QR Codes and Augmented Reality

 QR Codes

 

Geralt. (2016). QR code. Pixabay. CCO.

 

I love QR codes! What a fun way to engage students and get them interested in a lesson or a book.  This QR code is linked to a video of  a book trailer that I created for Wonder by R. J. Palacio.   I love the ides of embedding a QR code on the library website with videos of student book reviews or student book trailers.  Students can get really excited about reading books when they are presented in a fun way by their peers.

Librarians can use QR codes the first week of school as a scavenger hunt so that students can get familiar with the library layout and the routines and procedures.  QR codes for the scavenger hunt can be linked to things like how to check out a book properly or a poster showing how to use the library catalog. 

QR codes can be used in the classroom or library to give students self-checking assessments.  Students can be given a worksheet or activity and they record their answers in a notebook or on a separate piece of paper.  After they have recorded their answers, the teacher can five the student an answer key with QR codes.  Students use the QR code and a phone/tablet to check their answers and grade their own work.  This would definitely be a fun way for students to check their work and less grading for teachers.

QR codes are also a quick and easy way to get student directly to a link you want them to view.  They can make research projects much more simple, especially for younger students.  Instead of giving them a long web address or letting them freely search on a search engine, they can use a QR code to go directly to a teacher-approved website.

Finally, QR codes provide a great way to differentiate.  They can be used in stations, and a different QR code can be provided to different groups that link to assignment of varying levels.  Each code can be linked to an activity working on a similar skill, but the difficulty level can be altered to accommodate the specific learning styles of each student.

Augmented Reality

 

Sndrv. (2010). DIY Augmented Reality. flickr. CC BY.



 



Although I can think of a number of cool ways to use QR codes, augmented reality was a little bit more difficult for me.  I'm not sure if I quite have my head wrapped around all of the possibilities for this new technology.  I think students would absolutely love to create and use this in classroom applications such as:

• Using pictures of famous Americans, we could input different pieces of text that tell about the notable qualities of each person that the students need to know
• Scanning scenic pictures could show words in a different language to assist someone who is trying to learn a new language
• When studying compound machines, scanning a picture of a machine could help students to identify the simple machines that have been used to make it a compound machine