QR codes as learning tools

qr codes used in classrooms

qr codes used in classrooms

Mobile barcodes are moving beyond marketing and into the classroom.

QR codes have been taking off throughout the mobile marketing world, but now they are beginning to find a new home in education as well.

The barcodes are proving useful in a number of ways beyond the obvious communication with consumers.

Previous uses for QR codes have included a number of highly popular campaigns, such as their use at Starbucks, as well as on billboards and product packaging. Now that consumers are beginning to become more familiar with what they are and how to use them, more people in different industries are starting to branch out and come up with unique new ways to use the technology.

This includes using QR codes in conjunction with other forms of classroom media.

Today’s students are very comfortable with mobile and computer technology, so these barcodes can be integrated quite naturally into a curriculum and work to pique the curiosity of the pupils while obtaining very useful feedback about their progress and learning.

A successful example of this is located in Chicago, where teacher Scott Hagedorn – an avid blogger – has worked QR codes into posters that have been positioned around his classroom. The posters include instructional tables and inspirational figures. They’re similar to the types of informative decorating that have always been a part of school classrooms, only with a high tech edge.

Hagedorn explained that “Most teachers will agree that for as much time as it takes teachers to put posters up in their rooms every year, these posters seem to go unnoticed. By adding QR codes to posters and bulletin boards, students will become more interactive with and learn more and more about the visuals that surround them all year.”

He also added that his classroom has a handful of iPads in it which are shared among his students. These devices can be used to scan the QR codes so that the students can be directed to more information about the topic on the poster. It is a unique and clever way to bridge the gap from print to digital media in the classroom, just as it is in the mobile marketing environment.

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