QR Codes in Education

     Last year at MSET in Baltimore, MD I heard an amazing speaker who calls herself The Daring Librarian. She introduced me to creative ways to use QR Codes in education. I was fascinated by these odd looking bar codes. However, my mind was racing with ideas of the many ways I could use them with in both my computer and art classes. I couldn't wait to try them out. Here is a copy of the handout I received at the break-out session:

     This year I was able to create a lesson using QR Codes, that involved visual arts, literature and writing, and computers. My lesson was designed for my most recent project in my MEDUC 504 class at The Mount. 

     The Prezi begins by explaining what is a QR Code and where did they come from. I show examples of how QR Codes are used in advertising and where they can be found. Then the presentation goes on to explain how QR Codes can be used in education. I give examples of how the codes can be used for many different subjects and show their versatility.

     The last part of my Prezi then explains how I used QR Codes with my students at St. Mary Catholic School. We discussed The Chinese New Year in art class by viewing videos of how the holiday is celebrated. The students also looked a Chinese dragon art found that we found on the Internet. The last step was modeling for them how to actually draw the dragon and what features made it resemble a Chinese dragon.

     I asked our reading specialist at my school to get involved by having the students read Chinese myths about dragons in her literature class to further expose them to the Chinese culture. Lastly, the students were given a writing prompt to help them create their own dragon story.

     The next step was recording the students reading their stories using AudioBoo. The recording was uploaded to a QR Code generator on the Internet. From there I copied and pasted the code into Microsoft Word. The code was cut out and applied to the student's artwork and displayed in the hallway. Student's at my school could then scan the codes on the art and hear the artist reading their dragon story out loud. It was amazing! The students involved in the project were as fascinated as I was as to how the whole process works. The students who participated in the gallery walk loved hearing the stories and were jealous that their class didn't get to participate! 

     Here is the Prezi I created for my "Web 2.0 Tool" presentation to my grad class.

Copy of QR Codes in the Classroom on Prezi