Communication is an integral part of the lives of every human being.
In our schools we have children and teenagers who want to express themselves. They are growing, developing their personality and paying attention to everything happening around them. They have to be taught in culture, society, environment… A lot of different aspects which are going to form them.
Communication is really important and is the way by which they are going to receive all this information. There are different kinds of communication:
-Verbal Communication:
Oral communication lays emphasis on speaking words which are utilized for face-to-face, on-the-phone, voice chat or Internet communication.
Another kind of communication:
Body language
If we look at this picture , we see gestures and we can imagine what she is saying. This is a kind of body language. This includes communication through a person's body language through the body movements, postures and hand gestures. Facial expressions play an important part in conveying the intensity of the communication. When we do a videoconference we get further information than if we just use the text message.
What do you think she is doing? What’s the storyof the 6 pictures?
An image can communicate. We can get information from it.
A picture can contain a lot of information about culture, history, situation….
There are ítems that, perhaps, are subjective and depend on the point of view of who sees the picture.
What do you think about Mona Lisa? Is she smiling? Is she serious?
Another thing is the interpretation, because some information is subjective and it depends on the eyes
The combination between Oral Communication + Body language goes further about the information that we are offering:
The effectiveness of these words depends upon pitch, speed, voice modulation, clarity and volume of speaking.
Furthermore, inside verbal communication we have written communication, including e-mail and twiiter, chats, social networks….
The technological advances in the field of communication have provided us with wonderful resources and tools leading to the enhancement of our lives aided by convenient communication.
Electronic or Digital Communication includes communication through modern technological tools like computers, faxes, satellite television, telephone, radio, cellular phone and e-mail. These technologies have helped mankind in fulfilling its quest for efficient communication.
As teachers, what we have to do is to give our students the skills and strategies to be competent in communication.
Related with Digital Communication we have QR Codes.
Do you know what is this?
Do you think that we can communicate with this? Between our students? With other people?
The answer is YES and it has a lot of information.
Yes, it has a lot of information.
It’s a picture, a code and we can see them around us. The name of this is QR Code and our students have seen some of them.
The Qr Code is the base of QR Week Project. So, first of all, what I have to do is explain what a QR Code is.
If we ask our students to find QR codes, they are going to encounter a lot of different barcodes, but they have to distinguish between QR codes and other barcodes.
There are a lot of different barcodes. In this slide you can see the evolution they have gone through.
At the beginning , the first four barcodes are one-dimensional, which means that they can only be read in one direction: from left to right.
Here are some advantages QR Code compared with bar codes:
Capacity of more data which on the Bar Code can only store a maximum of 20 digits of data while on the QR Code can store up to hundreds of data.
The data type stored by the QR Code is also varied ranging from numbers, letters and even Japanese characters such as Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana.
Print size of QR Code is much smaller because the QR Code can store data both horizontally and vertically.
And another thing, with QR Code we don’t need a special and expensive scanner.
They come from Japan where they are very common. It was invented by the Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in 1994. They were first used for taking inventories in the automobile industry.
, and was originally designed to allow components to be scanned at high speed
QR is an abbreviation for Quick Response (they can be read quickly by a smartphone or a tablet ). The reason why they are more useful than a standard barcode is that they can store much more data, including url links, geo coordinates, and text.
The other key feature of QR Codes is that many modern cell phones and computers can read them if they have the correct applications or programmes.
The message data is placed from right to left in a zigzag pattern.
QR codes are identified by the four squares with dots in the middle, used for alignment. The horizontal and vertical lines that alternate light and dark are also alignment symbols.
A Qr Code has the three squares in 3 corners, to up and the other down. But it doesn’t matter if you want to scan them and you don’t find in these position.
So. If you see this, do you think is a Qr Code or not?
It’s a bidi
Results printed in QR Code is more resistant to damage such as dust to tear even in the QR Code data can still be read even if some of the code is damaged or torn (maximum 30% damage level).
QR Code can be read from any direction or angle (360 degrees) so that the possibility of failure in reading QR Code is very small.
Storage
The amount of information that can be stored in the QR Code symbol depends on the type, version, and error correction level (L[ow], M[edium], Q[uality], H[igh])
Numeric only Max. 7,089 characters (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Alphanumeric Max. 4,296 characters (0–9, A–Z [upper-case only], space, $, %, *, +, -, ., /, :)
Binary/byte Max. 2,953 characters (8-bit bytes) (23624 bits)
Kanji/Kana Max. 1,817 characters
It’s a lot of information and it goes further than other unidireccional barcodes
The QR Codes use the Reed–Solomon error correction algorithm with four error correction levels.That means that we can have just a part of a QR code andthe scanner will continue reading the message and information included. That’s why we can have a part of a QR code or add a logo, letters or a drawing.
Level L
7% of codewords can be restored.
Level M
15% of codewords can be restored.
Level Q
25% of codewords can be restored.
Level H
30% of codewords can be restored.
Just with an Application we can obtain different kinds of information:
A website
A video from Youtube, for example
Text (a kind of message)
A pdf
An image
All around us there are many QR codes. Perhaps our students haven’t thought about them but they have seen them on Coca-Cola cans, advertisements, billboards…
QR Codes are everywhere. They are a new way to communicate.
But…do our students know what they are, and what we can do and share with them?
QR codes are all around us.
We can see them in different situations and if we read them , we can go to a website, a blog,…, we can see a video on Youtube, get a message, an address, a telephone number…
They are common and we have to incorporate them into our lives and into the way that we communicate.
QR Codes are a means of digital communication.
QR codes are all around us.
We can see them in different situations and if we read them , we can go to a website, a blog,…, we can see a video on Youtube, get a message, an address, a telephone number…
They are common and we have to incorporate them into our lives and into the way that we communicate.
