August 1, 2012

QR Codes - the mystery solved

We see these little codes EVERYWHERE and many people still don't understand what they are for.

Meanwhile, several teachers have been sharing different qr code generators and interesting activities for the classroom.

But first things first, if you're one of the many who don't really know   how different they are from normal bar codes, FIRST, let's  understand them and then see how they can be used in our classes.

Let me tell you a secret , I was one of these people who didn't really see the beauty of QR codes until I came accross the following video

Step 1: watch the explanatory video.
Step 2: download a scanner reader app to your cell phone or ipad.
      - apps for android
      - apps for iphone/ ipad
Step 3: Test your scanner app by pointing it to the qrcode on this post and you'll be taken to the video I mentioned.

Step 4: Let's learn how to generate these codes.
There are different generators you can use, the easiest might be a simple generator such as but one I've found very useful is using URL Shorteners such as:  or

First of all, copy the URL of a page you would like to share, go to one of the sites mentioned above (tinyurl or, paste it and click to shorten. You can customize the name of the link by clicking CUSTOMIZE. Copy the link provided by the site and paste it on a new tab, include /qr and press enter. Then you should have the qrcode of the shortened URL.

Oh, as you can see the QR Codes are black and white but if you want to add some color to it, try

And how can we use QR CODES in education?

You might enjoy reading these articles:

I've been collecting interesting ideas about QR CODES in my PINTEREST BOARD for some time and here are some of them:

Another way you can use QR CODES is ....
Let's imagine you are at a conference and don't have a business card to exchange. NO PROBLEM, with SnapMyInfo you can trade info by using your phone camera.

QR code at a glance

An amazing comic tutorial from the Daring Librarian


robertarighetto said...

Awesome post, Ana. I`ve already QRcodes in class(not audio) and the result was really positive. Most students had already seen the codes but didn`t know how to use them, so they learned 2 things at a time, language and digital skill. After that, these students started creating QR codes and looking for them in several places.

Ana Maria Menezes said...

Great to hear that, Roberta. I'm thinking of preparing an activity with several questions around the school which students have to scan, copy the questions and then use them to interview another student. I'll try to use qrvoice though.

Online qr code generator said...
