I’ve Got Speed

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“I’m the urban spaceman, baby; I’ve got speed. I’ve got everything I need.

I’m the urban spaceman, baby; I can fly. I’m a supersonic girl.” Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

At school today I had issues with internet speed so I went to http://speedtest.net/ and did a speed test. I was on my Mac Book Air so the test was wireless….

 I then went to a class iMac that was wired with an ethernet cable and got….

 Because I know people, I then rang up people who knew people and they did clever Loop internet firewall things. I then tried again. Vast improvement. Cooking with gas- as my father used to say!

 When I went home I tried again – I’d be interested for you to do a test and see what you get at school.

Sharing and Synching files on the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad

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When I try to export from some applications on the iPad I have been emailing them to my laptop but it gives me share as WebDav (WEB based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) as an option. I didn’t know what WebDav was and how to get it.

This morning I sorted it.

Firstly I downloaded the app Box.Net which automatically gives me 50GB of on line storage if you sign up before the end of October- plenty of storage to be going on with.

I then logged in the Box.net on my laptop and created a folder to put my iOS files into. I called that folder iPadDocs.

Going back to my Pages document on my iPhone I clicked on the Spanner which took me to Share and Print.

Then I clicked on Copy to WebDav. I had to put in the Server address which was  https://www.box.net/dav//iPadDocs .  The iPadDocs part of the Server Address is the folder that I had made.

You can also put in the server address  https://www.box.net/dav// and it will let you chose which folder to put your files in which would make it easier to file things but maybe make it trickier for little folk to decide where to put their files!!!

I entered my Box.net username and password. It then asked me which format I want the upload to be, I clicked COPY  and away it went.

Once it uploaded you can download the files on other iOS devices and share folders with other users.

I hope you find this post useful in sorting a simple way to share docs between devices in your class.

I like that you don’t have to rely on aging school servers to share files and continue working on them.

Let me know how you get on.

Pecha Kucha ULearn11

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My laptop made it onto the big stage at the Pecha Kucha at ULearn11. Jeannette Murphy stepped up with five minutes notice and did a stunning Pecha Kucha that she pulled down from her  Slideshare. account. She needed a device to read her notes from and my laptop did the trick. With Jeaneete’s permission I re-create her Pecha Kucha here.

This pecha kucha presentation is based on student achievement and what I believe to be six positive aspects of e-Learning. The images that I am about to share are in fact visual representations as symbols of one word that I have strongly associated with each aspect. Let’s get started with this chain of paper dolls. My word for positive aspect one of e-Learning is CONNECT. What we want for our young people is that they be connected, become effective users of I.T tools and have the ability to relate well with others. e-Learners at Putauaki have connected with so many people locally, nationally and globally. Being CONNECTed in a sense, also promotes communication and equality for anyone… anytime and anywhere.

Mandala is the sanskrit word for circle and represents the universe in Hindu and Buddhist symbolism. A group of 12 things is called a duodecad so this is a duodecad hand mandala.My word for positive aspect two of e-Learning is COLLABORATE. To collaborate is to work together to achieve a common goal and encourage interaction in a multitude of ways. It is about being active in a range of contexts. Last year e-Learners at Putauaki participated in the global One Day on Earth project that involved sharing planned activities on the 10.10.10 with people all over the world. We are now planning to complete 11 science and technology challenges for the 11.11.11.

 

Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline originating from ancient India. This is the balasana or child pose and represents the foetal position – a relaxation stance.My word for positive aspect three of e-Learning is FLEXIBILITY. This means having the ability to adapt to a new situation or change and being resilient. About a month ago a group of e-Learners took up the challenge as teachers of digital photography and Powerpoint for students at Thornton Primary. The same group who work with PCs, will this week learn 3D and animation using iMacs at the Tech Pa, TeWhareWananga o Awanuiarangi in Whakatane. Two of them have also been selected to present pechakucha style at the Mini GATE symposium for REAP next month.

