Using QR Codes to Engage Children with Learning

DEFT

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• Creating Digital Paintings using iPads
• Creating Instructional Videos
• Creating and Using OERs to Promote Best Practice
• Digital Reporters at Camp Cardboard
• Digital video in ITE
• Exploring the intersections of digital literacy and creativity
• The use of mobile apps for digital story-telling with nursery pupils
• Using QR Codes to Engage Children with Learning
  

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Children using digital literacy to engage with reading and writing

Lesson idea. This lesson idea involves the creation of digital texts and the investigation of a location, using resources produced by a class of Y6 children. The children were told that there had been a 'happening' in a nearby park. They were tasked with reporting on the imagined event, creating news reports and pictures relating to the happening. These reports involved the development of children's writing and digital literacy skills, requiring creativity and imagination to produce interesting dispatches to engage an audience.

The resources produced were then collated on to a website, each clue having a separate page [1]. For each page, a QR code was created. These QR codes were then printed and displayed at various locations around the park.

Once the QR codes had been located, other classes from the school were dispatched to hunt for the clues. They used iPod Touches (coupled with Mifi mobile internet transmitters) to hunt for the QR codes, scan them and read the linked information. They pieced these together in order to form an idea of exactly what had happened in the park and then communicated their findings on a blog [2].

Teaching approach. This lesson idea uses technology to promote active learning^(ta) as resources were produced to be located and explored in a public park. The early stage of the activity, involving the creation of the resources by the children, required discussion^(ta) involving the whole class^(ta). Group talk^(ta) was also employed as a strategy, with the children agreeing on a narrative^(ta) outline relating to the event. The creation of the online materials encouraged development of e-skills^(topic).

The later stages of activity, where the children were looking for clues, required them to ask questions^(ta) and to take a collaborative^(tool) approach to find a solution, based on the digital texts they found.

Resource details
Title	Editing Using QR Codes to Engage Children with Learning
Topic	[[Topics/QR codes|QR codes]],  [[Topics/E-skills|E-skills]]
Teaching approach	[[Teaching Approaches/Group talk|Group talk]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Narrative|Narrative]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Questioning|Questioning]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Whole class|Whole class]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Active learning|Active learning]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Discussion|Discussion]]
Learning Objectives	To use technology to engage children with reading and writing.
Subject	[[Resources/Literacy|Literacy]],  [[Resources/ICT|ICT]],  [[Resources/Cross-curricular|Cross-curricular]]
Age of students / grade	[[Resources/Primary|Primary]],  [[Resources/KS2|KS2]]
Additional Resources/material needed	iPod Touch, Mifi
Useful information	A range of free and inexpensive QR code reading apps are available from the Apple App store.
Related ORBIT Wiki Resources	Case Study: Using QR codes to engage reluctant readers
Files and resources to view and download	This lesson idea comes from the DEFT case study Using QR codes to engage reluctant readers. The whole case study is available for reading and downloading here: http://www.digitalfutures.org/index.php/case-studies/schools/school-case-study-10/