QR Code Loo Reviews & Pocket Videos

Promote Reading With QR Code 
Loo Reviews & Pocket Videos! 

Here's a fun idea! Combine QR Codes that link to video book trailers on a laminated sign taped to the back of a bathroom stall door that says "Do NOT Scan These!" and you should get the kids streaming into the high school library to check out books!  Let's face it, kids sneak their smart phones into the bathroom to check their text messages why not take advantage of that & get them into the school library! Even better if you have the time & ability to let the kiddos create their OWN trailers & post them to SchoolTube! Don't forget the teachers! Create signs with the hottest YA books for the teachers bathrooms, too!

Now...my principal gently put the kibosh on this brilliant idea for our middle school bathrooms, and totally I see his point. Whether I like it or not, we're not BYOD yet, and our school district policy says middle schoolers must keep their cell phones in their lockers except when entering & exiting the school

(and except for our digital discoveries in the library!) and I can just imagine sending that kind of mixed message with a Loo Review would anger the teachers!  So for this situation, I deftly changed it to Pocket Video & my principal suggested I post them by the library doors, the front doors, in the hallways, and in the student services office.  So, I guess the Loo Review concept would be good for High Schools or Middle Schools that allow phones, and Pocket Videos for everybody else!  Test this idea first by scanning the above left code!

The Lowdown on How To in 4 Easy Steps!

1. Pop Up Video! Find your desired book trailer. I tried to find a video that would appeal to my gals and for my guys. If you find a great video on YouTube and YouTube is blocked in your school look on SchoolTube. I particularly like the The Book Brat & TeenLitCentral YouTube channel and the Westlake HighSchool SchoolTube videos. I also downloaded publisher created book trailers & uploaded them to School Tube using KeepVid.com - check out my full size Comic Tutorial HowTo! Also, if you go this route always give full attribution, contact the poster,  and link back to the original YouTube video.

2. Sneaky Trick Grab the right SchoolTube video URL to create your QR code. If you just grab the one that's in the URL bar or in the Share direct link your QR code will go to the channel page & the video will be small. BUT...if you do the following sneaky trick you will get the full screen video!

Click SHARE to reveal the embed code. This is the code you use if you want to post the video on your blog or your wiki. But...hidden inside the embed code is the full screen URL. Again, IGNORE the short url!  I paste the whole code in an email compose screen, then cut out just embed url.

3. Code Me
Now, with that URL in your computer memory, go to QR Code Monkey and create your QR code!  The cool thing with QR Code Monkey is that you can add a square graphic to the middle of your code. So, I made the graphics for this project using another fav monkey, PicMonkey!  LOVE them!

4. Sweet Signage
Next, use this graphic in a MS Word document that says, Don't Scan This! (I'm oppositional defiant, that works with me every time!) laminae & post around your school! I also included directions on how to download my favourite i-nigma QR code reader and for the Loo Reivews I included a funny Horrible Histories Rotten Roman potty centric video on my poster just for immature scatalogical laughs & fun trivia! Another tip, for the Loo Reviews, I put the words: Guys & Gals on the top of the posters so I wouldn't have to scan it to make sure that I got the right book trailer in the right john!

Then, as shown on left, I made popout captions with ComicLife that I can print out on NEON paper, cut out & paste at the corner advertising that this book & others are available at the library, visit today (with a pass! ;-P)  Check out my posters on Slideshare!  Also feel free to check out the Loo Review Flickr gallery also has all the graphics & at larger sizes! As always, Take, Use, Share!

I'd LOVE to hear in the comments on Twitter what you're doing with QR codes, book trailers, book promotions, and more!

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Links, Credits, Resources, & SNARK!

Thanks to my new favourite new resources Scoop.it! and the great scoops from Jamie Forshey aka @Edutech20 I found out about the QR Code generator called QR Code Monkey!

Great idea from one of my fav Tweeps! 

Mary Clark ‏@SEMSLibraryLady 5h

@gwynethjones I'm doing this on the walls in the staff loos. I wonder how many have QR readers?