Fast QR code creator

There are many ways to use QR codes in the classroom, especially now that many schools are buying iPads, iPods and the minis. With these camera enabled devices, students can easily scan a QR code that will point them to a worksheet solution, a "how-to" video, a booktrailer for the latest class novel, an online bibliography for a poster project or just about anything you can imagine.

Creating a series of codes, while ordinarily time-consuming, can be done almost instantly using one of Tammy Worcester's google doc templates. Simply add the template to your Google docs/drive files, paste the desired URLs into the first column,  and "voilà", the QR codes appear in the third column ready to be pasted on a document or printed on labels.

Posting work for QR without a login?

Here's the problem I was recently given: "How can a teacher easily share student work, without requiring a login or account creation?"  The teacher in question wanted to attach student poetry to QR codes and put the codes up around the school, and have kids discover them in a kind of literary scavenger hunt. (I think the poems contained clues to the next spot.) There are a few solutions out there (try googling "disposable pages"), but the most elegant seems to be Tidypub. This simple, elegant service lets you post a page of text, and gives you a URL to share. While you can't go back and edit after the fact, this is an easy solution for a quick paste of student created work. Take the resulting URL and past it into goo.gl to get a QR code (look under the details tab).

Check out the sample I created by scanning the code in this post!

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QR Codes...everywhere!

QR Code to our list of Library Catalogs.

I've seen so much about QR codes on LM-NET these days, I thought I'd give them a plug here. They are a great way to raise the profile of your library program and give your displays a "cutting edge" feel.

Use them to point kids to your catalog, to reviews, to booktrailers and other interesting extras that connect with the materials you have in your collection. You could even make short video tutorials for equipment in your library, or how to create bibliographies, or....the sky's the limit. One recommendation was to create T-shirts graphics where the QR code is to the library website.

Check out the comic below from the daring librarian.