iPhone in Education: Using QR Code in the Classroom

I’ve had my eye on QR Code for a couple of years now since Ewan introduced me to it and got me thinking about how it might be used in the classroom.

QR Code is a two-dimensional bar code created in Japan (where it is currently the most popular type of two-dimensional code). QR stands for ‘Quick Response’ as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be downloaded at a high speed. QR Code is very popular in Japan and is starting to catch on in Europe. Some phones come with built in QR code readers and for other phones you can download QR readers for free over the Internet.

You can generate QR Code for free using a number of websites such as http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ if you took a photograph of the bit of code on the right of this screen and used a QR code reader to decode it would take you straight to the GLOW Scotland home page.

I’ve got a number of QR Code readers for my iPhone that I have downloaded from the Apps store but very few of them worked particularly well. However, I recently downloaded Neo-Reader and I have been very impressed with how it works. It has never let me down and I can take a picture of a bit of QR Code from the back of the classroom and it can still recognise and decode it.

Here’s how it works:

1) Open Neo-Reader

 

2) Take a photograph of the code.

3) If you are happy with you photo – select ‘use photo’

 

4) The phones internet browser automatically opens and takes you to the decoding site.

 

5) You then get automatically re-directed to the website that was hidden within the code.

 

Use in the Classroom

Now let’s think about the classroom application of such technology. Within QR Code you can hide Text, URL’s, Phone Numbers and SMS. At the end of the lesson the teacher wants students to record their homework.

They want to save money on expensive worksheets and we know that children do not like writing things into their homework planners. The teacher hides the homework instructions or URL inside a bit of QR code – shows the code on the interactive whiteboard or wall. The children take a photo of it with their phones, their homework gets decoded and they have and instant record of what the teacher wants them to do.

But does this work in reality? This is not a great bit of video, but it is a short bit of film that we recorded today trying to introduce the potential of such technology. The QR Code is a link to the GLOW Scotland website.

Comments

[Nick]

H,another smart link. my classes thought that post was 'amazinnnn'. Here is an IPHONE link for geocaching, outdoor learning and geog. and numeracy. http://www.geocaching.com/iPhone/default.aspx

[Digitalkatie]

We had a QR Code reader program installed for our mobile phone trial project. I have lots of Computing quotes in QR Codes as posters round my classroom. I gave some to Science and Modern Languages but they didn't understand it - "looks pretty, what is it?"

[Mark Ollis]

Using i-nigma generator and reader seemed to work best together. Readers seem to prefer thier own generated code Mo