Tech Trends Lesson Plan (EDTECH 501): Navigating the Real World with QR Codes

Grade Level: Teacher Candidates (Higher Education) Subject: Secondary English Education /Technology Integration/Methods Prepared by: Cynthia Sarver Educational Standards Teacher Education: NCATE/NCTE Standards for the English Language Arts Candidates demonstrate knowledge of the range and influence of print and nonprint media and technology in contemporary culture. AS A RESULT, CANDIDATES 3.6.1 Understand medias influence on culture and peoples actions and communication, reflecting that knowledge not only in their own work but also in their teaching;* 3.6.2 Use a variety of approaches for teaching students how to construct meaning from media and nonprint texts and integrate learning opportunities into classroom experiences that promote composing and responding to such texts; * 3.6.3 Help students compose and respond to film, video, graphic, photographic, audio, and multimedia texts and use current technology to enhance their own learning and reflection on their learning.* P-12: New York State P-12 Common Core Learning Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy** Writing 6-12 // Production and Distribution of Writing 6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information. Writing 6-12 // Research to Build and Present Knowledge 7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. Writing 6-12 // Responding to Literature 11. Create interpretive and responsive texts to demonstrate knowledge and a sophisticated understanding of the connections between life and the literary work of recognized literary merit. c. Develop innovative perspectives on texts, including historical, cultural, sociological, and psychological contexts.

Objectives Skills/information that will be learned

Students will apply their understanding of QR codes to simulate in their own environments the experience of augmented reality described in Feed.

Students will synthesize their previous understanding of critical media literacy with that of reading and generating QR codes to create an authentic media literacy awareness campaign in their school (by publishing throughout the school QR codes linked to their groups web-based critical media literacy campaign.) Students will demonstrate their understanding of how to distinguish between commercial and non-commercial uses of new media by using the latter to intervene in the former. Students will demonstrate their understanding of augmented reality (insofar as it is critiqued in Feed), new developments in this burgeoning field, and how commercial interests are using augmented reality to better access and manipulate consumers.

Proior Knowledge Students have been reading M. T. Anderson's YA novel, Feed, discussing it in small groups, and participating in online discussions of it. Students have watched the video Consuming Childhood; have discussed Feed's satire of contemporary consumer culture; and are beginning to understand ways in which technology, mobile computing, and social media are currently being leveraged to further commodify adolescents daily lives. In response to this growing awareness, student groups have developed websites housing their groups critical medial literacy campaign -- including an anti-advertising slogan and related links -- designed heighten their peers awareness of the ways in which teens are daily inundated with advertising (e.g., clothing brands and other wearable advertising; participatory advertising; banner advertising; etc.). Materials Needed Copies of Feed (class set) Class set of iPod Touches Printer Clear packing tape and safety pins Scissors QR codes from commercial products and non-commerical projects that are pasted around the classroom Other Resources Common Craft Show video explanation of augmented reality (2:15) Wikipedia explanation of augmented reality i-nigma (free QR code reader app) installed on all iPod Touches Group webpages critiquing the commodification of daily life (see Prior Knowledge above)

Information Giving and demonstration of necessary information 1. Show students the Common Craft Show video explanation of augmented reality (2:15) and explain that today students are going to learn how to augment their own reality by using QR codes. 2. Have individuals read the Wikipedia explanation of augmented reality and discuss in their website groups the ways in which their reality is already augmented. Share out group findings.

3. If not previously mentioned by students as a result of the above discussion, introduce QR codes as a way that our current reality is already augmented. Discuss how QR codes might be vieweed as a first step toward the types of wearable augmented reality hardware that we have read about on Wikipedia and seen embedded in individuals bodies in Feed. 4. Demonstrate i-nigma and show students how to read a QR code with a iPod touch. 5. Show students how to generate a QR code with an iPod touch using Kaywas QR code generator. Verification Steps to check for student understanding 1. Distribute iPod Touches and have students briefly practice reading the QR codes pasted around the room. Ask them to think about the purpose of each code/linked site as they do this. 2. Discuss a. the difference between the purposes of the commercial and non-commercial messages (i.e., motivating consumerism versus the various rhetorical purposes of non-commercial codes/sites). b. the possible benefits and drawbacks of augmented reality. 3. Have each group generate a QR code that links to their website. Check to see that each group has successfully done this. 4. Daily during the weeks remaining in the unit, take some time during each class to discuss the types of reactions (if any) groups are getting to their sites via their published QR codes. Activity Activity that will reinforce the lesson Have students work with their small groups to determine how they will use QR codes in school to generate awareness of their groups message. Have groups develop a strategy/goal that includes purposeful and relevant placement around school. Have groups make sure that their website encourages feedback and interaction from visitors (through the inclusion of prompts and comment areas for visitors). Have groups print out multiple versions of the QR code for their website and post them around school.

Notes See Adbusters for spoof ads that students have used to model their awareness campaign messages after. See Vicki Daviss QR Code Implementation Guide, from which much of this lesson has been adapted. *A lesson later in this unit will ask students to extend their learning in this lesson to plan similar instruction for their own students (thus fulfilling the latter part of each of these learning standards). **Teacher candidates simultaneously fulfill criteria for teachers (NCATE/NCTE) and -through participation, or "learning by doing," in model, discipline-specific P-12 learning experiences -- students in P-12 classrooms, too (NYS Common Core Standards).