If you’re a Quick Response Code expert, using an online QR code generator and a near field communication phone to do outstanding things for your organization, then you already know QR codes have terrific potential. Although they used to be found only on consumer goods like sodas, popcorn bags and other sundry items, they’re now being used for more and more things. We’ve talked about a few of them here on the blog already.
For example, you can find them in parks and museums helping people get information. You can find them in cemeteries, providing custom memorials with full sound and visual messages from the deceased. You can find them all the time in law enforcement issues. They have now replaced the milk carton as a preferred way to make people aware of missing children. In Australia, they are even being used to prevent bike theft.
But arguably, the most compelling use of QR codes is in the classroom.
These days, almost every teenager has a near field communication Android or iPhone. So why not use them to make the classroom experience better? There’s been a little bit of attention to this in the past, but we can thank ZDNet blogger Charlie Osborne for the definitive (for now) post on the subject of educational Quick Response Codes: 50 QR Code Resources for the Classroom. These aren’t little blurbs, either, but meaty articles and resources on how the new mobile technology can enhance learning.
Which one is best? There’s a lot here, from fun to instructional. Some of the links lead to their own list of dozens of ways to work with QR codes in class, so the truth is that there might be hundreds of individual ideas in here. But if I had to choose one (or a few) I would say that QR Codes in the STEM Classroom is a great place to start. Besides the case study, it includes more than a dozen more links for science, technology, engineering and math instruction. This could be a way to help students connect.
For something else in a related vein, try QR Codes in Math Class. The author here has some great thoughts on activities to make math more interesting using technology. Since most students love their mobile technology, why not give them a hand in the skill set that they’ll need to be involved in the technology industry? It can’t hurt to inspire young people to take on the challenge of these difficult (but very rewarding) fields.
What’s the best way to use Quick Response Codes in the classroom? I’m sure there are as many answers as there are students, and maybe there is no “right” one. But these posts will give you hundreds of ways to ponder the question for your own students or the young people in your life. Go, QR codes!