 

Pascallis a confectionery company once owned by Cadbury, now owned by Kraft Foods and there is one New Zealand factory in Dunedin. Jet plane lollies made by Pascall are my Kiwi Kid favourite. I am not sure if that ‘desire’ has something to do with the shape or range of colours and/or whether it’s because I have the option to chew off the wings or the cockpit first. My word for positive aspect four of e-Learning is CHOICE. Including choice encourages intrinsic motivation, ownership of work and promotes student-centred learning. e-Learners at Putauaki really like it that choice is about being given the option to present using an array of e-learning mediums that can easily be combined.

 

The tōtara tree is a native that grows around 30 metres taking 100 years to do so and is noted for its root system and great girth of trunk. The Pouakani tree, near Pureora is over 35 metres tall, nearly 4 metres in trunk diameter and the largest living.There is a saying in Maori “Kuahinga he totaraitewaonui a Tane” meaning ‘a totara has fallen in the forest of Tane’ The totara is like a strong, proud warrior so for one of them to fall is indeed a great tragedy. The saying is similar to the whakatauki or proverb that is etched in my father’s headstone. My word for positive aspect five of e-Learning is INTEGRATE. Integration addresses different learning styles and supports an inquiry approach to thinking and learning. Integration is part and parcel of an e-Learning classroom.

The dandelion is a perennial, herbaceous plant, considered a weed and is used to treat liver problems. The dandelion leaves adds flavour to salads, sandwiches and teas.My word for positive aspect five of e-Learning is CREATE. If creation is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, then we want our young people to be creatively resourceful, innovative,enterprising and entrepreneurial.

Conclusively I believe that…“It is not that we can meet the e-learning outcomes of technology, it is more the thinking and learning behind the technologies as students…

1. Connect

2. Collaborate

3. have Flexibility

4. are given Choice

5. can Integrate and…

6 also Create…

To go beyond what can be done in the classroom environment that is so important.

Thanks Jeanette. Your Pecha Kucha was inspirational.

QR Codes #10 QRNote

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Well I made it. Ten QR Code posts in ten weeks.

This last little gem I can see working well with a student who wants to quickly write a stand alone page on the web and wants to translate it into a QR code. With QR Note you write your text, add hyperlinks if you want and add a graphic via a URL, in my case from Flickr. The sight automatically produces a code when you save it.

And lastly I would put a QR code linking to your class blog or wiki page using SnapVu on your classroom window so that everyone can see what you are doing. Why SnapVu? Because it sends you an email every time someone scans your QR Code. Nice to know how many times the QR code is being scanned.

 

The Mission!

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People have been asking me recently, “What can’t an iPad do?” Today I found out. Or at least I found out how I would try it next time to make it work.

I decided I wanted to make this whole project on the iPad and not touch the laptop.

On Thursday I recorded the class I was working with choral speaking a poem. I didn’t have my iRig mike with me so quickly grabbed the audio with the free app QuickVoice Recoder cos there wasn’t a lot of time before PMP.

I wanted to basically create an enhanced podcast like I do on my laptop with Garageband. Easy I thought. No great timing or editing involved. Piece of cake.

Not so much!

The big hiccup was that Quickvoice only has email out of the .caf file. For all the apps that my Twitter network suggested might work, like Keynote, iMovie and Reel Director, all needed the audio to already be in iTunes.

I tried emailing the .caf file to myself on the iPad from Quickvoice hoping that it would give me options like when you email and ePub- it asks, “Would you like to open this in iBooks.” I was hoping I would get a, “Would you like to open this in iTunes.” No such luck.

The iRig mike app has an iTunes File Sharing export function but I set myself to try and do the project without the laptop. I tried recording the Quickvoice recording with the iRig mike but of course as soon as I put the mike in the iPad jack it muted the sound out so it wouldn’t go through the speakers.

I had taken the photos of the kids’ monsters with my iPhone and used the Photo Transfer App to get the photos on to the laptop so at least I didn’t have to use any cords.

