Tech Tips – Page 2 – Coffee Nancy

QR Code Generators

January 28, 2015January 28, 2015 nancy

A number of people have asked me recently about QR (Quick Response) codes. QR codes are those square, blocky looking barcodes that are seemingly everywhere these days. They can be read by mobile phones and tablets and can store website URLs, wifi network credentials, email addresses, calendar event information, preset text messages, and more.

They have many applications in education. You can have students scan a QR code using an iPad to visit a website instead of asking them to type in the URL. When giving an assignment, you can link to examples of quality student work. During Open House, you can use QR codes to identify the student creator of a “Who Am I” project? Add QR codes to book covers that link to student audio or video reviews of the book. Make scavenger hunts for your students or, even better, have them make scavenger hunts for each other or other classrooms. Create a QR code that brings up a text message for parents/students to use when subscribing to services like Remind (Thanks, David Bayne, for that idea). You are limited only by your imagination.

QR codes are easy to make. You can create them for free on many different websites. Whichever generator you choose, you will need to download and save or copy your QR code in order to use it. The QR codes below link back to this website and were generated by some of my favorite sites. I think it is interesting that they all look different, yet link to the same place.

goo.gl

Goo.gl Google’s short URL creator also gives you QR codes that link to websites. Simply visit goo.gl, paste in the link to the webpage and click Shorten URL. The shortened URL appears on the right of your screen. Click the Details link underneath and you will see your QR code. If you use Chrome, you can install ShortenMe or another extension to generate a QR code through goo.gl for any webpage without leaving that webpage.
Pros: Google Analytics, Chrome extensions
Cons: Can only be used with webpages
QRstuff.com

QRstuff.com This site is very easy to use and allows you to create codes for a huge variety of uses. Just select the type of content the QR will link to, then fill in the blanks, set your color (yes, you can make colored QR codes!), and preview your code. When you are satisfied with the color, download the code by clicking the download button. The site is a little more cluttered than the others mentioned here, but it is still easy to use.
Pros: Colored QR codes, ease of use, one click download
Cons: Students may choose colors that do not provide enough contrast and the resulting QR code will not work
QR Code Generator

QR Code Generator: This site provides a limited number of options for the contents of the QR code (text, URL, contact, phone number, or SMS), but it offers several choices for the resulting image. You can set the size you want, and you also have option of copying embed code or a direct link to the image instead of downloading and saving if you prefer. Students like seeing the code change as each character of the input is typed.
Pros: Ease of use, choice of output
Cons: Limited input sources
GoQR.me

GoQR.me: This is another site that allows you to make colored QR codes and see the barcode change as you enter information. The layout of the page is very clean and straightforward, so it simple to use. It works with a wide variety of input types and the generated code can be downloaded in a number of formats, or you can copy and paste the direct link or embed code for the image.
Pro: Colored QR codes, ease of use, adjustable size
Con: Possibility of QR codes not working due to low contrast color choice

Thank you to Lisa Nowakowski for recommending GoQR.me.

If you have a great way of using QR codes with students, please share in the comments.

Missed the Hour of Code? It’s not too late!

December 19, 2014December 19, 2014 nancy

My students had a great time coding up a storm over the last two weeks. I know the Hour of Code was Dec. 8-14, but I only see the kids every other week, so our Hour of Code was Dec. 8-19. If you didn’t do any coding with your students because you didn’t know where or how to start, here is a Thinglink resource for you to use. I encourage you to get started and give it a try. Anyone can code!

Base image by Geralt via Pixabay.com. Public domain.

Save Haiku Deck slides to your iPad

October 13, 2014May 13, 2015 nancy

After attending a presentation on iOS creation apps I did this weekend, a participant asked me about the best way to save Haiku Deck slides to her iPad so she could use them as the basis for Thinglink and Pic Collage projects. If you are not familiar with Haiku Deck, it is a free iPad app that allows the user to create beautiful presentations using Creative Commons licensed images (and they are gorgeous). The themes are simple and elegant and the app is easy enough for primary students to learn in just a few minutes.

The presentations can be exported directly from the app as a PDF or PowerPoint, but saving the slides as images requires a few extra taps and button pushes. It turns out that the best way to save your work as images is by doing screenshots of each slide as you play your presentation.

To do it, create your Haiku Deck. Click the Play button.

Haiku Deck slide

As you proceed through your presentation, take a screenshot of each slide by pressing the Home and Sleep/Wake (Power) buttons at the same time. You will know you are successful if you see the screen flash white and you hear the camera shutter sound. The resulting screenshots will be saved to your iPad and can be accessed and used just like any other photo.

Custom Icons for Mac

July 10, 2014October 13, 2014 nancy

I use custom icons on our school computers instead of the standard Mac icons. This helps students find the link or shortcut I want them to access more quickly and easily, and it only takes a few minutes to do.

To begin, download the image that you want to use for your custom icon. I like to search for what I want on iconarchive.com because they have thousands of free, licensed images. You can use either a .jpg or a .png format, and it should be at least 48 x 48 pixels in size.

Double click the image you downloaded. It will open in Preview. Choose Edit > Select All (or use the keyboard shortcut Command + a). You will see the outline to show it has been selected.

selected squirrel

Copy the image (Edit > Copy or Command + c).

On your desktop, click the icon whose look you want to change. Make sure you click it once to select it, not twice to open it. Then go to File > Get info (Command + i) and click the icon preview at the top.

The blue outline that appears shows you that the icon image has been selected.

blue outline

Paste the image you just copied in its place (Edit > Paste or Command + v). If you like, you can change the name appearing under the icon as well by editing the Name & Extension section.

