Cool QR Codes in the Classroom & Library

In our hallway - promoting our Google Form Book Reviews!
QR Codes are popping up everywhere! On the back of my Sephora catalog, windows of shops, and in my library! They're already big in Japan - and now in New York & LA.

On our Recent Arrival Display - Promoting this Blog!

They look cool, matrixy, and very graphic...
but what heck ARE they?
A Quick Response (QR) code is a two-dimensional or 2D bar code which can be interpreted by any mobile phone with camera capabilities. Unlike traditional barcodes, which feature a series of straight lines these barcodes QR Codes are laid out in a matrix and can hold much more information.
Through “scanning” the code by way of photographing it, and installing a a FREE APP or simple piece of software to your smartphone, anyone can access the information behind the QR which might contain images, easily launched website links, and text.

Simply use your smartphone's camera to scan a QR code (via a reader app, such as Barcode Scanner or QuickMark), and you'll instantly be rewarded with whatever content has been embedded in the code, whether it's a URL that you can auto launch to the site, a friend's contact information, or a text message.

QR Codes in the Classroom - and the Library! From a recent article I contributed to at the Innovative Educator blog - txtN N d library: Ideas for Librarians Who Want to Embrace the Power of Cell Phones (btw, feels weird to post this in the third person and do I use quotes if I wrote it?!)

"QR codes can also be used to conduct a treasure hunt of information in the school library. Middle school teacher librarian Gwyneth Jones, aka the Daring Librarian, uses QR codes to engage students in what she calls “digital discoveries.” Asking the students to bring their cell phones to the library, in small groups or pairs, the kids hunt for sneaky QR codes posted around the library (programed with a free QR code generator) to discover clues that can be scanned that lead to other clues - some asking questions, some that lead students to wiki or webpages with further information, some that require the students to perform a task to discover the final clue and the “treasure” which is a special key code to be submitted to a Google form. Once on the Google form wikipage students input the “key” to a drawing for a chance to win an iTunes gift card or a bundle of free books. Another use is posting QR codes next to book displays & pubic access catalog computers that lead students to wikipages where they can write and read student book reviews.

Because students work in groups or pairs, only about a third of the class needs Smartphones and because she’s done a student survey in advance she knows how much technology her students have. If necessary, being ever cognizant of the digital divide, Jones has purchased a couple iPod touch Generation 4 mobile devices that students may use in the library or check out to use at home with the preloaded Kindle app and several books, music, & library pics." - Read the rest of the article by Tamara Cox and check out her AWEsome Eliterate Librarian blog

Buying information for the iPod Touch 4th Generation
Now with FaceTime, Retina display, HD video recording, and Game Center.

Shopping ALERT! Amazon price beats Apple teacher discount!

An 8G Apple iPod Touch 4th Gen is on sale on Amazon for $215 last week... and the Apple Educator price was.....wait for it....$229! What the what!? So like I mention on my wikipage
check Amazon's price before you decide to buy - and remember the low price today could raise higher tomorrow - and vice versa.

QR Code Jewelry -
If I weren't so busy (and so indolent) I'd start a cottage industry of Customizable QR Code jewelry or buttons on Etsy.com. As it is - I bought the last one from BarcodeArt this morning. Heh heh. I have shopping issues.

QR Code Resources & Articles:

• QR Codes Connect Students to Books featuring Geek Tribe member & cutie pie John Schumacher!
• QR Codes in the Library: Use 2-D barcodes to offer the coolest services ever - by Geek Tribe member Christopher Harris @infomancy
• QR Literature Quest: A high tech scavenger hunt to interest HS students in literature. via via Neil Krasnoff or @txlibraryguy
• HOW TO: Use QR Codes for Small Business Marketing
• What Is A QR Code And Why Do You Need One?
• QR Codes - Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki

A Time to Give Thanks

It's true the more you give the more your receive... Since I've started sharing more...I've gotten more back. Thank you everyone who has so generously shared with me this year! Thank you students who voted for us for the Edublog nominatios...sorry, no we didn't win...but we loved having you visit us here & see more of what we do for you! Don't be a stranger & always feel free to leave comments with your screen name or first name!

In this season of light & giving- let's all please remember to be generous, supportive, positive, & INCLUSIVE of each other!
/lovefest bah humbug! LOL
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Photo credits:
Calvin Klein billboard Mashable
QR Code on Door: Tailor Made Hotel
Flickr Creative Commons QR Code on a Stick - photo by See-ming Lee - Photo shop by me!
iPod Touch 4th Gen from Villa State
QR Code Custom button photo by BarcodeArt
Photo of the Philly Museum of Art - ME!

Letters for Libraries: Advocacy and Action!

Letters for Libraries: It's Not Just About Books.
Funding for school libraries and funding for other student literacy programs (like the National Writing Project) is being threatened both federally and in states across the country. In the 21st century information environment, our students deserve and need your help in keeping their library/information literacy programs strong.

