An experiment...

I've been thinking for a while about the potential for using mobile phones in lessons, and planning to try out some ideas next year... One of which, is getting you to use mobile phones to respond to polls/answer questions, using something like Poll Everywhere (thanks Ollie Bray).

Good idea?? Text your response to the number below. (It will cost your usual text message rate... which might be nothing, depending on your contract, etc.)

Make your own poll voting question with Poll Everywhere

Mobile Phone Revision Quizzes...

I've been intending for a while to have a go at this, and decided this afternoon that it would be far more fun than cleaning the bathroom... This folder contains a GCSE Coasts Revision Quiz - ten simple multiple choice questions, in the form of .jpegs. The idea is that you download the pictures to your mobile, and then view them in slideshow mode on your phone... Geography revision, wherever, whenever!

How you get the pictures onto your phone will vary from phone to phone, and although I have got them to the right size so that they display properly on my phone, I am not sure whether or not they will work properly on other phones...

So, have a go at downloading them and then leave a comment telling me:

- how easy it was to get the quiz onto your phone
- whether it displays properly on your phone
- whether you think revision quizzes like this are a good idea
- any suggestions for improvements

Enjoy!!

QR codes...

The "experiment" in yesterday's post was more for my benefit than yours - I spent some time researching QR codes and thinking about the possibilities for use in teaching, and more specifically, in teaching Geography...

I have various ideas, at various stages of development, but they will fall flat on their faces if the "target audience" - ie you - doesn't know what QR codes are, and doesn't know what to do with them. And the response from Yr11 today, when one person had seen something similar on a Pepsi can but didn't really know much about it, suggests that some work is needed on my part!

Reluctant though I am to post a Wikipedia link, this explains a bit more about QR codes and what they are... QR codes are appearing everywhere in Japan... including - bizarrely - on tombstones, allowing visitors to view photos and videos of the deceased!!

The idea is that with a mobile phone which has a camera, you can scan a QR code, and be taken to a website, or be given a phone number or piece of text. If you are lucky enough to have an iPhone, you will be able to choose from a variety of QR code readers to download - I've tried Snappr and Neoreader (both free) but particularly impressed with Optiscan (£2.99). If you have a relatively recent Nokia phone, you might well find that you have a QR code reader pre-installed - check in the Office bit of your phone menu... With many other relatively new phones (as long as they have a camera), you can download a reader - type "QR code reader" and the model of your mobile phone into Google (or any other search engine!).

Once you've got your QR code reader sorted, check this one out....