QR Geo-Treasure Hunt

This is just a quick description of a project I have going at school. I’m being ably assisted by a student with a love for technology and an understanding of networks (that I don’t possess).
We have been keen to get QR codes working in an everyday way at school. Most kids have a smart phone or iPod that is capable of running a QR reader app. As another way of interesting and engaging kids in the use of technology we decided to build a wireless server that was capable of hosting our QR URL’s.
We got our hands on an old laptop that had been superseded and I had a wireless router that was no longer needed. It would become a local wireless server, with no connection to the internet. The laptop had a WordPress blog platform installed on it. The URLs that the QR codes link to will be posts or pages on that blog.

The trial we started was a Geo-Treasure hunt. Without a Web connection, we obviously couldn’t go out to places like Google Maps, so we came up with an alternative.
We actually created our own Google Map images of the school, with key locations pinned.

 

We snipped an image of the pin location (using the Windows 7 snipping tool – awesome utility) and embedded the image into a new post on the WordPress blog install. This gave us the unique URL to create a QR from. The QR code was printed out and put on the noticeboard outside the room with the wireless router.

The kids come along, scan the QR code and see the image on their screens.

The instructions on the page also tell them what to do – find something, collect something, do something and where to go with the evidence. The winners get a prize. The results of our tests are very encouraging. We are going to roll out the Geo-treasure hunt to the wider school population in Week 10.

No need for reams of QR codes cluttering your noticeboard. A QR code can be re-used, just by changing the blog post contents. The range of the wireless router is pretty impressive too, with reception up to 200m away, which gives us plenty of scope for code content and sites of  deployment.

Although we are not in the roll out stage yet, many kids have noticed the wireless network on their devices and want to know what it is. Their interest is certainly piqued. Once this picks up momentum, and I’m sure it will, I’m sure things like daily notices, permission notes and other mundane daily tasks will become more engaging and fun for the kids.

Mobile devices in my classroom – Nuts & Bolts (Part 1)

I’ve been looking for a way to authentically use mobile devices in class.

This post is about the nuts and bolts – what devices will do the job in my classroom.

To actually use videos and images created by kids on mobile devices initially seemed simple – shoot the images, dump them somewhere to look at, all done.

But then running my teacher eye over the plan ended up in some questions that needed answering:

• What devices are available? (ie. do the kids have them, can they get them or do I supply them)
• What sort of product do the various types of devices produce?
• How do I (and the kids) get the content off the device and share it
• What platform best handles the content when it’s finished?
• Who gets to look and play with the content?

1. Devices & Product

I set out to conduct a little test using the sort of devices that most kids might have already, or that I can already supply easily.

My tools were a Nokia 6300, my iPhone 3Gs, a Mino Flip SD video cam, a Kodak Zx1 video cam and a Samsung ES55 digital cam.

After shooting some video and stills, I built this table of comparisons. I tried to keep the subject, lighting and other variables constant when shooting (although this did establish some device differences, as I’ll talk about later)

Nokia 6300	iPhone 3Gs	Flip Mino SD	Kodak Zx1	Samsung ES55
Video	Video	Video	Video	Video
Inside still	Inside still	Inside still	Inside still	Inside still
Outside still	Outside still	Outside still	Outside still	Outside still

Focus and framing was an issue for most. The Nokia was hope for the best, the iPhone better but not perfect. The two video cameras needed careful framing for any auto focus to work, as well as getting the subject in for the still photos. The Samsung, being a dedicated (basic) camera handing framing and focusing best of all.

2. Uploading and Sharing

Each device has its own quirks with moving the content from device to final site. Heres another table on how I moved the video and images to their final destination:

	Nokia 6300	iPhone 3Gs	Flip Mino	Kodak Zx1	Samsung
Vid*	Bluetooth> upload	email to PC>upload	USB> upload	SDcard>PC> upload	SDcard>PC> upload
Still	Bluetooth	email	USB>Flip software**> upload	WMP***>Pause> Snipper tool Win7> upload	SD

* Each device recorded video in different formats. However, when uploaded to Photobucket, all were converted to MP4

** Flip cameras come with software that allow you to capture frames from video

***Windows Media Player

My quest for a platform to save and share the images and videos was harder than I thought. I wanted somewhere central that the kids could upload to, moderated by me and share and comment on what they see. The DET blocks student access to all cloud storage sites (Dropbox, Box.net, Drop.io etc). Moodle, Edmodo, Wikispaces and BlogED (the DET sponsored blogging platform for NSW students) all offer potential, and I’ll explore them more thoroughly in the future.

What I ended up using for this test was Photobucket. I can create group folders there, control permissions and access, with no limit on uploads in the free account. As I play with it more and get the kids to contribute, I’ll update the progress of the test. Now to get outside and enjoy the holidays!

Mobile devices and Bluetooth…the underdeveloped resource?

I’ve taken the leap and decided to get an iPhone. While I’m not completely over the practicalities of using a mobile device as a teaching tool, I figured that immersion is the key to understanding.

There’s been quite a lot written lately about mobile devices in schools

Some encouraging like this……

Some discouraging, like this…..

I’ve been interested in what others have done, and there is plenty to contemplate.

Mr Robbo has done something interesting. His work with this bluetooth server deserves some further attention.

And as far as iPhones go there are plenty of  ideas here

I’ll be working out how I can use this obvious yet underdeveloped resource in my classes.

Don’t forget the video! This one is a classic – New Order “World” – it looks like it been made in one continuous shot.