Kim's unexpected QR code experience

It’s not Green Eggs and Ham that I have trouble with, nope.  It’s QR codes.  In kindergarten!  Really?  I didn’t want them here, or there.  I did not want them anywhere.  Or so I thought.  Until I began wrestling with the question, “How can I enable my kindergarten students to do their own research?”  Research is a pretty big idea when you are talking about 5 year olds.
Then I remembered hearing about a 1st grade teacher who used QR codes to enable her students to access online information that she had created.  She called it research.  She was using QR codes here, and there, and everywhere.
So I took a tiny step.  I made one QR code so my students could access a video about penquins.  The video I chose  was about 3 minutes long.  I added a bit of clipart, and a title beside the QR code so we would remember what we were researching.  I laminated a few codes, and put them on the student tables so they could use their own QR readers (Inigma) with their iPads.  It was magic.  The room fell silent.  The children watched and listened to the video, and laughed.  And I changed my mind.  I did like QR codes.  I liked them here, and there.  I think I like them everywhere!
My students needed to learn how to become researchers because we are implementing project based learning at my school.   Recently, I asked my students,  ”What do kindergarten students need in order to become researchers?”  I must tell you their answers made me glow!  They said:

• we need to talk to experts
• we need to visit places
• we need to read books
• we need write about what we know
• we need to draw and label what we know
• we need to observe things
• we need to talk together
• we need our iPads so we can use QR codes

Our iPads have now become our window to the world.  And we would use them in a box, and with a fox, and in a train, and in the rain….(you get the idea)
Thank you, Sam I Am.

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baby steps Toward Making a QR CoDE
By: Kim Floyd, QR Novice
1.  Create a blank document in a word processing program, and give it a name (this will be used this later).
2.  Find the content for the students to access
( websites, digital books, you tube, teacher tube, or original material)
3.  Open a QR Code Generator, or follow the link below:
http://www.qrstuff.com
4.  Copy and paste the URL into the QR code generator using the link above. When choosing video, make sure to choose the correct "share code" for creating the QR Code.  Click "generate a code", and  A QR code will magically appear!
5.  Take a screen shot of the QR Code, or Download it and add it to the blank document  created earlier.
6.  clip art, and/or  text can be added to the code in the blank document, so students have a visual prompt for the QR content. 
7.  If multiple QR codes are added to the same document,  create a table, and put each code into the table for uniform sizing. test the codes before you print and save.  (A smart phone is helpful for this step.)
8.  TRy, Try, again.
9.  MAKE COPIES AND LAMINATE.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/i-nigma-qr-code-data-matrix/id388923203?mt=8

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qr-reader-for-ipad/id426170776?mt=8

Another QR MAKER option

If you are using Google Chrome and you'd like your own QR code maker in your toolbar, follow these steps:

1. Click Apps button in the top left corner of your Google toolbar.
2. Click on Store.
3. search for QR code generator.
4. Scroll down to extensions.
5. Click the free button next to QR Code generator.
6. look up and to the right on your screen. see it?
7. generate qr codes at will! 
on a website you want kids to access? click your qr button! made a video for students? qr! 
8. Put your QR codes in a document, add some clip art or text (like i did for habitats) and let the kids at 'em!
Have fun!

Creating Your Own QR Code Content Using Animoto
By: Anne Garner (QR Code Queen)

Guess who wrote the title for this section? Certainly NOT me! Like Kim, I was scared of QR Codes. Terrified actually! How do I make them? Where should I use them? How much time will it take? Last summer, at our New Tech training, Sergio helped me put a QR code maker in my Google toolbar. I looked at it for months! And then, while planning for our current PBL project (animal habitats), I thought, why not? Let's give it a shot! 

What I wanted was a way for groups of students to choose an animal from the habitat I had assigned them. But not just any animal. I wanted to limit their choices to those they will see on our field trip to the Oakland Zoo in March. What to do? 

Enter Animoto and QR Codes, a beautiful combination! I created an Animoto video for each habitat, using pictures of Oakland Zoo animals. How do the students access these videos? Through QR codes. Take a look...

Do you have your iPads with you? Feel free to scan a code. You'll see just what my students see. 

Next year, my plan is to create a Weebly, with QR Codes, links to websites, videos, pictures, ebooks, etc., for my students to use. But for this year, animoto and QR codes are just fine! One step at a time...

Here is a great example of a Weebly website, created for students. Students access this site using iPads, and QR codes.

http://curiouscritters.weebly.com