls that can be responded via not only a computer connected to the internet, but also via a cell phone. After signing up for free account you can choose to create a ‘free text poll’ which basically lets you send in text via SMS to a unique phone number disclosed when you create the poll. The responses are then updated in real time and displayed in a PowerPoint slideshow or on the polleverywhere website.

So why polleverywhere on a field trip or camp? Well by using the ‘free text’ option you could ask students  any sort of questions while away that would require them to respond via SMS. The students would simply submit their answers by sending a text message to the unique poll everywhere number. It could also be used as a sort of back channel during trips, that the students could use if they wanted to ask a question that could be followed up when the class returned to school. This would encourage them to think about and decode the information they were coming across during the excursion.  The benefits of using this method within a large classroom would be that it would automatically collate the students responses in a way that could be easily shared and discussed in future lessons.

With the snow trip over for the year, I will aim to try this out on our next trip to the Grampians National Park. Look forward to sharing how it turns out. (Picture created using http://picol.org/)

One of the things that seems to hold back teachers and there efforts to podcast is indeed the hosting and distribution side which can at times prove to be a tad over the top, often requiring more than a basic level of ICT skills. Well last night, I stumbled across a simple solution that is bound to make this process much easier for teachers and students and indeed myself.

Introducing http://drop.ioa simple file storage website that requires no sign up at all. You simply choose your files in what ever format, and ‘DROP’ them to an auto generated or predetermined drop name. For example, I just recently created my own drop at http://drop.io/vceoes34 which I’m using as a simple way to send class resources to a group of my teaching colleagues via email. Anway, once you create a drop you receive a number of options on how you would like to share the ‘DROP’

Now the really cool thing I noticed was the ability to create a ‘Dropcast’ which basically allows you to subscribe to changes to a ‘DROP’ within iTunes. This means that you could use http://drop.io to store audio and videoes created by you or your students and then have iTunes  and your subscription automatically download any changes made to the drop, to your computer and iPod.  Too Easy…..

The best thing about using Drop.io for podcast storage and distribution is that it can be achieved in as little as 5  steps.

• Create a ’Drop’ at http://drop.io (Choose your Drop name or have it auto generated)
• Upload files of any format and type to your drop
• Select the ‘Share’ option from witin your drop and then select ‘Dropcast’ 
•  Itunes will automatically load and include the Drop in your list of podcast subscriptions
• Have another episode or file to add? Just return to your unique drop address and upload more files

Podcast hosting couldn’t be easier with Drop.io and that’s just the start of what this nifty little service has to offer to our classrooms. Have you used Drop.io before? If so, feel free to  let me know how below.