{"id":9467,"date":"2016-04-15T08:47:08","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T12:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/?p=9467"},"modified":"2022-04-22T13:06:25","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T17:06:25","slug":"qr-video-at-parent-conferences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/qr-video-at-parent-conferences\/","title":{"rendered":"QR codes and videos at Parent Conferences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Expanding parent conference time with technology<\/h1>\n

\"family<\/a>We\u2019ve all been there: how do you fit 40 minutes worth of information into a 20-minute parent conference, still have time for questions AND stay on schedule?\u00a0 Bulletin boards hanging in the hallway help. They serve two purposes, engaging parents while they wait and giving parents a view into the classroom. But that view is static and doesn\u2019t always feel authentic. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mrs. Natalie Byrne, a 1st grade teacher at Christ the King School, found herself considering these questions as conference days grew near. Her solution reminded me of the answer to a riddle: once you see it, it seems obvious, but only after you rub the grit out of your eyes. \u00a0She proposed engaging parents through their smartphones with an interactive bulletin board full of QR codes linked to videos. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

What we did<\/h2>\n

Each student drafted a letter to their parents, then we shot a video of the student reading, posted the video through a school YouTube channel, created QR codes with the links and tacked them up to the board. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Though not without challenges (the letter had to go through several drafts, time had to be arranged to shoot the video, the codes needed to be printed and tested), the project had within in it the flexibility to adapt to the needs of each student and set of parents. \u00a0It also gave the parents a quick view of the curricula taught in the classroom as well as their student\u2019s ability to execute it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mrs. Byrne was already teaching a unit on letter writing so she settled on that as the video product. Conferences fell around Thanksgiving time, so she asked the students to write about things for which they were thankful. \u00a0She slid a little read aloud practice into Reader\u2019s Workshop, made a paper pilgrim hat\/bonnet, and opened up a half an hour for taping. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Video privacy settings<\/h3>\n

Once the videos were shot they got uploaded to a YouTube channel and set on \u201cunlisted\u201d. This setting allows anyone with a link to view the video, but it will not show up in a general YouTube search. We decided on this approach, rather than an explicitly shared private channel, to ensure that parents using their own devices would be able to view the video. If you would like the added security of a private channel, you could restrict the videos to an account on a school provided device. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Creating QR codes<\/h3>\n

Next we had to create the QR codes. We used a QR generator at Barcodes, Inc<\/a> <\/span>to create the QR codes, but there are plenty of other free tools out there. \u00a0After downloading an image file of the QR code, we printed it, tested it, and then tacked it up to the board. <\/span><\/p>\n

Creating shared excitement<\/h3>\n

The students were excited to share their letters and the parents came into conferences feeling good about their students. You can view one student\u2019s video <\/span>below.<\/span><\/p>\n

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