Saturday 24 April 2010

What in the world are QR codes??

Recently during a webinar, I discovered not only what QR codes are but how to use them which also gave me the opportunity to begin considering how they can be used in education with my class and how I can spred this resource to my colleagues.

To begin with, QR codes are Quick Response codes which are a visual representation of digital information. Here is an example of what a QR code looks like:

qrcode

Increasingly, we can see these symbols popping up but how can we use them?

First, in order to use the code, we need to install a QR code reader onto our mobile phone. Now, before you panic, I was able to load the reader into my camera in less than two minutes. The readers work with any mobile phone with a camera. Moreover, there are tons of readers available and most, if not all, are free!

So, we need to begin by downloading the reader which we can do by finding our phone and the readers avaible for it here:



When you arrive on the landing site, simply find your phone's manufacturer down the right side of the page.

The next step is to select your model in the chart and read across the table to find the correct available software.

After you have done that, simply download the software from the link, for example, my model is from HTC so I was shown a choice of four different readers and I clicked on the one of my choice:



The download takes a few seconds onto my laptop.

I made sure that the ".cab" file was saved on my desktop and then using bluetooth, I downloaded the file to my mobile. I opened the file and installed and I was done!

Now, to test that the program was working correctly, I went to this site and created a test QR code which was done in a few seconds and was very easy.

As this is so new to me, I am still looking in to the educational aspects, but some immediate ideas come to mind such as assignments, notices, contact details, etc. can all be transwerred using this method. I am really excited about this tool and I look forward to being able to record here some success stories on its use!

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