QR Codes: an interest in reading

On World Book Day our library chose a variety of popular books that they felt teenage boys would like to read. They wanted to give the boys the opportunity to democratically choose which of the suggested books the library should buy. They used technology to do this! Our library staff created QR codes of reviews of the books and then published these on posters and on the website. Boys use QR scanners on their smart phones to vote for books that appeal to them by simply scanning the QR code and thereafter voting for particular book(s). It’s created a buzz about reading and about the resource centre. The boys feel that they have been included in the process and are excited about our new centre.

Teaching Poetry Using Thinglink

Our English teacher is impressed by Thinglink, a very easy to use piece of free Internet software that allows one to annotate images.What a great app to use for teaching poetry! By using the tagging tool he is quickly and easily able to enrich the text (picture) with explanations, questions, photos, sound and videos. He is then able to share the interactive image with his class - either via email or our Intranet.