Reading blog

We are in the process of setting up reading groups on the Goodreads website to use with pupils in our school. The idea is to set up reading groups, share reading lists and get children to write and publish reviews.

Sample Poster

I thought it would be interesting to tie Goodreads into another school initiative - the "Currently reading" posters. All members of staff are encouraged to update a poster and display it on their door to show what they are currently reading. It's part of a campaign to create a culture of reading in the school.

I wanted to combine the posters with Goodreads. Rather than just show what I'm currently reading, I could link to Goodreads which tracks my progress, lets me publish a review when I am finished and records which books I've completed so far this year. Or at least, that was the plan...

The trick was to share links to specific sections of Goodreads. The best way I could find was to use the widgets provided by Goodreads to place the details in a blog and then share the blog posts.

The result: Mr Muir's Reading Blog. Only a few posts so far but a couple of key sections are:

• Keeping track: why I started the blog;
• Books Read in 2018: a widget that links to "read-in-2018" bookshelf and
• Currently Reading: the currently reading widget.

Put some QR codes on the poster to link to the relevant sections and job done. At least, job done assuming anybody bothers to scan the QR codes and read the blog. 

What do you think? Daft idea? Vaguely interesting? Please leave a comment below if you have any thoughts or suggestions.

Fun On Friday #132: Christmas QR Codes

Christmas goes QR

Thanks to a Tweet from @QR_BarCode I found my way to an article on the iMedia Connection blog: All I Want for Christmas is a QR Code. It tells the story of a family in Philadelphia's Christmas decorations, which this year include a banner with a QR Code:

Scan the code and you are taken to a Christmas video and links to Christmas music, recipes, photos...

Great stuff.

Fun On Friday #129: QR Code Picture

You need a facebook account if you want to play with with today's toy.

Go to the Intel Visibly Smart facebook page and create a QR Code that links to your facebook page with a picture of your choice as the background to the QR Code:

Interesting... but probably works better with some pictures than others.

TeachMeet@SLF2010: QR Codes in Education

Here is my Prezi from TeachMeet@SLF 2010 on QR Codes in Education:

QR Codes in Education on Prezi

Update: John Johnston has posted the audio of my presentation.

If you want to find out more, various people recommended QR Codes at Bath and related pages as a good source of ideas (I certainly found them useful) and I would add Mr Robbo's QR Code posts which have loads of practical ideas and examples.

If you want to find a QR Reader and have a go yourself, Mobile Barcodes lists some of the available applications. (I used i-nigma during the demo but I'm intrigued by Stickybits which @relativism introduced me to). Pick a reader and try it out. I used the Kaywa QR Code Generator to create the codes but there are many other free online tools and applications available.

If you want to contact me for more details, everything you need to know is in this QR Code :-)

Hope you find this useful.