I would hope that there would be a great app for doing this but I couldn’t work it out. Not at least with a pre-recorded audio track. So I gave up and went back to the laptop and had the job done in five minutes. I uploaded it to Vimeo at least which gave me easy playback on the iPad without having to use Puffin that plays Blogger flash based videos.

The finished thing is here on the class blog.

Any advice on how I could have done this better would be greatly appreciated.

 

Is all this interactivity and engagement really a good thing?

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Selena Woodward from Australia left a comment on my literacy apps blog post which prompted me to think more deeply about the wonderful interactivity of some of the iPad apps I have been sharing lately.

As I was working with the very young children (6 year olds) on this week I was thinking that all this iPad interactivity, on its own, may not actually be such a good thing.

My favourite literacy app at the moment is The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore that I posted about recently.

Did I tell you that I now have an iPad2 that will project through a data projector?? Great when you only have access to one iPad. Way cool except that the VGA cable keeps falling out if you jiggle the iPad too much. But I digress….

Anyway….

When we had the book ‘Morris Lessmore’ projected from the iPad onto the classroom ordinary whiteboard we could stop at the various places and discuss what was happening in the story and draw deeper understanding from the text and nothing particularly interactive happened in the story unless the user wanted it too which is something I really liked about the app.

Some other stories progress automatically from page to page which doesn’t give the teacher much of an opportunity to help children make connections with the text. When I use these texts I put myself in my happy place and wake up ten minutes later- just like watching an animated cartoon on TV really- except that it’s on an iPad.

Then when we had finished the shared reading the children were naturally keen to read the book on their own. They were much more intent on doing the interactive bits than listening/reading the story.

I wondered then if all the interactivity of the app was actually lessening the children’s desire to actually read the text for themselves.

I told them that the interactive bits wouldn’t work until at least they actually waited and listened to the text. I lied and they soon found out and exposed me as a fraud and shared how they could get the interactive bits going without having to wait for the text to be read. Clever them!

Although they loved the app, did they equally love the reading experience??

I am not so sure?

What do you think?

QR Codes #9 Sharing Audio

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We all know how great Dropbox is don’t we team.

If you don’t now about Dropbox it is an online storage space with some fabulous features. Think of it as your own personal, free server where you can store and back up your stuff.

When you sign up for Dropbox you automatically get a Public Folder. A Public Folder is still in your Dropbox but it is also public so everyone can see it.

Drop your audio file that you want to use into the Public Dropbox folder, wait for it to synch and launch the Dropbox website by clicking on the Dropbox icon and opening it. Navigate to the Public folder and hover over the file you want to share. To the right of the file name you will get a little triangle with a dropdown menu. Copy the public link. I am going to share Kiera’s audio file.

Copy this link into your QR Code generator- seeing I am on the computer I will use Google URL shortner to create the QR code.

Done- easy as!

I see this as a great way to easily share podcasts and other audio files with your class and other visitors. I would love to hear from you if you decide to give it a whirl.

Do you have any other ideas for linking QR Codes to audio or video files this way?

iPad Sharing #3 Apps To Support Literacy

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This week I was asked to give a presentation to the Nelson Library Network Meeting focussing on iPad Apps to Support Literacy so we combined our usual after school Thursday workshop with the Library meeting.

I managed to borrow/commandeer an iPad 2 because I wanted to display the iPad screen onto the data projector big screen as we were expecting quite a big turnout. I had to wipe the iPad’s apps that were already there to over-write it with my own own apps. This went very smoothly as when I went to synch the iPad it led me to the option to RESTORE TO ORIGINAL SETTINGS on the opening screen. Once I had done that I re-synched it and everything, plus Facetime and Photobooth, were there where they should be.

I divided the presentation into two parts – Consumption- looking at Literacy Apps that someone else has made and Creativity- looking at ways to create your own content on the iPad.

Here are my hyperlinked notes of my apps that I shared. All prices are in Kiwi dollars…..

