QR Stuff

Why use QR codes? The advertising world uses QR codes on everything, as well as Augmented Reality now. You may have noticed these weird squares all over packaging, billboards, and even business vehicles now. They're popular in advertising because they make it so easy to access their websites and specific information. Isn't that what we want in education? Get students straight to the specific content they need.

QRstuff.com is a very basic website that creates QR codes for you for free. All you need to do is copy the url of your media (audio, video, PDF) that you want your audience to connect with. It will generate a code for you to download or copy into documents, websites, etc, as an image. If you really get carried away with QR codes, you can enhance them by changing their colors, adding images to them, etc, but that's often where the QR generator sites start to require paid upgrades.

The process of getting your own url address for content is where many people get hung on and decide this is too complicated, but don't! Many websites like Croak.it or Soundcloud.com will record sounds for you or let you upload them and then create a url to share. If you save documents to Dropbox you can get right click (COMMAND + CLICK on Mac) a share url to edit, and it's the same with GoogleDocs (see photo examples below) I use my school server and have memorized the code our tech coaches taught me for it, so I know all my media is in one place.

How does this work in a music room? Here are some things we've found work wonders:

- Accommodations/Differentiation/Modification: Pre-teach a lesson tutorial and create a code for students to scan if they need extra practice. Some students benefit from seeing or hearing something in an individualized or previewed way, and here's an easy way to clone your instructions.

- Send home student performances: Record student work and create an audio link to send home at a Mother's Day gift, or just an update of what we're doing in class.

- Modify your books and stories by embedding QR codes: While you're reading a book and adding sound examples, rather than pausing to go press play on a CD, have a student scan a QR code that will play a snippet of the selection you want them to hear. Students love to be actively involved in the stories, and this is another way to engage them.

- Have students decipher moods or musical periods from listening examples: See the QR weather map below, where students listen to musical examples and draw weather that matches that part of the map. Where is the storm? Where is the sun shining?