Monday 3 November 2014

QR Codes in the Classroom!

Depending on the technology deployment in your school, QR codes can be a valuable teaching tool. QR codes is short for Quick Response Code. They are essentially a graphic representation that cameras on devices can read and take you to different websites or guide you through various activities on your device. Read more about QR codes here.

Example of a QR Code. This one takes you to my classroom blog.

Our school division rolled out new Lenovo tablets this year that are app based and thus we are able to take advantage of QR codes.
Each school has a minimum of 32 tablets
QR codes are a great way to get students to selected websites very quickly. This is especially useful in the primary grades, when getting each student to a particular site might be very time consuming.
With our setup the each tablet has an app named QR Droid that allows students to read QR codes and get to any website in a click of the camera.
Students in my classroom using QR codes to get to 3 websites for inquiry based learning
 
Making and printing the QR codes only takes seconds. An easy to use QR code generator is found at http://goqr.me/. It can make any type of QR code and is free and easy to use.

We have also started having the students make their own QR codes to link to their online content. For our business expo where each student will be setting up a booth and selling a product, they were required to make an online radio commercial add using a great online voice recorder (which hosts for free) at http://vocaroo.com/. Then the students have to generate a QR code and place it on their business signage. When we are evaluating the students at our expo, the teachers will be using our devices to scan and listen to their radio ads.

Just a couple ideas about how we are using our new technology at school. Please feel free to add any uses you can think of or that you have used with this QR code technology!
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

3 comments:

  1. This is so cool. Is there a way that a student say in grade 2 could do this if they were using a laptop? My guess is there is not but I thought I would check. I need to push for some ipads or tablets!! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. I had looked into it since someone else had asked me the exact same thing. If you can install programs on your school computers http://blog.odoa.eu/post/QR-Code-Scanner-for-Desktop-and-Laptop.aspx
      has a link to a program that uses the laptop webcam to read the QR codes. Not as simple as just using a tablet app.

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  2. Yes! thank you! I finally get what QR codes are and how I might use them in my primary classroom.

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