Voice Recording and QR Codes

If you've followed my blog at all, you'll know that I love working with QR Codes. To see past blog posts about how to use QR Codes in the classroom, click here: Teaching With QR Codes and here: QR Code Reflection Cubes. Today's post is all about another project that uses QR Codes. I was working with a Gr. 1/2 classroom last year after they had written their own fairy tales.  The teacher then had them illustrate the main character. Here's where I came in: I had the children read their stories to me and I recorded their reading using a microphone connected to my computer. We used the website Chirbit.com. I love Chirbit! It is a website that allows up to 120 MB or about 5 minutes of recording straight to the website. 

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Here is one student's story: Just scan the QR Code with any QR Code scanner. My favourite scanning app is i-nigma (it's free!). 

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The best feature of this site is the ability to create QR Codes easily.  Once the recording is completed I created a QR Code of each recording. To do so, just click on the little box in the bottom left corner (see above) and a QR Code is displayed. It's really that easy! I printed out the QR Codes and the students glued them to their illustrations.  They were ready to be displayed in the hallway! Parents and other visitors to the school used         i-nigma or any other QR Code scanner to hear the students recite their story. Once scanned, Chirbit opens, and the play button must be pressed to start the recording.

Chirbit is also available as an app from the iTunes store for $0.99, although I prefer to use the website. To install the app, click here: Chirbit. I believe it is available for Android as well. One word of caution, however; because the students' recordings are stored online, you must be sure to have permission from parents to have their children's work and voice on the internet.

Here's a little freebie for teachers who use Dolch words in their classroom. Using Chirbit and another website called QRvoice, I created a set of flashcards for the first two sets of Dolch words.  Students read the word on each flashcard, and then scan the QR Code with an iPad to check their answer. I used Chirbit for some of the words, and qrvoice.net for others. Why did I use two websites? QRvoice is a website that allows you to type words and have the QR Code scanned to hear it aloud. You don't have to press a play button - the word is read automatically. Unfortunately, the voice is bit robotic, and I wasn't happy with the way some of the words were pronounced. I didn't use Chirbit for all of the words, because of the extra step involved in playing back the sound. Creating single words is also a lot faster with QRvoice. I'd love some feedback on these flashcards, so be sure to leave a comment if you use them!

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qr_dolch_pre-p-2.pdf
File Size:	519 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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qr_dolch_primer.pdf
File Size:	449 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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