Find the Hidden Treasure! (Digitally)

In order to make a location-based treasure hunt using augmented reality, all you really need are two things:

1. a reason (IOW: questions you want the students to answer in order to learn any topic you want)
2. pictures of recognizable things in the location where you are holding the treasure hunt.

Oh. And there’s a third thing you need: a subscription to Treasure HiT (which is free)

So that’s easy enough, right? That’s why I decided to use it!

Our school has an English Day each year for the 7th and 8th grades; this year it was about Australia. I wanted to do something technological, cool and fun!  

Treasure HiT is an Israeli-based app that lets you invent cool location-based treasure hunts (IOW: in order to get the questions you need to answer, you have to go physically to a specific location).

Using augmented reality, you add a layer of information, which is  accessed via a QR Code that gets scanned from within the app. (It sounds complicated, but really is quite user friendly!)

So the English Day works like this:

We have two of them: one day for the 7th grade and one day for the 8th grade (over 100 kids in each grade).

Each grade is divided into smaller groups (homeroom classes are divided in half or thirds) and made into teams of between 8-12 students. Teachers who are relieved from teaching those classes on those days, are assigned to the groups as chaperones.

Each English teacher runs a station that requires the participants to do something related to the theme. We try to have a wide variety so that all learners get to participate in activities that appeal to them (music, arts and crafts, puzzles, dancing and more). I like to do digital stuff (surprise!)

Treasure HiT:

For the activity I prepared that has the kids discovering popular tourist attractions in Australia, the participants needed to use their mobile phones, wifi, and, in the end, place the sites they found on a Google Map that I had prepared ahead of time and screened on the board.

Preparation:

1. I registered for Treasure HiT (keep in mind that it can take a few days for the registration to be accepted).
2. I collected information about different tourist sites on the internet, and found  short 360 degree clips for each (it’s not a “must” for your treasure hunt - you can make one with just Trivia questions - but I wanted to actually provide information).
3. About a week before the English Day, I walked around school taking a bunch of photos of different places on campus that would be easily recognizable by our 7th and 8th graders, to serve as the clues that would be sent to their phones.

For example this drawing on one of our walls:

or a sign in the cafeteria (which EVERYONE knows how to find)

or just  a sign showing the building number:

4) Then I started putting it all together:

You can download an editing guide from their site here.

  

In the classroom, the students divided up into groups of 3 or 4. Each group needed to use ONLY ONE smartphone for the game (they needed wifi and location set to “on”). Others could use their smartphones in order to translate words, if needed, or look stuff up on Google. Each group had to choose a group name and enter it, after joining the game with the game code which you get as soon as you make the game.

The program sent them a clue (a photograph) to lead each group to their first station. Once at the station, they had to scan the barcode (which I printed out from the program and hung up earlier that day). Once the phone read the barcode, it displayed the name of the tourist attraction, a short description of it, and a video clip. The multiple choice question they had to answer was about something they saw in the clip. (I used MC questions rather than open-ended ones because there were just too many possible answers. If you are setting a question with only one correct answer, you can use the open ended option.)

Since I set the program to start each group at a different station, they were running around in different directions. I made up more stations than could possibly be covered by one group in 20 minutes, so that TOGETHER the groups would cover ALL of the stations. The students were told to be back in the classroom in 20 minutes.

From this point on, I had 20 minutes to myself (because THEY were running around our campus discovering information about different tourist sites in Australia)!

Once they returned, they had to copy the information gleaned from each site, onto post ‘ems, and stick them on a Google Map of Australia, which I had already marked out with the different sites they would be finding. (Note: IF I had been doing this with my OWN class, and we had a double lesson, I would have taught them to mark the places on a Googlemap, themselves, but we didn’t have the time to do that here.)

There IS a support team, if you run into trouble, but it takes a few days for them to get back to you, so DO prepare this at least a week before you need it so that you can check it out, see if there are any glitches and get help if you need it.

The Treasure Hunt was GREAT fun, and I’m already using it for other classes / courses. So - how would YOU use this in YOUR EFL classroom? Share your ideas, below!

Digitally yours!

@dele

Old Faithful: Linoit

Linoit is not new. In fact it's probably one of the first collaborative tools I learned to use. Last week's blog was about making (what I later learned was called) "Quote Graphics", for a Post-reading Activity for a literary text (in this case, we were working on The Road Not Taken). There I explained the process, and that the final products were to be uploaded to a Linoit.

Then I realized, that I had never actually written a blog about Linoit! I have known (and loved) Linoit for at least 5 years, and sort of assumed that EVERYONE knows about it. But just so I am sure that EVERYONE in the WORLD knows about it (because everyone in the world reads my blog...hahaha... as if) I want to sing its praises!

Linoit is an online tool that is a virtual bulletin board. On that board, people can post sticky notes, pictures, graphics and even videos. There are all sorts of fancy ways to use it, when all of the participants are signed in, but I usually use it the generic way, so that anyone who has the link, can post on it. 

Linoit has stood the test of time, because, unlike other applications that come and go, Linoit still ROCKS! And I can use it even MORE easily today than I could in the past, because ALL my students have cellphones! I used to use it with the students working from their computers, which limited it to either homework or when I would get the coveted computer room (not complaining - our school is well endowed technology wise... but still ... it meant I needed to be sure to plan in advance AND remember to get the computer room, and all for an activity that is really quite short). Since they all have cellphones, I can just have them do their task for the 5 minutes it takes to do it, show the results on the board (in fact, they really get a kick out of watching their notes appear) and then go on with other stuff. 

You won't BELIEVE the things I use it for!

First of all, with my students:

When I first started teaching the class (when they were in the 10th grade) I used Linoit with them to introduce themselves. We also used it to send New Year's Greetings to each other. (I have since deleted those boards.... didn't know I would be blogging about them three years later ;-) 

That same year, though, I used Linoit with them for a pre-reading activity for teaching the poem Count That Day Lost:

This year, I used the tool as part of the process of teaching the literary term "Conflict". MOST of the class did the activity on the REAL bulletin board in the classroom, but those who were absent that lesson (and many were because of some other activity) were able to make it up at home, on this board:

In last week's blog, I described the activity I was planning, using cellphones and making the "Quote Graphics" as a post-reading activity. They went out, took pictures with their phones, used my blog to see what graphics programs they could used, and had a great time doing it! (I shared the link through our class What's App group.) They are still in the process of uploading them, but this is what they have done so far: 

I also use Linoit in my counseling work. This year it was part of our winter Newsletter - sending greetings to each other from around the country:

And Lionit even helps me keep it all together when doing the very confusing and complicated task of organizing the oral testing roster for my region (designating which teachers go to test in which schools) (a system originally devised by my friend and colleague Judie Segal, using REAL Post It notes on a wall or huge window, but with this virtual version I have no worries that a strong breeze, frisky dog or mischievous cat might knock them off, making me scramble back to square one!

Here's a short, concise tutorial about more ideas for using Linoit and a quick "How to":

Have you ever used Linoit? Can you think of ways that it can help you in your teaching? Other aspects of your work? If so, please share!


Digitally yours,  

@dele