QR Codes and Evernote

*The following is a guest post written by Lori Vilagos who is an art teacher for Bragg Elementary School in Chester, NJ.

Recently I adapted my art history lesson on masks around the world to include a scavenger hunt with QR readers and critique writing in Evernote. A QR reader will scan barcodes sending students to either a file, image, or website. I set them up to send my students to images on the web of masks from around the world. Evernote is an internet based notebook style program that can be used as an app on iPads or as a program downloaded on a PC. It will sync back and forth between devices so you can always access the most current version of whatever you have worked on in either place. My theory was that I could have my fourth graders write in Evernote on any iPad device and it would sync to my computer to look at later. I would then get the added benefit of being able to to run the lesson paperless!

Students were to select a QR code to scan and view then open Evernote to write an aesthetic response as a group. They were shown how to switch back and forth between the image in the QR reader and Evernote to write. After finishing their critique, their next activity was to open a new camera note and take a picture of a mask. Evernote has a great feature that allows you to annotate on the image. Students were able to then demonstrate to me where they could see examples of line, shape, color, and other fun details about the mask that they liked. They could select color options (they "ooo" and "aaah" over this) and tool options, such as arrows (super fun!), and text for annotating. My special needs students and severely handicapped student loved being able to leave a voice note instead of writing.


Management included:

• One iPad per group of 3-4 students (for special needs students a 1:2 ratio would be better)
  
  
• Using class Dojo rewards system to reward students
  
  
• Setting up the iPad a week before the lesson
  
  
• Checking everything worked before they arrived
  
  
• Setting up a class iCloud email address (any email would be fine) and using this class email for the Evernote account  on each iPad
  
  
• In Evernote, creating a 4th grade notebook stack
  
  
• Each class having their own notebook
  
  
• Inside their class notebook a group note with their writing example-they wrote below the example
  
  
• A voice note with directions for each class
  
  

Alternative Apps/Programs to do the lesson:

• Students sign up for Evernote and share their own Evernote account notebook with the teacher’s account
  
  
• Educreations (Create a lesson to share- needs account management to send/share work- not as easy to annotate image- can leave voice information)
  
  
• Google Docs (no direct image annotating available)
  
  
• Knowmia (Create a lesson to share- needs account management to send/share work, not as easy to annotate image- can leave voice information)
  
  
• BookCreator (layers makes annotating difficult)
  
  
• Aviary (photo editing app allows annotating)
  
  

Brad Currie is the author of All Hands on Deck: Tools for Connecting Educators, Parents, and Communities. He is one of the founding partners of Evolving Educators LLC. Brad is a 2014 ASCD Emerging Leader and Bammy Award Finalist. He currently serves as a K-8 Supervisor of Instruction and Middle School Vice Principal for the Chester School District in Chester, NJ. Learn more about Brad by following him on Twitter @bradmcurrie or visiting his website at www.bradcurrie.net.