QR Codes….A Librarians Best Friend!

What is a QR Code?

  

A QR code is a machine-readable code consisting of an array of black and white squares, typically used for storing URLs or other information for reading by the camera on a smartphone. 

So a lot of librarians use QR codes in their stacks to help generate interest in books that students may not know about or may not think they could be interested in, but there are other ways that teacher-librarians can utilize QR codes to teach and engage students and to step things up in an old boring lesson

 What can you use a QR code for?

Any content, video, photos, text, audio, can be converted to a QR code.  Want to have a interactive museum project?  Have students put up their work and then explain it via QR code?  Want to host a 3^rd grade treasure hunt to teach genres or Dewey?  You can use QR codes for that.  There are so many applications and for older students you can teach them the technology and let them decide how they want to utilize it in presentations or for testing their own understanding.  Content converters are free and easy to use and students can download a reader right onto their iPod or iPad or smartphone. 

How would I use this technology?

In thinking about how I would use this technology, I couldn’t help but think about teaching students the parts of a particular story.  In the sixth grade classes in my district, students are reading “The Giver”.   What makes this story so good to use with QR codes is that it has a very easy story arc.  There are very prominent examples of exposition, rising action, obvious climax, falling action and a quick resolution.   

 Making a note of some of the better examples from the story, I put them in a text into the QR Generator (http://www.qrstuff.com/) and created an easy template for students to attach the physical print outs of the QR codes to, by story part.  After a refresher on the parts of the story, students would scan their set of 15 codes and put them in order on their template.  They have a summary of the plot, have gotten to refresh their memories about story parts and used some technology in the process.  Below is an example of my son completing the assignment. 

Good or bad?

I think that most librarians are smart to use QR codes the way they do.  I love when I walk into a school library and see the codes taped right to the shelf under a series or a book with a great trailer.  I have even seen librarians use them for summer reading lists and in their book displays as bookmarks.  This is just one more way to step things up!