Join us for a National time of Letter Writing...NOW!

Please, If you're reading this...the time is now....

Commit to writing 3 emails or letters to Congress, the Department of Education, or your state legislature regarding library and other literacy funding.
There are links and information below to help you.

Issues:
Background information (Joyce Valenza)

Write your congressman:
Write your Representative
Write your Senator
Write your State legislator

Write the Dept. of Education
**AskArne@ed.gov**

"Improving Literacy for School Libraries will no longer be available. The FY 2011 budget absorbs this grant program, along with a variety of others, into Effective Teaching and Learning for a Complete Education. The FY2011 budget describes the competitive distribution process for the newly lumped together monies:
. . . the plan includes a restructuring of ESEA program authorities to fundamentally change how the Department operates by increasing the role of competition in awarding Federal education funds, focusing more on programs achieving specific desired outcomes, allowing for expanded State and local flexibility to achieve those outcomes, and reducing the number of programs administered by the Department of Education. For example, the reauthorization proposal would consolidate 38 existing authorities into 11 new programs that give communities more choices in carrying out activities that focus on local needs and that are achieving results. The new programs would emphasize competition, or an increased performance focus in formula programs, while ensuring that geographic location will not dictate results. These expanded funding streams will eliminate inefficiencies at the Federal, State and local levels, allowing grantees to focus on improving outcomes for students and allowing the Department to focus on providing strong support and directing funding to proven or promising practices."

What will be lost:

List of libraries the "Improving Literacy" grants have helped

• Kuspuk School District in Aniak, Alaska serving students in 8 rural areas is using the grants to hire a full time certified librarian
• Blytheville School District in Blytheville, Arkansas is using the grants to help students in rural steel-mill communities by adding library staff and adding online resources for over 900 students.

• Langston Hughes Academy Charter in New Orleans, Lousiana is using the grant to hire a full-time librarian and build a centralized computer lab area for students
• Copenhagen School District in Copenhagen, New York is using the grant to provide internet access for a rural community with limited internet resources and create a "Library without Limits."

• Galveston ISD in Galveston, TX is using the grant to restore hurricane damaged libraries and upgrade library collections
• Lakeland R-III School District in Deepwater, Missouri is using the grant to bring technology to their rural students including providing multiple laptops for each library, adding a computer lab and whiteboard technology, and adding both a librarian and library assistants to the staff of each school.

Many of the other grants ask for the ability to provide longer library hours, summer hours, parental use of libraries, family literacy events, professional development on collaboration for librarians, and addition of books or technology for libraries in rural areas or impoverished areas. Many of the libraries lack computers completely, or have outdated, poor quality equipment, and books are outdated. Several of the grants revolve around special literacy and reading programs implemented in districts to raise student achievement scores and literacy."

from Carolyn Foote and the new Letters from Libraries wiki and please read her eloquent blog posting:

The issue isn’t “books”"

Where she shares: "In fact, an article in this week’s Education Week, “”Libraries Seek Relevance Through Virtual Access” which features a number of vibrant library programs proves that true."

From a recent letter from the ALA:
Out of Work Librarians Need Your Help NOW!
Take Action!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced yesterday that he will bring the Senate's $80 billion version of the Jobs for Main Street Act or the "jobs bill" to the Senate floor sometime next week.

Libraries are not in this bill, and it is more important than ever that you call your Senators and encourage them to include librarians in the $20.5 billion section that is being used to hire and retain teachers, police, and firefighters.

Also, if you are in a state where librarians are represented by a union, please have your local union contact your national union to contact the Senate.

Please call your Senators today at the U.S. Capital switchboard 202-224-3121
Libraries are as essential as schools and public safety and help the economy by helping people find jobs. Yet library jobs are being cut - and, now, not included in this jobs bill. It is vitally important that librarians be as vocal as these other public employees. The reason they are getting funding in this piece of legislation is because they are calling their congressional offices more often and in higher numbers than we are.

Your grassroots efforts are critically important. The omission of librarians in the jobs bill is in addition to the troubling news this week that President Obama's budget proposal freezes the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and consolidates the school library program with literacy programs in the Department of Education. These cuts will lead to a loss of jobs and a loss of services that our communities cannot afford to be without.

Please call both of your U.S. Senators to ask each of them to request that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), include the hiring and retaining of librarians in their jobs bill.

This bill could come up at any moment and it is critically important that you contact your Senators' offices immediately and tell them to push the above Senate leaders to include librarians in the jobs bill. Don't just call once - keep calling until we succeed. Make sure to tell your senators what your library is doing to help people find jobs.

We cannot let this legislation pass without the inclusion of library employees. We have no chance of getting into this legislation without your calls and emails - and the support of all senators!!


Resources:
NCTE's 'resolution" on supporting school libraries.

ALA: Arne Duncan Talks about the Role of Libraries in Economic Recovery

labels: action, Advocacy, ALA, Carolyn Foote, Joyce Valenza, school libraries