QR Codes in Art

At my new office, housed at the Dublin Technology Center, we've hung a lot of art from students and staff from around our district.  We've incorporated QR Codes with the art.  Let me explain what we've done.  First, we've created a Wiki to display art, as well as information about the artist.  So the QR Code attached to the picture takes you to the Wiki on your portable device.  That is illustrated in the picture below.  Two pieces of art with QR Codes about their authors.

Second, we have created actual art using the QR Code, which takes you to a digital piece of art.  Those pieces live in the Wiki Art Gallery, but the actual pieces don't live in the Technology Center.  This way we can link to videos, that couldn't be displayed on the wall.

Lastly, we've created book trailers and can rotate which books are highlighted.  We can change the book that lives on the page that is asssociated with the QR Code.

Here are some awesome ways to use QR Codes.  Most of our QR Codes are made with QR Stuff.  It allows you to change colors of the code.  Really nice.  Give them a try.

Oh, no! Google Reader is Going Away!

Really, this is quite annoying.  Not that Google Reader is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it does perform it's function very efficiently for me.  So, what do I do?  I think I have found a functional replacement.  Feedly is a nice replacement, and it currently brings in all of your current Google Reader feeds automatically.  I like that it brings the pictures in with the article, and has a nice clean interface.  It just may take getting used to.

Feedly currently has formats for browsers and portable devices.  I am using the Chrome version of feedly and on my portable devices, I have been playing with Flipboard, but am testing out Feedly, as well.  There are versions of Feedly for Safari and Firefox, too.  Try it out and let me know what you think?  Have you found something better?

Dublin Literacy Conference 2013

Wow.  Today I am fortunate to be able to share Web 2.0 Tools for Literacy with teachers at the Dublin Literacy Conference.  I love showing some of the free resources that are out there.  Here is the slideshare that guides the presentation.

Dublin Literacy Conference 2013 from Scott Sibberson

Flipboard

Create an online magazine just for you.  Sound great, well it is.  With Flipboard, you can bring all of your online accounts into one application right on your iPad or iPhone.  It also works on other devices, as well. Flipboard allows me to set up one app and read my Twitter feed, Facebook, Google Reader, and many other accounts.  I get to choose what comes in.  It even brings in the photos that go with the article, so I can decide if I want to read more or just skip over it.  It's awesome.

I can also reply to articles by re-tweeting, sharing, and emailing.  It really does bring all of your social networks together in one easy location.  Check out all of the the things you can add.  It has different subject materials, so you can add topics that Flipboard collects based on that topic.  I add some tech topics as well as sports topics.  It even allows you to add hashtag searches, so you can bring in those Twitter topics you are keeping close tabs on.

The nice thing is that you can control it all.  I really think that anyone that owns an iPad should take advantage of Flipboard.  It is one powerful app.  Download the app here and give it a look.  I think you'll love it.

Narrable

 Bring your pictures to life with Narrable. Narrable is a website that allows you to upload your own pictures, then add sound to each picture to bring it to life. Narrable is very easy to use on an iPad, as well.  You can add sound in three ways. First, you can have the Narrable website call a phone number that you give them and ask you to record your thoughts.That is one nice option, especially if the person you want to record is somewhere other than where you are. The other ways are to record from your computer or to upload a sound recording that you had previously saved. 

This makes it very easy to "tell the story" of the picture that is on the screen. Next, it is very easy to share your narrable. You can click a button that shares with your Facebook account. You can click a link that allows you to email the link to the recording. And like the example below, you can grab the embed code and embed the narrable right on your webpage.


Check out Narrable and see how your students could use it in the classroom to add life to pictures they've taken. I think it has great potential.

Twubs - Moderated Display of Twitter Hashtag

We've been looking for a way to display a twitter feed at a conference.  We would like to moderate it so that the feed doesn't get spammed.  Twubs.com is a site that allows you to register your hashtag and register your event.  You can then control how fast your feed displays - so people can read it - and you can alter the screen - so that your hashtag is displayed for people to participate.  We are getting ready for our conference this weekend, so this will be our first live event.  All of our tests have worked great.

Twubs.com will help us display our hashtag for the Dublin Literacy Conference - #dublit13.  I hope by displaying the pre-conference tweets, it will generate some excitement and lead into some continued backchannel discussions.  Check it out on Saturday.

Tagul - A Word Cloud

A lot of people have made word clouds to help illustrate important words in a group of words, whether it's from a story or "brainstorm."  I have looked at Wordle.net and Tagxedo.com to create in the past, but recently came across Tagul.com.  I liked the fact that you could embed the cloud on your webpage with words being interactive links.  Here is a quick cloud I made using text from this blog, and a little bit of tweaking.



I don't know which you like the most, but Tagul does do some neat stuff.  Give it a try.