QR-Codes in the classroom (weblinks)

Tips on using QR-Codes with weblinks in the classroom. Includes, short reading texts, feedback, listening comprehension and maps.

How to make qr-codes friendlier

I am using qr-codes more and more frequently in my classes or for school projects.  However, being just black and square qr-codes are an eyesore. It only takes two minutes to make them more beautiful or “user friendly”.

You need photo editing software that supports layers and blend modes, like Photoshop or GIMP. If you want to create, say, a tourist guide, then you place a photo of the sight the code is supposed to link to on layer 1. Put the qr-code itself on layer 2 and apply the “negative multiply” blend mode to the layer. Check with you mobile phone if the code works (might not work, due problems in contrast). Export and done.

You can create qr codes online, using e.g. http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

See also: How to create a mobile city guide

Gutenberg on mobile: Tons of free eBooks

Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/  is one of the most awesome websites for readers. With more than 36.000 eBooks (copyright-free) it has literally tons of reading stuff for your eBook reader. Gutenberg now supports Kindle (mobi) and ePub (e.g. iPad) and many more formats in addition to more traditional formats like html. Particularly if you want to keep a lot of books on your mobile device but you don’t have a lot of storage the ePub format is very handy as it is basically a zipped html file with typically less than 200KB  for an average book and less than half the size of other eBook formats (see image for comparison).

Apart from support for different mobile eReaders Project Gutenberg has more mobile friendly features. It has a mobile friendly website http://m.gutenberg.org as well as QR-codes for every item, in case you want to transfer the URL of a book directly from your computer screen to your mobile device.

How to create a mobile city guide as class project

Ingredients

• Google Sites
• Picasa
• Google Maps

One great class project could be to create a mobile tourist guide of their city or town (geography or foreign language class, or in combination). Google sites now lets you create mobile friendly websites. All you need to do is use a mobile friendly template when creating a new site. The students are grouped into teams.

The single teams then make web pages of the sights and other places of their town.  They post their own photographs to a Picasa album. Google Sites has an option to insert photos directly from Picasa. Of course, the mobile guide also needs a map of the places. The photos can be put on a Google map (see Creating a field trip photo & map mashup) and the map can be inserted directly from Sites without using the embed code.