Tech Tac Toe Web 2.0 Tools #3: QR Codes

After the incredibly time consuming process of making an infographic, constructing an assignment around QR codes was a relative breeze. Working within the same Russian Civil War unit as my last two Web 2.0 tools (see the last two posts on this blog), I decided to make a reading response assignment that would have students work on their reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.

I found two short articles on communism. The first, from Ducksters, is expressly written for middle school students, and gives a very brief overview of communism and its implementation in Russia and China (for the purposes of this assignment, students will ignore the part on China). The second, from How Stuff Works, is longer and slightly more difficult, but provides significantly more information for the students. I made QR codes for each on qrstuff.com, and put them together on one document, along with a QR code for a Google form. This Google form asks the student to fill in their name and the class period, and respond to the following prompt: explain in your own words the basic ideas of Communism and how it might have worked in the Soviet Union. This document could be projected on the board and students could use iPads to access the QR codes and complete the response assignment.

Having worked in a school where I am constantly fishing paper out of the trash and moving it to recycling bins, I am distressed by the amount of paper used in schools. While much of this paper is necessary, there are many ways in which we can reduce the amount of paper used in the classroom. QR codes are a tremendous asset on this front. Readings and response sheets will no longer need to be printed out, saving hundreds of sheets of paper per response assignment. If no other reason than how green QR codes are, I plan to use them frequently in my own classroom.

Tech Tac Toe Web 2.0 Tools #2: Infographic

For my second Web 2.0 tool, I chose to make an infographic. I have seen a lot of infographics online over the past several years and I have almost uniformly really liked them. They’re a sleek and attention-grabbing way to transmit information, and I thought it could be useful for my unit on the birth of the Soviet Union. Compared to making an interactive image through ThingLink (see last blog post), however, making an infographic was much more difficult.

I used Piktochart which, like ThingLink, has both free and pay options. The free service was user-friendly and easy to navigate, but my problems making an infographic had nothing to do with the quality of their service. When making an infographic, you must choose exactly what information to use in a limited space, and with a topic as big as the Russian Civil War, it is difficult to decide what information is most important and what can be left out. This process of deciding what information to use made Piktochart easily the most time consuming Web 2.0 tool that I’ve used. Also, the infographics that I see all over the internet are so well made and professional looking, so I didn’t want mine to look subpar compared to those. Working out exactly what information is most important is a valuable skill, and I would definitely be interested in having students make their own infographics down the line.

For my own infographic, I attempted to lay out the origins of the civil war, what actually happened during the conflict, and the aftermath, including a breakdown of Marxism-Leninism which was instituted after the Communist victory. I think I was fairly successful in conveying this information in a concise and easy to follow manner. Ultimately though, the information in an infographic is not an end in and of itself. It is simply a primer that gives people a starting point for learning more on that particular subject. I could use this infographic on the Russian Civil War at the beginning of a unit on the topic in order to give students a basic framework to use as we go more in depth in the days following.

Tech Tac Toe Web 2.0 Tools #1: ThingLink

For my first Web 2.0 tool, I used ThingLink to make an interactive image of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Leon Trotsky, containing biographical information, speeches, historical videos, and an overview of the Bolshevik Party, which counted all three as members. I would use this as part of a larger lesson in middle school social studies about the Russian Revolution and World War I. I have made two more Web 2.0 tools for this unit, which I will cover further in subsequent blog posts.

ThingLink is extremely easy to use, and I will definitely use it again once I get my teaching licensure and my own classroom. ThingLink allows you to create interactive images for educational purposes. There are both free and pay versions of the service, and although there are more functions available with the pay version of the website, I found the free version more than suitable for what I was trying to do. Moreover, I feel that this service would be just as easy for students to use as it was for me. The interface is very intuitive, and it is very to input text and links into the image you use. It would be very easy to integrate ThingLink into class projects.

Using a photograph of these three figures in Russian history, I linked to BBC bios of all three, a short history of the Bolshevik Party at Marxists.org, and a video for each figure. For Stalin, I linked to a history.com video about the violent purges that characterized his thirty-year reign as dictator of the Soviet Union. For Trotsky, I used a video of an English-language speech of him speaking out against Stalin’s show trials and purges. Finally, in the case of Lenin, I used a TED Ed animated video of Lenin’s legacy on trial, in which two people debate Lenin’s actions and the actions carried out in his name. Together, all seven of these links provide a good jumping off point for a larger discussion of this era of history and can help students make some sense of the complex nature of the Bolsheviks.