So I’ve been thinking…QR codes are (still) awesome again.
I remember submitting a grant proposal to MassCue in 2010 to get iPod touches for the purpose of using QR codes in my classroom. Yes, there is evidence…
In all honesty, I don’t think the infrastructure was in place for QR codes to work in 2010. The iPad touch was the best available device to scan the codes, but the QR code apps weren’t ideal and the screen size posed a problem as well. I saw potential in the technology and envisioned students exploring multimedia content that I could embed into primary source readings and ultimately I envisioned students creating content that could be used as embedded multimedia in our classroom, school and community as QR Codes. On a side note, I was teaching in Plymouth, MA at the time and QR codes started popping up around town at historic locations where the scan pointed to an audio tour of each location.
Back to this post…I was in a workshop today with a middle school in Dallas, TX. The teachers are receiving their iPads for the first time through the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools program and I was able to co-facilitate a hands on workshop. With QR code scanning being built into the latest iPad OS, there seems to be renewed interested in the capacity of theses little square codes. Then in sharing a few ideas and fielding questions from the group, someone mentioned the idea of creating stations in an iPad classroom environment…thus the origin & purpose of this post.
Here we go…
QR Codes X Google Slides = Digital Stations
- The teacher creates X number of Google Slide presentations (4, 5, 6…really however many they want in terms of station numbers)
- Teacher creates a public link for each presentation and leaves each one empty
- Teacher creates a QR code from each Google Slides link
- Teacher prints out QR codes & permanently attaches them to each station location in the classroom
What has been easily created is a blank digital shell for each station that can be easily updated when needed. From a laptop (or mobile device) the teacher can quickly update the content on each Google Slide ( I envision one or two slides per deck) to include images, text, video, links, et…
To demonstrate how easy and plausible it is to create this type of scenario, I have created a four station rotation on my iPad using the strategy outlined above. Scan each code to visit a unique digital station.
