The midden » QR codes

7 things you should know about QR codes

Will Stewart — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:42:19 +0000

Educause have produced a useful guide to QR codes as part of their “7 Things You Should Know….” series. It provides a good overview on what QR codes are and how they are being used. It also includes a mention of Andy Ramsden’s work at Bath, and also offers the opportunity to contribute your ideas on how QR codes could be used in the classroom and on campus. You can download details of this here:

Create and read QR codes on the iPhone and iTouch

Will Stewart — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:57:09 +0000

Creating and reading QR codes on the iPhone is quick and easy with the Optiscan app from Airsource. This app will automatically scan and read a code when you point your camera’s phone at it. It reads equally well from a computer or iPhone screen as it does from paper. Once it has read the code it presents you with the information, e.g. a website, someone’s contact details or some text information.

The software also allows you to generate a QR code for a url, contact or a piece of text. This is very simple to do. For example, to generate a QR code for a website simply select the URL icon on the share tab, and then type in the URL. After you have finished press the “Done” key on the keyboard and the QR code will be shown. There is no need to type in “http://” in front of the URL.

Here is the QR code for a picture of my beautiful partner on the beach in Mingulay.

Here is the url to one of my favourite TED talks.

I can see many educational uses for these QR codes, e.g.

1. Course information such as exam timetables, assessment schedules, lecture notes, powerpoint slides, videos …..etc could be made available via the course website so students could download the information directly to their phones.

2. QR codes could be used in combination with some Web 2.0 tools such as Netvibes or Facebook to give student access to course materials.

3. In museums and art galleries, information about an exhibit could be made available through a QR code.

I’m sure there are loads more examples.

Horizon Report 2009

Will Stewart — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:22:50 +0000

The latest Horizon Report, that looks at the likely impact of emerging technologies on teaching, learning and research, features six examples of tools, applications and devices that will change the way we operate. Two of these technologies, i.e. mobile devices and cloud computing, are already with us and used extensively. With the advent of the 3-G iphone and Google’s Android phone the potential for new and innovative forms of learning, assessment and collaboration is huge. Anyone who uses Google Docs, Flickr, YouTube and Mobile Me is already linked into a “cloud”. Educational institutions, certainly in HE, probably don’t yet realise the extent to which their students and, indeed, their workforce are making using of cloud computing.

The other four technologies covered in this report are:

geolocation technology
the personal web
semantic aware applications
smart objects (see recent post on QR codes)

The report describes the relevance of each of these technologies to teaching and learning, as well as providing some useful links to examples of educational applications.