Consumption

  •  Next on the list was iBooks. We had quick skim through with what you can do with a couple of free books like Winnie the Pooh that you get through the iBook store. To get to the iBooks Store you open the app and click on STORE. From there you may like to look for FEATURED and get some free books. I have bought ‘Are You My Mother’ by PD Eastman, one of my favourites from when I first started teaching that I can’t find in paper version any more. A nice find!
  • While we were in iBooks we looked at how we might add our own pdfs to the resource. To do that open iTunes. Go FILE- ADD TO LIBRARY in iTUNES- navigate to the file and voila! The next time you synch the iPad your pdf will be waiting for you.
  • To navigate between the pdfs and books click on the word COLLECTIONS (BOOKS on the iPod Touch version) and you will see the options.
  • As an example of an eBook you can buy through iTunes Our Choice ($6.49) by Al Gore is pretty impressive too.

Some of my favourite eBooks for young children are:

  • The Kindle App– (Free) The Kindle App lets you read ebooks that you buy cheap from Amazon on your iPad as though you were reading them on you Kindle. Not sure what to buy I asked Kerre Woodham and her Paper Plus Book Choices. A book that I might have bought in hard copy for $40 cost me $13 on the Kindle.

  • In a teachery sort of way I like Running Recs ($2:59) by our very own Matt Thomas from Tauranga for doing away with the need to grab a calculator to work out whether a running record is easy, instructional or hard.

  • And lastly as an RSS reader I like the look of Flipboard (free) for browsing through photos, news and blogs that I like to peruse.

Creativity–  looking at ways to create your own content on the iPad.

  • Here we went back to iBooks how I made our own class eBook. To do that I made a document with the children’s text and drawings with Pages then went FILE – EXPORT and exported it as an ePub. To create and import your own ePub you can download a tutorial pdf here.
  • Next we looked at Handwriting with I Can Write ($1.29) being my favourite because it shows you where to start and how to write. When you are finished a set of letters it gives you a screen of how you wrote all of the letters in the set. You could then take a screen grab of those and track your improvements and progress.
  • My favourite Spelling app at the moment is Cimo Spelling. I like it because you learn to spell real words that actually exist. I have gone off a lot of other spelling apps that accept words that no one has ever heard of.
  • Of course we can’t go past Pages ($13.99) and Keynote ($13.99) for creating working documents on the iPad. Children are already familiar with them and know what to expect.

  • I also recently bought Comic Life ($10.99) which can be used in all sorts of engaging ways across the curriculum.

  • For editing photos my go to app is Photogene (4:19). It is simple, easy to use and has lots of features that I often use.

  • For mind mapping I really like how easy to use Popplet ($6.49) is. I have blogged earlier this year about the web application but it is even easier on an iPad. There is a lite free version as well if you would like to try it out.

  • For recording audio I think people often forget the iPod feature of having an iPad. Schools could load the music from CDs and use the iPad for archiving things like Learning Media CDs, Jump Jam, Assembly music, dance, etc. You could then use the iPad as a listening post or plug it into a sound system and always know where you audio is located.
  • I have recently bought myself an iRig microphone which is a uni-directional microphone designed specifically for using with iOS devices. It provides quality recording and cuts out the background chatter in the classroom or social setting.
  • My favourite digital storytelling app is Sonic Pics. ($4.19) It is so easy to use and share. Here Wes Fryer shares a how to of digital storytelling apps.

  • You can’t go past the basic Talking Tom (free) for fun audio recording and sharing.
  • I am quite fond of Show Me (free) for making screen and audio recordings. It doesn’t export as a movie but they Show Me team assure me it will come through further updates.
  • Puppet Pals (free) is a fabulous storytelling app. You can purchase more characters from within the app or add your own characters and backgrounds from your iPad photo album. This Matariki production was made by children at Waihi East Primary School using Puppet Pals.

  • The last of the audio apps would be Sock Puppets (free) which lip synchs when you speak. Fun!

And last of all we had fun with some QR codes in the Waimea Intermediate School Library. Phew!

