QR Code Literacy Activity Reflection

Well, I was able to borrow 15 iPads and begin our literacy work.  It was a HUGE success.  The kids were so engaged on what was happening.  It was a moment where I just stood there and let the learning happen. 

I did encounter a few issues; however.  Two of the station activities did not work with the iPads.  The first was due to a block from our internet filtering system.  I built this activity at home, so I was unaware of how the blocks might impact our lesson.  Also, one activity runs on flash.  Remember my earlier post about how iPads do not run flash?  Yep, I forgot my own advice. I guess I thought it ran through YouTube.  So, what I did was make that one station into a laptop station.  For the website that was blocked, I simply downloaded the short story I wanted them to listen to right into iTunes and they were able to enjoy the story.  So, my take away from this is: 1) QR codes immediately engage kids.  2) Our room was buzzing with all the learning. 3) Check each QR link at school to be sure that what you want them to do is not blocked. 4) Do not choose something that is run by Java.

This lesson took about 2 hours.  The kids were really engaged for the entire time.  They are now asking for their next QR code treasure hunt.  I love that kids think reviewing literacy strategies is a treasure hunt.