Technology Tuesday - QR Codes

Today's technology is the easiest way to jump into technology in your classroom and your kids will love it.  All you need is some device that will scan (ipad, ipod, smart phone etc) and regular computer and a printer.  Basically you are going to create a marker (or QR code ) that when scanned will either take your kids to a website, a video or will show them text or an image.

The first thing you do is download a QR scanner on your device.  There are many choices for a scanner.  We use this free app and you can get it here.  Then you go to a computer attached to a printer and create your code.  Princess and I like QR Stuff because it gives tons of choices of what your QR code is linking to and it gives a shortened URL all in one step.  Create your code and print it.  Put where you want to your kids to scan and watch them become enthralled.

There are a ton of uses.  Princess had her class use them on their Young Author's Books.

After they wrote and illustrated their books, she had them record themselves reading the book at Vocaroo.   This site stores the recording online at its own web address.  She created a QR code that linked to the recording.  The codes were placed inside the covers of the students' books.  When the code was scanned, a recording of the book was started and a person could follow along as the author read the book.

In the speech room we use them to make our centers independent.  Lady A created codes for each one of our verb photo cards for past tense practice.

 

She created a QR code for each card that answered the question: What happened in the picture?  Because we have nonreaders, we needed our QR codes to talk.  She used QR Voice which lets you type 100 characters to create a talking QR code.

 

Scan the above to see what I mean 

There are so many uses for codes.  Here are a few:

Class Website Direction: Create a code that that when scanned opens up your classroom website. Place the code at the bottom of your class newsletters.

Safe Navigation: Instead of your students typing in a web address, have them scan a code that takes them directly where you want them.

Answer Key: Code your answers and have students self-check their answers.

Announcements: Record announcements and have students scan them to hear them. Keep an ongoing interactive bulletin board.

Real World Application: Create a scavenger hunt throughout the school that demonstrates concepts in everyday use.When the student scans the code, the concept explanation/definition would show.

Create a Class Tree:  For back to school night, create a tree that has QR codes as leaves. Parents can scan the codes to learn about the various aspects of your class. Better yet, have each student do a video introducing themselves and create a code for each student.

Differentiating Instruction: Use codes to direct students to different resources that are based on their levels.

Word Wall:  Create a video, an audio recording or a text definition of the words on your word wall. Create a code for each word and students can scan to get more information about the word.

There are many, many more uses.  Check this handout that gives the how-tos and tons of ideas for uses.

Princess says her kids loved QR codes.  They felt like scientists in the future.  Our speech kids were definitely more engaged.  They tend to whip through centers as if there was some great prize for getting finished first (even though I just tell them to do it again!)  With the codes they got a real kick out of checking their answers.

Happy coding!