Finished Get Info window

Close the window and you are done!

ThingLink Interactive Images

July 15, 2013July 15, 2013 nancy 1 Comment

ThingLink image

A number of people mentioned to me during last night’s #CAedChat that they would like to see a blog post about ThingLink interactive images and their use in the classroom, so here goes.

ThingLink allows you to add tags to an image which viewers can click on to access text you have added or online material such as websites, images, sounds, videos, and more. This tool can be accessed on the web at www.thinglink.com, and there is also an iOS app. It is free to create an account and teachers can request an educator upgrade which lets you store an unlimited number of images on the ThingLink site. Your tagged images can be shared and embedded wherever you wish.

I have found ThingLink to be very versatile and easy to use. You start by uploading an image from your computer (e.g., a photo you have taken, an image created with drawing software, or a scanned file) or by linking to an image on the web. Then you add tags to the online content you want to appear on your image. When the viewer moves the cursor over the image, the links appear and are clickable.

Teachers can use it to present content in an engaging, interactive way. Students can create images that support learning at all levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Whether they are labeling the parts of a flower, creating a graphic comparing and contrasting two types of sculpture, adding content to a map or timeline, or creating their digital selves, students will be on task and learning (although I can’t promise they will be quiet; the enthusiasm is definitely audible).

ThingLink can also be a starting point for a discussion on digital citizenship. Many students want to dive headfirst into Google Images when they start a project like this, but we can take this opportunity to teach them about Creative Commons licensing and all the excellent resources that are available to them to use, such as Pixabay.com, Wikimedia Commons, and the Creative Commons section on Flickr.com.

ThingLink supports many of the Common Core State Standards, in particular CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others and CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism. However, depending on what students add to their ThingLink image, it can also support several of the other standards.

Here are some images on the California missions and the 1849 Gold Rush my 4th grade students created using ThingLink. This was the first time I had used ThingLink with students, and I should have had them all send me a link to their images so I could embed them, but I didn’t realize that until too late. In order to get them on the page in a timely fashion, I touched the images (similar to “liking” on Facebook) and they appeared in my stream. One feature I would love to see in the Educator account would be the ability to manage student accounts and publish their images as a class, but I am sure they are working on that. Until then, I will use a Google form to collect the image link from each student for future projects.

ThingLink Toolkit for Educators

Richard Byrne’s 26+ Ways to Use ThingLink in the Classroom

Resources I provided for my students

If you have creative ideas on how to use ThingLink, please share them in the comments below.

Include an EdShelf webmix in a Google site

July 3, 2013January 28, 2019 nancy 2 Comments

I have been playing with EdShelf, an online tool that helps teachers organize lists of apps and other resources they use into webmixes. It is free and so far has been easy to use. Basically, you create a collection (or more than one) and add the tools to it. Each tool is in the database with a brief video, reviews, and pricing info. One feature that is especially nice is that if you choose to print the list, it automatically adds QR codes to link to the website for each tool. You can embed your collections on websites to share with students, parents, and other educators.

Unfortunately, the embed code they provide doesn’t work well with Google sites. Google is pretty particular about what kind of embed codes they allow. There is a workaround, though. What you need to do is to insert the entire webpage into a frame on your Google site. Just follow these steps.

Log into EdShelf.com.
Find your name on the right side, click it, and select the webmix you want to include.
When the webmix page opens, select and copy the url.
Log into your Google site and click where you want to embed the webmix.
Choose Insert from the menu at the upper left.
Choose More Gadgets, then Include gadget (iFrame). Click Select.
Paste the url to your webmix in the box marked URL to content, adjust your other settings, and click OK.

Fast, Free, Easy PLN: Why You Should Be on Twitter

March 28, 2013March 28, 2013 nancy

Many people mistakenly believe that Twitter is a forum where people who have a lot of time to waste share what they had for breakfast and other equally shallow bits of information. In reality, it is so much more than that.

Twitter is perhaps the best and easiest way for teachers to expand their personal learning networks. You can search Twitter for any educational topic imaginable and find results you can use. Many tweets also include hashtags (the pound sign, or #, followed by a word or phrase) to categorize them. There are hundreds of hashtags related to education. Some examples are #edchat (anything about education), #elementary, #secondary, #edtech, #gtchat (gifted and talented education), #ellchat, and #spedchat. There are also many other, more specific hashtags that are sure to meet your needs.

Twitter helps you connect with educators around the country and around the world. You would never have the chance to meet many of these people in other ways, but on Twitter, you can find them, talk with them, follow their tweets, and benefit from their expertise. You can also join in and participate in weekly or monthly scheduled chats. I like #caedchat, which focuses on topics relevant to education in the state of California.

Twitter is an online resource, available when and where you need it. If you have been toying with the idea of trying something new in your classroom, you can go on Twitter, search for that topic, and come away with five new ideas in the space of five minutes. Have a question? Post a message, include an appropriate hashtag, and get input and answers right away. It is a place to get inspired, make new connections, and get new ideas.

Getting started is free and takes only a few minutes. Visit Twitter.com and find the area that says “New to Twitter? Sign Up.” Enter your name and email address, create a password, and you are off and running. Don’t worry about tweeting right away. Just commit to spending a few minutes a day looking for people to follow and reading their tweets.

If you would like to know more, I have shared an Evernote notebook of resources for new Twitter users. You can also find me on Twitter, where I am @CoffeeNancy. Still not convinced? Watch this video to see what Twitter can do.