Wednesday, September 14, 2011

QR Codes in the Classroom

This past week my students have been playing around with QR codes. I've been thinking about how I could use them with my class. I have been particularly interested in how they can be used to "connect" various types of media together, eg; print and digital.

As part of their weekly homelearning, my class have been completing a variety of tasks based around the Rugby World Cup. Each student has their own wiki page dedicated to their RWC adopted team. Students have been busy creating and completing all sorts of cool activities. My class have also created their own rugerbees as part of a short art activity.

Using a code generator we created individual QR codes which were then glued to students artwork.

Scanning the code with a smartphone, ipod touch, ipad etc will take you through to the URL which links with a student's wiki page dedicated to their adopted team providing all sorts of wonderful information about their adopted team and country.

We then stuck our artwork on the class window with an explanation.

By showcasing the artwork on the classroom windows, I'm hoping it will spark some interest amongst other students and teachers as to what QR codes are, and their potential use as an educational tool. My own class have had lots of fun creating and scanning some of the codes on the artwork through the window using their ipod touches.

This has been such a fantastic exercise in generating discussion amongst my class as to how else QR codes could be used to share and support other aspects of their learning.