QR TAGS IN THE SCHOOL: A virtual treasure hunt through education

I remember when the ubiquitous barcode showed up in the early 1980’s. My Mom & her friends picketed the local Pigley Wigley grocery store over the fact that that Graham Crackers & all the products on the shelves did not have the price sticker on them any more [true story, I kid you not].

Today, barcoding technology has taken the next step. Some people have termed this new barcoding technology as “2d barcodes”. How they came up with this name is beyond me. The real name of new barcoding technology is a QR code.

You may ask your self, what do QR tags have to do with education? The interesting thing about a QR tag is that it is a printed hyperlink to a web site. One cool way we could use QR tags is in a history class. Instead of lecturing on the discovery of America, the teacher could do a simulation of Christopher Columbus & the discovery of the new world. In the school, the teacher could place 10 – 12 QR tags that the students would have to find. This process of discovery would simulate Columbus’ discovery of the new world. When the student finds  each QR, it would open a new web site. This site would have pertinent information about that stage of the Columbus expedition. At the end of the web site would be a clue of where/how to find the next QR tag.

Here is additional information on QR tags:
01 – What can you do with a QR Tag

02 – What are QR tags & what can you do with them

03 – An iPhone app for reading QR tags

04 – How to mock up a QR tag in Adobe Photoshop

Here are two video on QR codes: