As a taster, follow the white rabbit (well scan in this QR code to you’re phone to see an example of text use) please read the following excert from University of Bath blog and use the useful links to quickly get started using this technology – originally developed for motor vehicle parts. Please comment back and also provide any additional links to sites with useful information about the use and benefits of QR codes
This is a nice one; point at this to phone the college
Useful links
The following scenarios provide examples of how QR codes might be used in an educational context.
• A student subscribing to an RSS news feed
• Inclusion within printed learning materials
• Integration within an alternate reality game
• ’Just in time’ information in a face to face lecture
Scenario 1: A student subscribing to an RSS news feed.
Many lecturers and departments provide regular news updates online. In many cases Blog software is used. This is for a number of reasons including ease of authoring and displaying information in chronological date order. An advantage of blogs is that many of them automatically include RSS functionality which allows people to subscribe to an RSS feed update.
This type of content is perfect for the mobile learner as many mobile devices include RSS aggregation software. Therefore, the mobile learner can simply subscribe to the Blog’s RSS feed and check for new updates via their mobile device. So how would providing the RSS feed address as a QR code help? The key advantages are efficiency and accuracy. RSS subscriptions tend to be very long so entering them on a mobile device is prone to human error, while the very long url can also act as a potential deterrent to subscribing. So in terms of the user experience, many would favour scanning the QR code and cutting and pasting the url into their RSS aggregator.
Scenario 2: Integration of QR Codes within printed learning materials
Another use of QR codes is their inclusion in printed learning materials, ie, workbooks. This is to improve the connection between the activity being undertaken in the book and an additional online activity. This approach is being rolled out across a number of distance learning modules at the University of Bath. The learning activity requires the user to complete a set of exercises and then access an online discussion forum to further apply these concepts and expose their ideas to the wider community. A QR code is included with each activity in the workbook to provide a deep link to the specific forum on the appropriate Moodle course.
Scenario 3: Integration within an alternate reality game
The previous scenarios have focused more on enhancing efficiency than offering any new learning opportunities. This scenario focuses more on enhancing learning opportunities and is inspired by the Alternate Reality Game run by the Podcasting for Pedagogical Purposes SIG at Alt C 2008. An Alternate Reality Game consists of many elements including a series of challenges, an underlying narrative and a collaborative community. The game encourages collaborative problem solving around a number of physical locations. Therefore, the use of QR codes through printed signs or stickers, will help provide clues, problems, additional text information and online connections for the game
Scenario 4: Accessing just in time information in the lecture
This scenario focuses on the use of a QR code to connect a physical presentation with just in time support materials. For instance, when the lecturer is discussing a topic they could include a QR code which allows the user to link to the resource being discussed, or using a QR code which includes a SMS action to allow participants to feed back on questions, or providing a text based QR code which contains all the references from the presentation. The outcome is that the student can simply scan the material as opposed to trying to follow complex urls or spend valuable time composing SMS text messages. The integration of these approaches is evident from a recent presentation by Andy Ramsden at MLearn 2008 (see http://go.bath.ac.uk/lp5h)
