
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
Thank you, Sam I Am.
baby steps Toward Making a QR CoDE
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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... |