Tag Archives: QR code

Tech reflections from #GSAMinn

From October 9-11, I attended the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Minneapolis, MN.  Although I usually blog about how technology can be used to enhance teaching, some of the more impressive uses of technology were in running the meeting itself.

There’s an App for that.  To start with, I was able to download the mobile app with the entire conference program.  This is not the first conference I’ve had an app for.  I didn’t use the app as much as I could have, probably because paper program books are still being distributed (still easier for me to flip through a book to find a session).

Upload, and you’re ready to go.  For the past several years, speakers giving oral presentations have been allowed to upload their PowerPoint files before even traveling to the conference.  This makes everyone plan ahead and get the talk finished early!  I took advantage of this service, uploading my talk the previous week and feeling relieved that everything was completed and received by GSA.  All the talks are then sent to the room where the talk is being held, and the talks are automatically uploaded on the session room laptop.  As I was co-chairing a session on Sunday, it was amazingly easy to just have to introduce a speaker and click the mouse to begin a PowerPoint.  Technology has definitely helped make the oral sessions run smoother (if only it could help with the quality of some of the individual PowerPoint slides!).

The meeting was flooded with sessions that discussed how to use technology in K-16 education, such as Teaching Geoscience Online and Virtual Reality in Geoscience Education. My poster was in the second Virtual Reality session.  It was my first time participating in a digital poster session (which means having one 4′ high by 8′ wide board for a paper poster, and one giant digital screen to connect to a laptop – see me at my poster below!).  This was the best setup for discussing and showcasing how I use Google Earth course ePortfolios in my courses.  It was an amazing range of posters using Google Earth and GigaPan technologies. What surprised me was how popular the session was.  I was at my poster ALL DAY – it was one, long, exhausting day, but people were coming through the posters from 9AM to 6PM, so it was a wonderful opportunity to share my work and student innovations.  I have a feeling that digital poster sessions will continue to grow at future conferences, which so much digital technology being integrated with geoscience teaching and research.

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QR Codes, where are you?  What I didn’t see (and what someone tweeted about) is the use of QR codes.  I had two for my poster, but I did not see any QR codes in talks and hardly any at posters.  This is very different from the ISTE conference I attended earlier this year (see my blog post), where QR codes were everywhere, and conference attendees were using their iPad2’s to take photos of the QR codes to get the resources linked in the code.

et tu, iPad?  Speaking of iPads, I was surprised to see so few people using them.  The iPads were everywhere at the ISTE conference, but most of those conference go-ers were K-12 teachers.  Some of my colleagues were using iPads at the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) business meeting back in June, but most of them said they were “trying out” the iPad to see if they could use an iPad for a meeting instead of a laptop.  Although I have an iPad I could have used at GSA, I brought my laptop.  Maybe it was just for the sense of security, knowing I would have access to all of my files “just in case,” and I would be able to do all of my everyday activities on the computer and online.  I do want to try to attend a conference with only the iPad, but if the conference is during the semester when I still have classes going on, student emails to answer, manuscripts to revise, then I will want my laptop.

Not quite a trending hashtag.  The geoscience community is very active on Twitter.  The #GSAMinn hashtag was established for the conference.  If you click on the “Continue reading…” link below, you’ll see a Storify I put together with some of the more unique tweets from the conference (there were plenty of scientifically and data-rich tweets, but these are the ones that brought a smile to my face!).

So I didn’t have any amazing “ah-ha” moments at the conference when it comes to technology and education, but it is always nice to see what is out there and what others are up to, whether it be in the classroom or behind-the-scenes running the conference.

[View the story “There are tweets, and then there are tweets… from GSA 2011” on Storify]

QR codes for art museums, elm trees and tombstones

I’m coming across an explosion of websites and uses for QR codes. Cybrary Man’s Educational Web Site offers an extensive list of links to sites and suggestions for the educational uses of QR codes.  I particularly enjoyed the QR Literature Quest that has famous first lines from books and authors embedded in QR codes.  Students go through their school library in the form of a scavenger hunt to find the books relating to those quotes.

On the TeachPaperless blog, I saw a posting called “Thinking Outside-the-Box With QR Codes” (July 15, 2011).  The author details how the Denver Art Museum used QR codes to only repeat the information available on exhibit, but he also shares an application of QR codes that enhanced the information at a photography show.  I like the idea of using QR codes to geolocate a display on view.

Just this week, I was visiting State College and was struck by massive tree stumps in the ground.  At first, I was disappointed to see that some massive trees were being cut down on campus, but then, I saw the sign with the QR codes to explain what was happening.

What happened to this elm tree? What happened to this elm tree?

Finally, one of the “field sites” where I do research with students is in cemeteries.  I recently came across this article on the NPR website, titled “Technology Brings Digital Memories To Grave Sites” (NPR story, May 30, 2011).  Then an article appeared on the Mashable website relating to the same topic.  QR codes, now appearing on tombstones!  In addition, I could see QR codes being used in cemeteries for walking tours and for presenting additional historic (and even scientific) information.

Can’t wait to see where QR codes will pop up next.

 

Chronicle article – Using Twitter and QR Codes at Conferences

After seeing such a visible presence of QR codes at the beginning of presentations and at posters, and witnessing the flood of tweets with the conference hashtag at #ISTE11, I was reminded of this article I saw in the Chronicle of Higher Education.  It’s not only happening at educational technology conferences!

Using Twitter and QR Codes at Conferences
May 11, 2011

 

GeoTalk and Better Posters

It seems that quite suddenly, via Twitter, some great resources were having attention drawn to them.  All too often, students (and faculty!) struggle with the best ways to disseminate information.  Here are two blogs, and more specifically two entries from these blogs, that caught my eye.

The Smart Posters entry on the Better Posters blog suggests placing QR codes on posters.  The QR codes can link to a video of you talking about your poster (in case you are not present at the time someone comes by), a supplemental website, your resume, and more.  Ever since I saw QR codes in the windows of the cafeterias at the Googleplex, I’ve been fascinated to learn of alternative uses (Google used them for people to scan and find out the menu for the next day).

My fellow geo-tweeters are calling attention to GeoTalk, a blog to help geoscientists become better communicators.  I still cannot stop laughing over their entry showcasing Bad Presentation BINGO.  I found the original source, and it is fun to take a look at.  I think this made myself and others stop and think how many squares would be marked off from even our classroom lectures!

And who says you can’t learn something valuable from Twitter?