QR Codes, Coaches Eye & The 21st Century Skill Poster

Posted on October 7, 2012 by mrrobbo

As you would most likely be aware, I am a massive fan of QR Codes and there application within the classroom. Since discovering them in 2008 I have gone on to blog extensively about how I have used them in the classroom and ideas for possible future activities, with one of my all time favourite ideas being QR Coded posters. (If you are are still unsure what a QR Code is I suggest watching the video here)

In the Physical Education classroom QR Codes posters have enormous potential and a number of PE Teachers have been using them within their classes to effectively duplicate their teaching, while ultimately moving towards a more student centred approach. So I with this in mind I wanted to share with you two high quality examples of these posters in action.

Example 1

The following example by @Joeyfeith  from www.thephysicaleducator.com  effectively combines text, pictures and video into a one stop package for skill development.  (See example above).  Simply Print them out, laminate and display them in your Gymnasium for a great self paced individualised instructional activity.

Example 2

The following QR Code on the right,  links to a video created by @alex76thomas whom utilised the fantastic mobile app “Coaches Eye” to produce a video narration and telestration highlighting the key aspects to the ready position in Volleyball. The video  highlights just how powerful the combination of a QR code and instructional video can truly be. To top it all off this entire process was completed in only a couple of steps

  1. Film your footage using the Coaches Eye App
  2. Complete the narration and telestration during playback, calling out the key performance points
  3. Upload the video to hosting site from inside the app, such as YouTube or the Coaches Eye website.
  4. Use the URL from the video and a website such as www.qrstuff.com to produce the QR Code
  5. Scanning the code using a mobile application such as Redlaser or QR Droid will instantly playback the video below

Have you used QR Coded posters below? How did it go? If not how could you use them?

 

Filed under: apps, qrcode, Uncategorized | 11 Comments »

Augmented Reality & Geolocation Gaming In PE

Posted on June 26, 2012 by mrrobbo

In the past few months ARIS Games has gathered an increased amount of presence within a variety of online spaces and has led me to start planning for its use within my classes next semester. Essentially ARIS Games enables you or your students to create GPS based games in a fully interactive environment where your imagination is truly the limit.

To get started with ARIS you will need the following

Once you have the following sorted, make sure you watch the video tutorial below to get started with your first game in the ARIS platform.

Filed under: gps, qrcode | Leave a Comment »

QReader – Super Fast QR Code Scanning App

Posted on April 29, 2012 by mrrobbo

Today the QReader app hit the app store with a no fuss approach towards QR Code scanning making the app perfect for use in situations where speed is a priority. With the education worlds jumping on board the QR Code journey, this app should prove useful in countless mobile learning situations. Grab it here

For a comprehensive list of ways to use QR Codes in the classroom check out the following resources

QR Codes Prezi

QR Codes Blog Posts

Filed under: apps, mlearning, qrcode | 1 Comment »

The QR Code Assassin Game

Posted on April 4, 2012 by mrrobbo

A number of years ago at a conference I spoke about a game concept that utilised QR Codes and Smart Phones to facilitate a fun activity that centred around exercise, teamwork, strategy and technology. The basic idea is simple.

Each user creates a QR Code that prompts a text message to their phone. They wear the QR Code on their back and aim to avoid it being secretly scanned by the enemy. Once the enemy scan the QR Code, they will be prompted to send a text message to your number, ultimately sealing your elimination from the game.

You can follow the steps below to make this game a reality

1) Visit http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ and choose the SMS option. Users then enter their mobile number along with a unique text message. This will ensure that your enemy actually has to scan the QR code on your back to eliminate you.

2) Once your QR Code has been generated, you can download it and place it on the back of a t-shirt.

3) Once the QR codes are setup, players can download a free scanner application like RedLaser for iPhone or QR Droid for Android and the game is ready to begin.

Depending on what the intent of the game is, teachers might choose to incorporate different rules to bring about a variety of learning outcomes. These could include;

  • Increasing the size of the playing area to increase physical activity
  • Decreasing the size of the playing area to increase tactics
  • Creating different roles within teams such as medics, who cannot eliminate players but revive them by scanning a designated QR Code within the battlefield
  • Incorporating base stations or medical stations, each of which contain QR Codes that prompt text messages to the opposition or teachers. This could be used in replace of QR coded t-shirts.

With term 2 fast approaching, I would love to make this game a reality in my classes as a way to measure teamwork and collaboration. Do you think this would work? What else could you add to the game to increase activity and other learning outcomes?

Filed under: mlearning, qrcode | 4 Comments »

Futuristic Maths Worksheets?

Posted on December 10, 2009 by mrrobbo

After presenting a session at the VITTA conference last month entitled ‘The Complete Guide to using QR Codes in Education’, Ive decided to finally film and blog a couple of the activities I had the participants complete.

