Boxes and Connections Project ~ We Are The Curriculum

Can we express ourselves in Quick Response (QR) Codes? What happens when we get to them, and how do we choose to interact? It's a keyhole? It is a link. It can be taped to a wall or turned into a paper airplane. It can be mailed or packaged. I can wear a QRC, I could interconnect them to draw out clues. I could create a scavenger hunt where every clue draws you closer to a goal, answer, or idea. What if we wrote an elaborate mystery story - something the likes of The Usual Suspects, and gave the reader one panoramic scene with these boxes. Each box a key to another chapter. What if a create a research project that brings us from element to element. If I created a party and gave everyone a QR code - and let them find the missing person at the party, would they be able to cobble the clues together.

The only reason you are reading this page now is because you were curious enough to scan the code with your phone and come here. How can these graphic keys be used to tell our stories, and how can we innovate a user experience that offers content-in-place where you might be looking for something different?

Where next?

Project Idea: At my college I teach a graphic novels course. I want all my students to write an in-dpeth review of a graphic novel which includes their opinions, their overview, and then hyperlinks to author bios, and other articles and connections. These will be housed on pages on the class website.

When they are done, we will make QR Code Boxes for their web pages and make them all into book marks. We will then issue them to the library to stick them into the books. When someone look at a graphic novel, they can read a review by an on-campus student who wants to share their recommendation and connections. On the bookmark will be an explanation of the code and the purpose of the project. (More to Come)

November: We have been given the green light to work on our review program, creating interactive bookmarks that will allow students to read a student review of a graphic novel in the collection at the library. Students will be writing a review that includes a summary, linked content, comparative literature, and finally a deciding opinion. The students are considering a rating system that they can apply to their review.

We will be creating these cards with the QR codes in them and then adding them to the books in the stacks. We will also be creating a stand-up display for people to take one of the cards and scan it to see what the title is all about and if they might be interested. Just leaving them in the book is limited to those who end up in the stacks. But to have them located in a central table or counter space, allows them to see the project and the books that are connected to them.

One thing that is important to me in Rhizo15 and now in DigiWriMo is to make these project happen in real time. I like not only working within the group of educators and thinkers, but I also like working with the students to see how they accept or reject my ideas, work with the ideas, and make them there own. I am very lucky that I work in an environment that allows instant access for sharing projects and ideas. Here is the assignment sheet that they are working from.

Another Project:
This is an annotated poem. Odd - kind of like it, not very functional right now.
Click here to check it out.

One more for now...