Time Magazine cited the 50 best inventions of 2010 in their November issue.  Among them were:  malaria-carrying mosquito zappers, a waterless washing machine, the no blink Sony alpha camera, lungs grown in a lab and robotic prosthetic legs. ICT change is even more rapid.  

What’s a QR Code? 

Matrix barcodes or QR (Quick Response) barcodes were first used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing but  QR codes are now used for both commercial tracking applications and portable personal uses via a smart phone. Reading a QR code is called mobile tagging. QR codes can be used to display text , add a contact to your phone, to open a website or compose text messages or emails. Users can also generate and print their own QR codes for others to scan and use by visiting one of several free online QR code generators.

QR codes may appear in magazines, on signs, buses etc. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct QR reader application can scan the code to open a web page in the phone’s web browser. These physical objects that link to digital information are known as a hardlinks or physical world hyperlinks.

QR codes are very popular in Japan and the US. View this brief explanation.  Schools are using QR Codes for learning and teachers are finding more uses every day.    Read more …

The first student to solve our first information challenge in the school newsletter was Sara Jones.  Sara used a QR Code scanner app on her dad’s phone to deliver the URL of this blog to us. So now we know how to make our own QR codes to share and promote web-based information.  Google’s URL shortener can be found at http://goo.gl/   This URL shortener even stores a history of the URL’s you have shortened.  Long URL’s are a pain. They take up too many characters when micro blogging, e.g Tweeting on Twitter.  Long URLs sent via email can spread  across 2 or more lines and as a result don’t work. There are many URL shorteners to be found online and they do much the same job although they may have slightly different features. Tinyurl.com doesn’t keep a history of the url’s you have shortened but it works great and it does allow you to choose some of the text in your new shortened URL – if it is not already in use. 

Reading

One thing that won’t change is the need to be literate in order to get the most out of  ICT and gadgets.  Junior English classes have begun browsing, borrowing, reading and discussing books in their Learning Place blogs…so we’ve been discussing the added benefits of reading beyond academic success. While the second Colorado Study  (Lance, Rodney, & Hamilton-Pennall, 2000)  links diverse schools which are academically successful to the quality of resources in the library; we came up with a few other reasons to be life-long readers…  Reading: is the best preparation for unseen standardized tests like Core Skills and NAPLAN, makes us better writers, enhances our vocabulary, makes us more interesting people &  more tolerant.  At least Julian Smith doesn’t want to be disturbed while he’s reading!   [NB You will need to view this  music video clip from home]

List of Works Consulted  [We used Son of Citation]

Corles, R.  et al (2010, November 22). The 50 best inventions of the year. Time, 176(21), 35-59.

Lance, KC, Rodney, MJ, & Hamilton-Pennall, C. Colorado Education Department, Library Research Service, Colorado State Library. (2000). How school librarians help kids achieve standards – the second Colorado study, Denver.