I’ve previously written on this blog about QR Codes and I’ve also recently written an article for InTouch Magazine on Qr Codes in the Classroom. However, I’ve just read an interesting article by Danny Nicholson on the Whiteboard Blog about a new concept in QR Codes: Talking QR Codes from the QR Voice website. Put simply, you type in a text message of no more than 100 characters in length on the website, which then creates a QR Code. You can then save the QR Code as an image to put on a blog/website or print out the code and display it on a noticeboard. When the code is scanned using a QR Code Reader App (lots of free ones are available in the App Store and in the Android App Store) the message is read back using an electronic voice – scan the code on the left to listen to an example I created. The only possible drawback with this is that it requires internet access to read back the message.
So what educational uses could this have? It could be used to give instructions on a treasure/scavenger hunt within or outside the school or the code could be put on a display board to explain something or to ask a question. The codes can also be translated into other languages, so teachers teaching MFL (if there will be any left this year!) could make some use out of this. As Danny Nicholson explains, it is a bit gimmicky, but it could add an extra dimension to a lesson.
Try out these Talking QR Codes at http://qrvoice.net/