The first is a ‘futuristic’ maths worksheet that contains QR Codes under each problem. Upon scanning the code a step by step tutorial is launched in Youtube explaining the process of solving the problem.The second activity is based around a life-sized model of a human heart. The heart is broken into major components and each of which has a unique number. Upon scanning the QR code that is associated to the number, a name of the component is revealed along with links to descriptions, Youtube videos and online tests.

To see it all in action, check out the video below.

If you are unsure of what QR Codes are then I encourage you to read through my previous posts surrounding their use within education or my presentation from the VITTA conference.

Filed under: qrcode | 7 Comments »

Futuristic Library Books?

Posted on November 16, 2009 by mrrobbo

Next week I will be presenting a session at the VITTA conference on QR codes and how they can be used in the classroom. This comes as quite timely given the recent announcement in the 2009 horizon report that mentions QR codes as a ‘technology to watch’. So in getting myself prepared for the presentation I have been filming some of the ideas I have had in the past around how they could be used in education.

One of the ideas I initially had was to use them on library books, or any books for that matter. The idea is simple,

  1. Use a QR code generating website to create a code for the book.
  2. Print out a copy of the Code
  3. Attach the code to the book and return the book to its original  location in the library

Imagine going to find a book, but rather than simply reading the blurb you could scan a code to reveal a youtube video with people explaining  the book, a podcast of someone reading the book, a short text review or even a website that lists similar books. The possibilities are endless. Check out the video below for an idea of how I imagine this would actually work.

Filed under: qrcode | 4 Comments »

More Than A Boring Piece Of Paper

Posted on November 1, 2009 by mrrobbo

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

 

qr

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.

Filed under: qrcode, Uncategorized | 12 Comments »

A Kinesthetic Reading Adventure

Posted on October 1, 2009 by mrrobbo

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)

 

12

 

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

Filed under: qrcode, Uncategorized | 12 Comments »

Using Geocached QR Codes for Revision in a PE Classroom

Posted on March 26, 2009 by mrrobbo

Today I completed an alternative revision session with my senior VCE Physical Education students prior to a major assessment piece next week. In the past I have completed the standard revision activity with my students that requires them to answer questions on a page. However this time I went around the school with a handheld GPS  and marked 12 random locations. I then got 12 of the key questions the students are required to understand and entered them one by one into a QR code generator. Once this was completed I placed them at the 12 different GPS locations. Now with this completed I was finally setup for the activity.

The students were then given a blank answer sheet and the GPS location of the first QR code. Once they managed to find the code they used their mobile phones to scan and reveal the question which then needed to be answered correctly in order for me to share the next GPS location.   This process repeated until they reached the last QR code which included some further information about the assessment piece. The students were also encouraged to utilise their MP3 players to listen to their audio workbook and podcasts of key content if they were unsure of an answer.

So how successful was the activity? Well, the lack of motivation usually shown during revision activities was non-existent and the level of understanding the kids demonstrated was also excellent. Now I’m not sure this is a direct result of the activity itself, but I know for a fact  that they enjoyed it and to me that is the most important thing.

Take a look at how the activity worked in the video below. How could you use GPS and QR codes in your classroom?

Filed under: mlearning, physicaleducation, qrcode | 11 Comments »

Learning the Skeleton with QR codes

Posted on March 25, 2009 by mrrobbo

Today in my junior Physical Education class we started our work on learning the human skeleton, which includes being able to identify the major bones. Now this time last year I introduced the students to ‘Harold’ the model skeleton, so this year I did the same thing, however one thing was very different….

 Harold had undertaken a little update and his bones had been affixed with QR codes that when scanned would reveal the name of the underlying bone. Once the activity had been explained the students set about scanning and revealing, scanning and revealing, scanning and revealing until they could identify the 20 key bones in the human skeleton via scientific name. The next step was to play ‘Skeletal Bingo’ which the kids ran for each other. Basically the kids write down in a 4X4 grid 16 different bone names. The caller then points to bones and if the student has that bone in their list they cross it off. Eventually we get a bingo and to prove they know their bones they have to identify them in front of the class by revealing the bones using the Quickmark QR code reader software and a webcam.

Anyway I decided to film a quick video that you can view below, that could help explain how the whole process worked. Although the QR codes have been used with a Physical Education context in this activity, there is absolutely no reason why this wouldnt work within any other subject area.  If you like you can download a copy of the QR codes I used for the activity here and the skeletal bingo worksheet. Finally if your unfamiliar with QR codes , then you can read an earlier post about what they are and there potential in education.

How else might you use QR codes in your classroom?

Filed under: education, mlearning, physicaleducation, qrcode | Tagged: , , | 13 Comments »

Next Page »

  • Download My eBooks

  • Phys Ed Apps

  • Scan or Click for a Random App