Category: Student Portfolios

So Cool: QR – An Engaging Learning & Communication Tool

Something Cool I Saw Today

[Examples of Effective 21st Century Teaching & Learning Perpetuated by my Incredible Colleagues]

QR Codes For Engagement & Communication

QR ‘People of Character’ Museum

Yesterday I saw the result of a project that I’ve been hearing about for while.  QR codes have tons of potential for engaging students in learning.  Specifically they’re excellent tools for perpetuating exploration, collaboration, and communication.  The incredible Learning Buddy team of John Kernan’s 4th grade class & Andrea Papadopoulos’ 1st grade class recently completed this great QR scaffolded project focused on being a community of character.  The students chose ‘People of Character’ to learn about, talk about, think about, and write about.  To communicate the resulting insights they created the museum in which each person’s picture hangs along with four QR codes that link audiences to some of the information the students collected in various forms.  The thing I really appreciate about this learning is that the students were collaborating with one another from across grade levels and reaching across the curriculum.  They were dealing with character education, language arts, and digital literacy.  They were thinking critically and they communicated content and energy with passion and authenticity.  Well Done – So Cool!

Check out Kaywa QR Generator at http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ to integrate this wonderful tool into your instructional strategy.  The possibilities are limitless!

Cool School Tool: Wikis For DIgital Backpacks

The following video comes from the incredible instructional design of Barbie Sansone who is building Digital Backpacks on her class wiki so that she, her students, and her student’s parent’s can think critically about their development over time. Please let me know if you have questions about wikis or digital backpacks and join me on twitter @bergseyeview to share more collaborative learning.  Have a great week!

365 Lessons: #8 Critical Thinking with Edcanvas

365Lessons

#8 Explore New Ideas, Tools, and Possibilities Whenever You Have a Chance

[Lesson Breakdown]

Sometimes it’s twitter, sometimes it’s live action, sometimes it’s blog or a workshop.  Educators are constantly surrounded by new tools, technologies, and strategies.  We should be exploring as many as we can.  You never know when you’ll come across something that you can use to enhance your instruction, your students’ learning experience, and everyones ability to achieve.  For those of you who are not in education, explore anyway…you never know what you’re going to find!

Watch the following Cool School Tool video (2 minutes short), check out Edcanvas at http://www.edcanvas.com/login, sign up for an account, and explore.  You might find a way to make it work for you, your colleagues, and your students.

Digital Backpacks: Student Portfolios Enhanced!

Digital Backpacks are on-line portfolios that teachers and students can use to collect and communicate learning artifacts.   Come spring, a well maintained digital backpack tells the story of any given student’s developmental journey, and, with a bit of frontloading, prep, and practice they’re easy and fun to maintain!  If you’re at all interested in exploring Digital Backpacks – do it!

A few reasons why:

  1. Digital Backpacks become a great data source to inform instruction.
  2. Digital backpacks give student ownership over their growth and the communication of that growth.
  3. Digital backpacks can be engaging and truly reflective of each student’s individual interests and abilities – they can each shine in their own way.
  4. Digital backpacks help keep parents informed and involved by giving them the ability to stay connected to the learning process.
  5. Digital Backpacks provide an authentic opportunity to teach digital citizenship.

Below are multiple Tool Tip clips.  Each are labeled with the skill they address.  If you intend to peruse Digital Backpacks using Wiki Spaces I would send the clips home with your students to ‘flip’ instruction.  They can learn how to do this stuff outside of the classroom, practice at home (with their parents), and become experts outside of school…maximizing learning time in class.

Toot Tip:  Adding Documents to a Wiki Page http://tinyurl.com/bx2ewqo

Tool Tip:  Inserting Images into Wiki Pages http://tinyurl.com/bdmvepp

Tool Tip:  Using Widgets and Tags to Organize Wikis http://tinyurl.com/a6po8oc

Also, the wonderful Jen Wind (Quarton 2nd grade), Laurie Cooper (Harlan 3rd Grade), and John Kernan (Pierce 4th Grade) are exploring QR Codes.  Laurie came up with the great idea of creating QR refrigerator magnets for her parents to stay connected to her students’ Digital Backpacks at their convenience.  It’s really cool!  Talk to Jen, Laurie, John, (or the many others using these tools) for some other great ideas.  See below for some ‘Connected Tool Tips’ and a resource link from Jen Wind – Thanks Jen!

Connected Tool Tip:  Creating QR Codes on Desktops and Laptops http://tinyurl.com/akwq9dv

Connected Tool Tip:  Other QR Code Ideas http://tinyurl.com/b9nvh4e

QR Resource Link from Jen Wind: http://tinyurl.com/a38pcyz

Contact me at sb20bps@birmingham.k12.mi.us for more information and collaboration.  Pick the brain of your ignite facilitator.  Share ideas…spread the word!

Have a great weekend,

 

Seth