3 Reasons You Should Be Using QR Codes In Your Classroom

What is black, white and scanned all over?  QR Codes and they are here to stay.

What are QR Codes?

QR stands for Quick Response Code which allows the scanner to receive information quickly. Denso Wave, a Toyota company based in Japan, created QR Codes to track their automotive parts. Since QR Codes are two dimensional, scanning both vertically and horizontally, they can store more information than the traditional one dimensional bar code. As a result of free QR Code Reader software for smartphones, iPads, and computers, QR Codes have become popular for advertisers, businesses and educators.

Why are QR Codes perfect to motivate digital natives?

• They are novel.  The  mind LOVES to be curious. Why do you think the newest restaurants and movies are always packed? Because curiosity is a natural motivator to force people to take action.  Don't wait until the novelty of QR Codes wears off. Start creating your own codes and watch students beg for more!
• They are mysterious.   You get to control where each QR Code takes the students so you can make every QR Code link to something different. One QR Code may take a student to a website to extend the content while another QR Code will take the student to a recorded tutorial to scaffold practice.  What better way to peak a student's curiosity than with a novel black and white square?
• They are engaging. QR Codes are meaningless black and white squares unless students take action to scan them. They can serve as a reminder that engagement is the key factor in comprehension. Create an environment that forces students to engage in their learning by giving them just the QR Code. It is the students job to scan the code to discover directions, expectations, or links to targeted websites.

How to use QR Codes in the classroom?

Last week I posted a few ideas to get you started. Click here to read the post.  If you already read the post and want more ideas, click here for a quick Google search result of QR Codes for classroom use.  If you still feel uncomfortable creating and using QR Codes, challenge your students to become QR Code Crazy. 

1. Put students into teams of three. 
2. Have them search for a website, video, blog or song that represents the current topics you are studying.
3. Ask them to create a QR Code that links to that online site using goo.gl .
4. Have them save the QR Code and then print it out.
5. Finally have students create three to four clues that describe where their QR Code is linked.
6. As each team finishes, they share their clues with the rest of the class. The team that correctly guesses where the QR Code leads, gets to scan the code.

QR Codes are novel, mysterious and engaging. Take action and create your own QR Codes today! Next week's blog will focus on how goo.gl is the perfect site for educational QR Codes. If you like this post, share it with your colleagues and ask them to join my weekly newsletter. Together we can put the cool, back into school.