OK, so this post involves more than its fair share of geekiness and will have a lot of people perhaps thinking, but why? Nevertheless, QR codes are a big thing in the Far East and could be extremely useful in the classroom. Let me show you how… :D

First of all, thanks go to both Ewan McIntosh for blogging about this and to Vicki Davis for bookmarking it on del.icio.us. For the uninitiated (read: me about 2 hours ago) here’s a quick summary of what QR is from Wikipedia:

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The “QR” is derived from “Quick Response”, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed…

Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used for inventory management in a wide variety of industries. More recently, the inclusion of QR Code reading software on camera phones in Japan has led to a wide variety of new, consumer-oriented applications, aimed at relieving the user of the tedious task of entering data into their mobile phone. QR Codes storing addresses and URLs are becoming increasingly common in magazines and advertisements in Japan. The addition of QR Codes on business cards is also becoming common, greatly simplifying the task of entering the personal details of a new acquaintance into the address book of one’s mobile phone.

So what, pray, does one of these look like? I hear you ask… Well, a bit like this (which just happens to give the URL for this site):

Not much to look at, is it? This is (briefly) how it works:

What types of things can you embed in one of these codes? Amongst other things:

• URLs
• Text (up to 250 characters)
• Phone Numbers
• SMS

So imagine the situation. It gets to the end of another one of your high-energy, interesting, fun-packed lessons and you simply whack a QR image on your interactive whiteboard or have it printed on a worksheet (which would beg a few questions, I know…) Your students just need to take a picture using their mobile phone and then off they go with their homework!

I’ve had a quick go of it on my Orange SPV C500, thanks to the information I go on a thread on this forum. If you’ve got a phone running Windows Mobile you should be OK installing the program via the method described there. If you’ve got a Motorola, Nokia, Samsung or Sony-Ericsson phone the task should be even easier by going to http://reader.kaywa.com. You can also make the QR codes at this website: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/.

For anyone with an Orange SPV C500, you want the Dopod 585 software from this website and then install it using the guide here about how to install CAB files.

For a quick example of QR in action, click on the link to the video below. All I do here is load the program which automatically turns on my camera. As soon as it spots a QR code it pops up with the information it contains – no need even to ‘take’ a photo! :D