QR Code #8 Treasure Trail – Generating QR codes

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This week one of the girls in my class of Year Fours (8 year olds) was feeling poorly with winter chills and not much in the mood for algebra. She was keen on the idea of making her own QR code treasure trail around the school. She was not about to participate meaningfully in the maths I had planned so I thought I would let her go for it and see how it all worked out.

She used the free app Easy QR on my iPod Touch to create the codes. Easy QR, as well as scanning codes, can be used to create them. She used the text option on the opening screen. She was then taken to a text page to write in her message for the treasure trail.

She clicked GENERATE and the QR code was born!

She then took a screen grab of each of the stations in her treasure trail (Press the home button at the same time as the ON/OFF button – it’s a bit tricky as if you push the ON/OFF button first you just end up switching the iPod Touch off!). We had already mastered that skill by taking taking screen grabs of our best scores of MathTappers Number Find.

As I don’t have Air Printer or Printopia she had to email me each of the screengrabs and I printed them out. She tried to show stealth as she laid the trail out over lunch time and started her classmates off on the trail after lunch.

It was great, spur of the moment sort of activity that was enjoyed by all.

 

QR Code #7 Geocaching

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This week I have found three QR codes in the wild. All in the latest Air NZ travel mag. The cleverest of them was from Guinness. Scanning the code led you map to the nearest pub where you could buy a Guinness. I didn’t try it on the flight!!

This week’s QR Code gem is a really geeky exercise. It involves geocaching. Geocaching is like orienteering with your iPhone or GPS.

I enjoy the challenge of finding new locations while out looking for geocaches.

Geocachers NZ offer new tracking tags that have QR codes on them so I bought a couple. This one I have attached to a spirit level and will release into the wild tomorrow.

When a trackable is found by someone usually you would have to look it up on the geocache web site to log it but now, by scanning the code, you get instant access to its unique tracking web site.

The kids in my class are keeping their eyes open for QR codes in the wild.

I’m not sure how we could use this code at school apart from to have a QR code to a trackable geocache that the class could keep a track on like Tiny Ted.

Tiny Ted  was last seen in America. He came to us from Wales in 2006 and became the class pet for a while going home with children. He was the 32nd class member! But he had to leave cos that was his destiny and now he has got himself lost. I wonder what has happened to him. It would be fabulous if he turned up one day!

QR Codes #6 Pick-a-path stories

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I was wandering through my RSS feed tonight and really liked Kevin Cummins idea I saw on his Edgalaxy web site for helping children having difficulty thinking of a story starter. His idea was to write a paragraph to get the children started and let them create alternative endings for it. He even provided a pdf template for the story.

That idea sparked another idea in my head.

What about I ask my PLN for a hand to write the story endings seeing there were no children nearby? I asked some friends via Skype if they would be able to write some endings of the story for me. Doug Dickinson, Barbara Reid, Cherryl Eden, Shaun Wood and Warren Hall did. I used QR Code Generator to make the QR code for the text. Easy as!

In the classroom I could this making a kewl classroom display with the original text showing first and a whole lot of alternative endings presented as QR codes.

With Kevin’s permission here is the opening text for the story…

“The wizard tried on his new coat, one with bright yellow stars shining happily all over it. Now he could get on with finishing his spell. He added the essential ingredients into the boiling black  cauldron  – a rat’s tail, a snail’s shell, a frog’s eye and some moss from a fallen oak tree. He stirred them all in a clockwise direction, 3 times over. 

Now it was ready.

He could use the magic potion…”

And here are the QR code responses…

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Time 4 On Line

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Last week I got an email from Krista Swanner, a 4th grade teacher at Oak Grove School in California, who was wanting to know how I put things together in my classroom. Not wanting to spend hours answering her I tried to find my TeacherTube video I made in 2007 for the Time4OnLine Conference and they had changed the web address for it so it took a lot of mucking about to see it so I re-uploaded it to YouTube. The original video has had over 29,000 views which is quite amazing as I haven’t looked at it myself for a year or so and I haven’t aged at all!

