During one of my workshops this afternoon at Carondelet High School some asked for suggestions about using QR codes. Here are some of the uses that I suggested.

TagMyDoc is a tool that allows you to apply a QR code to Word documents and PDFs that are stored on your computer. Upload your document then TagMyDoc creates and applies a QR code to it. You can print the document with the QR code on it or simply project the QR code for your students to scan and get a copy of the document on their mobile devices.

Goo.gl is Google’s URL shortening tool. When you shorten a link with Goo.gl a QR code is created for it too. To find the QR code, click the “details” link after your shortened URL has been made. The details page also shows you how many times your link has been used. This is useful to me if I want to make sure that all of my students have used the link. If I see that the link or QR code has been used 17 times, but I have 25 students, I immediately seek out the students who haven’t followed the link.

QR Voice is a free tool that allows you to create QR codes that when
scanned will play a short audio message. To create your message and QR
code you can record a voice message by clicking the microphone icon on
QR Voice or you can type in your message. Either way you’re limited to
100 characters. QR Voice is offered in Spanish, English, Japanese,
and Portuguese. Teachers could use QR Voice
to create QR codes that they then print and attach to objects in their
classrooms or schools. Then have students try to identify those objects
in the language that they’re trying to learn. To check their answers
students can scan the QR code and hear the correct answer on their
phones or tablets.

QR codes can be used to combine the physical world with the digital world. Terri Eichholz wrote a guest post about how she has used QR codes to create interactive bulletin boards in her school. You can read how she did it here.