QR codes are most often associated with mobile marketing. Advertisers have taken a liking to the codes since they first started appearing in the U.S. in 2008. Their popularity spurred by the prevalence of smart phones, the codes have become an integral part of marketing for many big name companies. However, QR codes are not only for marketing, as one teacher at the Palmyra Area High School in Pennsylvania is teaching her students.
Melanie Wiscount, teacher of the emerging technologies class at the school, has tasked her students to create a variety of digital reports and publish them on blogs and YouTube. The assignment is part of a local-history report in which students will investigate and demonstrate real-world applications of QR codes and how they have affected change in the area. The school board has already been presented with five of these projects, all of which have been copyrighted with help from Wiscount.
Wiscount’s curriculum aims to not only familiarize students with emerging technologies, but prepare them for a time where these technologies will be inseperable from everyday life. “It has become a 21st-century skill,” she says, “You have to know what to do with all the resources and information available.”
The initiative has drawn interest from representatives of the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts as well as those from Milton Hershey School. Susan Alger, coordinator of school history at Milton, was enthralled by one student’s project and opted to use it as part of the school’s archives.