The basic organisation of how I worked things has changed a bit but the basics still hold true- IMHO anyway.

QR Codes #5 Book Trailers

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I have had a couple of ideas percolating for this week’s QR Code post.

I follow Australian educator Anne Mirtschin with my RSS on her blog and on Twitter. She has been doing some great collaborative work with her students to create and share book trailers.

Georgia, one of her students, created a movie trailer for the Jackie French book, ‘A Rose for the ANZAC Boys‘.

Georgia has done a fabulous job of it and has embedded the trailer on the Global Storytelling wiki.

My thought would be to put a QR code on the book that would link to the book trailer.

Prospective readers could scan the code, view Georgia’s book trailer and be hooked into reading the book.

It would be fun to make your own movie trailers for favourite books in your own library to view on your iPod Touch or iPad.

QR Codes #4 Text to World Connections

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A while ago I was helping a young lad new to New Zealand learn to read. He was really keen to learn but found a lot of new vocabulary challenging.

We were reading ‘Mum at the Fair’ by Jill Eggleton. Central to the plot was Mum’s adventures on a ferris wheel.

Now- describing a ferris wheel to someone who has never seen one before is not nearly as informative as showing someone about it.

Next time I would put a QR code on the book that leads to a YouTube video of someone’s experiences on a ferris wheel.

Before reading the book the child would then have more of an idea of what the book is going to be about and what happens in it.

Editing the Settings on Your iPad

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I have two different schools ask me for advice this week about what needs to be done to limit people from downloading apps on their iPads so that children and parents can’t add rubbish games on them. So here comes a blog post to show you how I have advised them.

First of all go to your settings

Then click on GENERAL and then RESTRICTIONS.

You will be prompted to put in a security code. WRITE THIS NUMBER DOWN because you may want to change it and you will need the code to change it at a later date.

Then slide INSTALLING APPS, DELETING APPS and IN APP PURCHASE to off.

While you are there it would be good to change Music and Podcasts to CLEAN. Then push the HOME button and you are done. Children will no longer be able to accidentally delete app and time wasting apps can’t be added.

I can highly recommend Adam Brice’s presentation on further settings that you may like to explore.

QR Code Idea #3 Linking your QR code to your school prospectus

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We all know that prospective parents wander round the school for a peek in the windows in the weekend. I know because they have sometimes startled me as I do my weekend catch up!

This week’s idea is to link to your school school’s prospectus or information pack. Laminate the QR code and stick it on the school sign. If you were keen you could use http://snap.vu/ to create the QR code which will send you an email every time someone scans your code so you would have an idea how many times your QR code is being viewed.

QR Codes #2

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OK next idea is to put QR codes on some books to link to added content or multimedia. As a test run I found a YouTube video on Jo Fothergill’s Facebook page that was an interpretation of Craig Smith‘s ‘The Wonkey Donkey’ Book which also has an iPad eBook option. For overseas readers you should know The Wonky Donkey won the 2009 NZ Children’s Choice Book Awards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDeQT9zCvi4

To make a QR code for it I went Google’s URL shortner http://goo.gl/ and copied and pasted the URL into it. As long as you are signed in to Google you will see details. Click on it.

For some reason it shoots you to the bottom of a page. Scroll up and you will see the QR code. As easy as that.

Print that code off and stick it on the book cover. Easy as!

I will do a few more for next week’s QR code exploration. Yay- the QR Code even works from this photo of the book.

QR Code Introduction

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Today in class I introduced my class of Year Fours to QR codes.

I had used http://www.classtools.net/QR/create.php to create the codes in the first place. It prints off the QR Codes and questions for you in one click. I confused myself a little with the trail as I put them out so next time I would be careful to number the codes on the back because they all look the same. I checked that the trail was working at morning tea while I was on duty to make sure that I had got it right.