QR Codes are a means of digital communication.
in the end of july opens the first spanish QR supermarket (in some places i’ve read -first in Europe-) . I am a firm believer in the potential of these codes.
Situated in a metro station. Is a large graphic showing all the products offered. Only reading the qr code in each product with the phone, you will be adding it to your supermarket trolley. Then you will receive the order in your house.
-off the record: The first 6 month sales will be donated-
http://youtu.be/xxoh4AKGE5M
Personal uses
this is the mind map of QR code.
One of the objectives in QR Week project is to create a QR Code.
We can do it with a smarthphone or a tablet, or using the computer.
It’s really easy and the best thing, it’s free. This is another reason for using QR Codes.
We know how to read a QR code.
There are different kinds of generators. The most important are:
Qredu, it’s an educational website were you can create your Qr codes. All the codes that you create will be in black.
Kaywa, it’s another one which is really easy to use.
One of the features that a QR code has is that there is a margin of error, whiich means that we can scan a damaged or incomplete Qr code and still get the information.
So, if we don’t want to create a regular code, we can customize and put a logo in the middle of the Qr code and at the same time get the information
With Unitag, our students can create fancy Qr codes. It’s really useful if we want to increase and improve our students’ creativity. At the moment that they create the code their imagination starts to work on how to express an idea, not just the message contained in the code. The QR code is an important part of visual communication.
How to read it, it’s really easy because with the correct application and taking a photo we can get it.
But sometimes we are not going to have a smartphone in our class, so how we can do it?
In this slide you can see two diffrent porgrams taht you have to download in your compuyter if you want to read a QR code:
http://www.quickmark.com.tw/
http://www.bcwebcam.de/en/index.htm
http://www.dansl.net/blog/2010/desktop-qr-code-reader/
In this slide we are going to see a girl who is going to tell us how to use a computer for reading a QR code and the information that we can get.
On the ZXing Decoder Online website, you can enter a URL of any online QR code or upload a QR code image from your computer, and click the “Submit Query” button, then you will see the decode result in a new page.
On the MiniQR website, you can enter a URL of any online QR code, or snap a QR code with your webcam, after upload, you will see the decode content in a new page, on which you can also view the QR code image, share the result to Twitter and Facebook, or download the decode as a PDF or DOC file.
With Online Barcode Reader, you can upload a QR code file in PNG, JPG, GIF, TIFF or BMP format up to 1 MB from your computer, and click the “Send file” button, then you will get the decode result in the same page.
On the Patrick Wied QR Generator website, you can upload a QR code file and get the decode result in the same page.
Besides to decode, this website is also available for you to generate QR codes with text.
http://zxing.org/w/decode.jspx
Before we have get explained how to use QR Reader, a computer programme using a webcam. It’s really easy and if in the school you can’t use the mobile gadgets you can dowload this program with the Adobe Air, another one necessary to make it work.
But, on the other hand, QR codes were created to be used with a mobile devices, so, if you have a tablet or a smartphone you can download an application and use it. There are a lot. Just search for the Qr Codes in the Apple Market or the PlayStore and you’ll find different Apps.
Here you can see the most important of them.
Using the smartphones or tablets we can create QR Codes with different Applications. There are a lot. At the end of the presentation I’ll give you different adress where you can get them.
And what are the uses if Qr Codes in the school,
Can we developed something with them? Can we obtain benefits using them?
In the next slides we could see some of the activiies we can do with them.
As s part of advertisement, showing that with nthem we can get more information
Improve reading and investigation
Explain concepts really difficult to teach.
Get information about a laptop and the student, the programs included, downloaded, fixes….
The QR code can adress us to a blog
Share the rules in the different parts of the school
We can work with the oral commmunication and combine oral and reading together. Or give information about a book, oponinions, comments….
Actibity about our city, village in a blog and in the same place
Information about the name of the streets
Create a scavenger hunt and use cellphones and laptops
MOBILE LEARNING
Mobile learning is considered to be the ability to use mobile devices to support teaching and learning. It is the ‘mobile' aspect of mobile learning that makes it stand apart from other types of learning, specifically designing learning experiences that exploit the opportunities that ‘mobility' can offer us.
This is because mobile devices have features and functionality for supporting learners. For example, podcasts of lectures can be made available for downloading. Learners are to expected to engage with these learning resources whilst away from the traditional learning spaces.
We are at a point where for at least a small percentage of our teaching and learning we can begin to incorporate part of the mobile learning experience into our course design. Initially this may simply mean that we acknowledge that some learners will interact with our course using mobile devices and impact how we choose to disseminate information.
We can, fairly safely, expect that many learners are already checking course email and accessing your resources such as podcasts using a mobile device. It won't be long until we are able to fully integrate parts of our courses with the mobile experience. A recent study by Edinburgh University, mobile survey 2010 highlights that 50% of learners have contract phones with unlimited internet connectivity. As more of these studies are released we can take stock of what opportunities we can reasonably pursue.
The use of mobile devices is here to stay and we can progressively accommodate this new platform to enhance our teaching and learning. Finally, the use of personal devices for both teaching staff and learners has blurred the line between formal and informal learning. The implications of which we'll know more about in the near future.
A lot of times schools and society don’t live in the same moment. That has to change, beginning with the institutions and all the members involved.
Using Mobile technology we can:
Enhance learning, improve the student’s experience, and address wider cultural and contextual issues
Support openness and collaboration among schools and universities by sharing effective practice
Highlight opportunities to transform practice, uncovering some of the benefits and challenges as well as signposting information that is useful to know
Stimulate debate that may help to propagate new ideas pertinent to your own practice