[UPDATED 12/8/2010: For further tips, tricks, and ideas for using QR codes, see this more recent post.]
With the number of smartphones on the rise, such as AT&T’s iPhone or Verizon’s Droid, more and more of our students have this technology in our classrooms. Can you harness this power for your own use?
In this post I’m going to introduce you to QR codes and barcode scanner software for cell phones, and how they might be useful to you and your students.
If you have an iPhone/Droid, search the App Store/Market for barcode scanners. If you have a different web-enabled phone, here’s a handy list of barcode scanners. For Droid, I use the free “Barcode Scanner” from ZXing Team. You can use it to scan any barcode, like those found on a box of Cheerios or the cover of a book. It will also scan QR codes.
QR codes are graphics that can represent a webpage, simple text, or a phone number. This is the QR code for the home page to this blog. When scanned by your barcode scanner app, the app will ask if you’d like to open the webpage using your phone’s browser, email it to someone, or text it to someone (or other options, depending on the capabilities of your chosen reader).
It doesn’t matter if the QR code is on a webpage or printed on paper. It can even be printed on a t-shirt (see qrstuff.com). If your phone can take a picture of it, your phone’s barcode scanner can read it.
Here’s a website that will generate QR codes for you.
Education applications.
Generate QR codes for the websites your students may want to access while away from their computers. Copy and paste them into a Word file, and attach it to the end of your syllabus. Or perhaps just have a few on hand for your smartphone-carrying students.
If you’re a Poll Everywhere user, students with web-accessible phones can visit a website to vote instead of sending a text message. Create a QR code for the vote page and print it into your syllabus for easy student access.
If you can think of other educational uses for QR codes, please add a comment below.
