Make Your Lesson Plan More Interesting with QR Codes

Teaching is one of the noblest profession in the world, but that does not give teachers an excuse to be stuck in the old school way of teaching. Introduce QR codes into your classrooms and reap the benefits of being able to take your students to an interactive learning session, every single day.

These are the benefits of using QR codes in the classroom:

1. Right now, there is no question that a regular student in a typical American classroom would be able to easily access a QR code.

A majority of, if not all, students have mobile phones. Some schools already have Wi-fi access, thus providing free Internet access for mobile devices.

What’s more, QR codes are now scannable using a laptop webcam.

2. It saves you time and helps you be accurate.

This is especially true if you use a lot of online resources. Blogs, Moodle courses, videos and other resources on the Internet. Instead of writing different URLs on the blackboard, and sometimes getting it wrong, you can just get a QR code to resolve to the URLs you use.

For example, if you have an online course on Moodle, you can direct your students to your Moodle course page.

Also, if you assigned something for your students, and their output is online, they can easily give you a QR code to their online output. For instance, having your students write a daily journal, or create a website is a good exercise to show both what they learned in class and show their creativity. They can submit a QR code to you and you can read and grade their work even while on the go.

3. Make your lessons more interesting.

Just about anything now is online. If you have to discuss a boring subject to your students, why not let them participate in a forum that features your subject. Or if you are asking your students to read a book, it would make it more engaging for them if they can augment the reading with multimedia help.

An English class recently reviewed Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, and the teacher gave them QR codes that resolved to pictures, videos, even Wikipedia entries about the places, artworks and people described in the book. The class was also directed to an online discussion of the book made by former students and current students who took the same course.

4. Get better learning results.

For the first time, you have the ability to tap the Internet as your co-teacher, easily and efficiently. You are no longer limited to books, the library and your class discussion. You also do not have to worry about costs in reprinting photos or getting videos. You can include all these in one sheet of paper.

5. It is quick and easy to create and implement.

QR codes are easy to create. All you have to do is go to a trusty QR code generator and you will have a QR code in a matter of seconds. What’s more, it is free of charge to create and use a QR code.

An added advantage is that you can scan a QR code as long as it is at least one inch all around, so it does not really take too much space at all!