Jonesytheteacher's N + 1

  • Authentic Assessment in PE
  • Powerful pedagogies for PE
  • Web Tools

QR Geo-Treasure Hunt

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Brendan Jones Posted in teacherstuff .

This is just a quick description of a project I have going at school. I’m being ably assisted by a student with a love for technology and an understanding of networks (that I don’t possess).
We have been keen to get QR codes working in an everyday way at school. Most kids have a smart phone or iPod that is capable of running a QR reader app. As another way of interesting and engaging kids in the use of technology we decided to build a wireless server that was capable of hosting our QR URL’s.
We got our hands on an old laptop that had been superseded and I had a wireless router that was no longer needed. It would become a local wireless server, with no connection to the internet. The laptop had a WordPress blog platform installed on it. The URLs that the QR codes link to will be posts or pages on that blog.


The trial we started was a Geo-Treasure hunt. Without a Web connection, we obviously couldn’t go out to places like Google Maps, so we came up with an alternative.
We actually created our own Google Map images of the school, with key locations pinned.

 

We snipped an image of the pin location (using the Windows 7 snipping tool – awesome utility) and embedded the image into a new post on the WordPress blog install. This gave us the unique URL to create a QR from. The QR code was printed out and put on the noticeboard outside the room with the wireless router.


The kids come along, scan the QR code and see the image on their screens.

The instructions on the page also tell them what to do – find something, collect something, do something and where to go with the evidence. The winners get a prize. The results of our tests are very encouraging. We are going to roll out the Geo-treasure hunt to the wider school population in Week 10.

No need for reams of QR codes cluttering your noticeboard. A QR code can be re-used, just by changing the blog post contents. The range of the wireless router is pretty impressive too, with reception up to 200m away, which gives us plenty of scope for code content and sites of  deployment.

Although we are not in the roll out stage yet, many kids have noticed the wireless network on their devices and want to know what it is. Their interest is certainly piqued. Once this picks up momentum, and I’m sure it will, I’m sure things like daily notices, permission notes and other mundane daily tasks will become more engaging and fun for the kids.

Share
11 Comments
Tags: geocaching, iPhone, mobile, QR .
« Barry replies….
Test »

11 Responses

  1. Clarindab says
    June 17, 2011 at 3:59 pm

    So impressed about this idea! And I love the idea of the using the blog to disperse information – changing the blog information makes much more sense than changing the QR code for each event. Looking forward to hearing about implementation. Simply awesome Jonesy!

    Reply
    • jonesytheteacher says
      June 17, 2011 at 4:30 pm

      Thanks Clarinda for your interest and comments. Hopefully the kids will get as much out if it as we have in building it! 🙂 Jonesy

      Reply
  2. Vicky Goodyear says
    June 17, 2011 at 8:43 pm

    This is a great idea, I love it. I’m sure the students are so excited to do this in their lessons. Looking forward to hearing how it goes

    Reply
    • jonesytheteacher says
      June 17, 2011 at 10:20 pm

      Thanks Vicki for the interest in my blog and your comment. I’m excited about the possibilities and I hope it works out as well as we hope. 🙂 Jonesy

      Reply
  3. Joey Feith says
    June 18, 2011 at 1:01 am

    This must have been so much fun to set up. You know you’re doing a great job teaching when you’re getting as much out of it as your students are. Thanks for posting this and keep up the great work!

    Reply
    • jonesytheteacher says
      June 19, 2011 at 10:07 pm

      Thanks Joey for the visit and the comment. Yep, working something like this out, with the help of a keen student, reminds me why I love my job. I’ll let you know how we get on.

      Reply
  4. maximos62 says
    June 21, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    I’d been thinking of something like this. We ran an activity several years back that was interdisciplinary (Maths, HSIE, English) that had the students on a treasure hunt. Their task was to decode various problems, in one or more of these KLA’s, to locate the next clue. First to reach the ‘treasure’ received a special reward, but everyone got something. Now several years on my mind was drifting across the QR code idea, but you seem to have nailed it.

    I have an old wireless router and a suitable old laptop (if I can find the charger). What a great idea. I’ll think more about it now.

    So WordPress will work off line eh? Could you say more about this?

    Thanks for re-activating my thoughts on this, Jonesy.

    Reply
    • jonesytheteacher says
      June 22, 2011 at 7:02 pm

      Hi Russell and thanks for the interest and comment. I’ve got my sidekick working on a blog post explaining the WordPress install, so stay tuned.

      Reply
  5. Russell Darnley says
    June 22, 2011 at 7:49 pm

    Good. This is, potentially, a first step in building an AR structure for schools.

    Reply
  6. Pingback: Building a QR Server | Nick's Tech Space

  7. Pingback: QR Treasure Hunt by Jonesytheteacher | Talkin' 'bout my cerebration.

Leave a Reply to Clarindab

Leave a Reply to Clarindab Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stay Sun Safe!

I use Strava

Categories

  • 21st Century Learning
  • Change
  • Cycling
  • Games for Learning
  • GoPro
  • Health Education
  • Imagination
  • Inquiry
  • Leading
  • Learning
  • Minecraft
  • Mobile technology
  • Outdoors
  • Pedagogy
  • Physical education
  • Popular culture
  • teacherstuff
  • Technology
  • Toolkit
  • Uncategorized

Tags

#derlibs #libsder #pegeeks 21st Century blogging Change collaboration create DER engagement fitness games games sense Gaming GBL GPS Inquiry iPhone leadership leading learning mobile mobile phones mobiles Moodle paperless PDF PDHPE PE pedagogy Physical education PLN professional learning QR reflection resources Runkeeper SCORM sharing technology Testing tools Twitter video Web 2.0

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 3,340 other subscribers

I back Glenworth Valley MTB Park

Fundraising with GoGetFunding

Pages

  • Authentic Assessment in PE
  • Powerful pedagogies for PE
  • Web Tools

Archives

  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • June 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • March 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • January 2016
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • January 2015
  • November 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • August 2011
  • June 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009

Categories

  • 21st Century Learning (1)
  • Change (8)
  • Cycling (1)
  • Games for Learning (12)
  • GoPro (1)
  • Health Education (2)
  • Imagination (1)
  • Inquiry (12)
  • Leading (13)
  • Learning (21)
  • Minecraft (2)
  • Mobile technology (5)
  • Outdoors (1)
  • Pedagogy (12)
  • Physical education (25)
  • Popular culture (5)
  • teacherstuff (62)
  • Technology (14)
  • Toolkit (1)
  • Uncategorized (17)

WordPress

  • Log in
  • WordPress

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

© Jonesytheteacher's N + 1