I talked with the class about what a QR code was and how they may be useful. They recognised them from a recent ad in the paper from a Fudge Company opening where if you scanned the code you got a free cupcake. I was surprised how many had noticed it and wondered more about it.

I showed them how to scan a code and then set the task of following a treasure trail, being timed as they go.

I used http://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/qr-reader-for-iphone/id368494609?mt=8 to scan the codes.

Each QR code site required the children to take a photo as proof that they had got to the correct waypoint along the way. They already knew how to take photos with my iPod Touch so that part of things was simple. One bright spark suggested that all they had to do was look in the photos app on the iPod Touch to see where the previous group had gone to know where the treasure code was!!! We discussed how this would spoil the fun so garnered an agreement that this wouldn’t be fair.

I then set the children off, three at a time to follow the trail with me timing them with my iPhone. The groups then thundered around the school grounds following the trail. They really enjoyed the activity, being outside, problem solving, working co-operatively, taking photos, being timed and generally enjoying themselves.

When the whole class had completed the activity we had a debrief, did a little shared writing on our class blog and an announced of the winning team! All good fun.

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2011/08/qr-code-treasure-trail.html

My next step is to think of something using QR Codes that has a little more educational rigour to it.

Home School Partnership #1 – Homework

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One of the major goals for our cluster over the next year is to foster home school partnerships and I have been being doing a good bit of thinking about how we might approach this.

Tonight on Twitter there was a conversation around Ian Lillico’s homework grid concept and  Claire Buist asked if I had any good examples of how I use Ian’s ideas.

I started off by writing a Google Doc that I was going to share with Claire but thought it might be better as a blog post. So here it is…
I used to do the traditional ‘fill in the gaps’ homework but became a convert to the Lillico homework grid idea which lets children create together with their parents at a pace that suits them. Those who want to spend hours following up on a project can. Those who aren’t so keen need not go into it in as much depth. It allows freedom and creativity to thrive.

Once you ‘get’ the concept of co-constructing homework you can easily adapt it to suit your situation.

Here is a blog post I wrote last year about what I do.

https://allanahk.edublogs.org/2010/02/17/homework/

Ian Lillico’s website can be found http://www.boysforward.com.au/

I also shared some of our homework philosophy in my last year’s K12 On Line Conference Keynote

http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=606

First of all we start with a brainstorm around the ideas of things we could do based around a theme.

1. This is a brainstorm about the sorts of things we could do for Home Work

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2007/03/homework.html

2. One of the things we decided on was tidying our bedrooms. The kids took before and after photos.

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2009/05/homework.html

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2009/05/homework-bedrooms.html

3. We had a music week

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2007/10/music-homework.html

This led to Miriam sharing her incredible voice with us. Would never have happened if our homework was confined to ‘filling the gaps’ stuff!

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2007/11/miriam-shares-her-voice.html

5. This is our physical activity brainstorm.

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2007/05/our-physical-homework.html

6. Reading

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2007/03/reading-homework.html

7. ICT

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2007/03/ict-homework.html

One of the tasks was to send an MMS

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2007/03/ict-homework_26.html

And to share a Google Doc/presentation with me

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2010/05/google-docs-for-homework.html

8. Making

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2010/05/making-homework.html

9. In this one I was sick at home but podcasted what we had to do for homework.

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2007/06/homework-task-podcast.html

10. Here is what the homework grids looks like for us

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2009/03/homework.html

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2010/03/reading-homework.html

11. Here is some feedback about what people feel about the homework. If parents left a comment then the kids didn’t have to do the homework next week! A good number left a comment!!!!

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2009/06/questionaut.html

12. Kids loved doing their homework and even took it away on fishing trips!! Overdoing it slightly!!

http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2009/12/fishing-trip.html

13. And not particularly to do with the homework grid but the children used the side bar of the blog to get their spelling lists and individual spelling practice through Spelling City and used our Basic Facts wiki to learn their basic facts with downloads and hyperlinks to worksheets and Digital Learning Objects for their level of attainment.

http://basicfacts.wikispaces.com/