Simple Mobile Tech … Big Gains for Students [Tech Difficulty – Easy]
I have been busy with many projects over the past several months. I have been a little neglectful of my blog but let this be the first post to get things started again. This project post is very easy to implement but I will have others in the future that are much more technical. To give everyone a “heads up” before they get in there I will be labeling the posts Easy-Challenging-Techie. Techie being the most technical where programming is probably the theme of the post. Easy will typically be HTML and Challenging could include some scripting languages. I will set the WordPress blog category that corresponds to my classifications (easy, challenging, techie). I don’t want someone to read something that may not suit them or their experience.
QR Codes
QR codes have been around for some time. Google at one point was championing them and my Android has several programs that can scan QR codes and display and store the information to a smartphone. It is my understanding that the iPhone also has software that can read QR code. QR codes are nothing more than a bar code on steroids… They can hold a variety of information (I am focusing on text based label info) in a square the size of a postage stamp. To produce the code you can link to one of several sites (Click here for Kaywa which is a nice fee generator) that provide a code generator (most of the popular smartphones have free readers but I could not locate a free reader for use with a PC and Scanner). The QR code looks like the graphic in the top right corner of the post.
How I use QR Codes for Students
In the community colleges, smartphones are still the exception and not the rule but more students are getting smartphones. I am placing a QR Code at the bottom of my Syllabi. For the QR code text, I list the course dates, times, my contact information and the books used. This can now be captured by the student either by holding there smartphone up to the PC monitor if looking at it online or by scanning the hard copy syllabus. The benefit having that important syllabi information capture in their smart phone and not lost on a piece of paper. Anytime I can assist the student in capturing information about the course on information used by the course, I believe I am helping them out.
You can see an example of my CIS105 Syllabus with a QR Code by clicking here.
Here is a camera shot of the QR code at the end of my Syllabus
The data retrieved appears in my Smartphone which can be saved and opened again later.
CIS105 – Survey of Computers (Marrer)
B-104 | 6/1 – 7/1| M-TH 9:10-11:10
-Skills for Success with Microsoft Office 2007 (Pearson), Townsend
-Technology in Action Complete, 6th Edition (Pearson), Evans, Martin and Poatsy
- Myitlab (Pearson)
Comments or QR code mobile learning stories to share?
In: Easy, Free and Good Mobile Stuff, Using Mobile Tech
