Do you use QR Codes in your classroom? I use them all the time! My favorite use is documenting student behaviors and phone calls home! For my students, I may use QR Codes for Mystery Prizes, to listen to a story, or to have students check answers in a center. There are so many possibilities for QR Codes...once you know how to make them.
In this post, I want to focus on how to make QR Codes. This way you can begin to create your own to best meet the needs of your classroom.
What are QR Codes?
Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Do you know what a QR Code is? If not, let me help explain it. QR Codes store information that can be scanned by a QR Reader (an app on a phone, Kindle, Ipad, etc.). This will then send you to a website or provide tons more information. Using them helps to eliminate typing in long web addresses. They essentially are another tool to store information.
How do you create a QR Code?
First off you need to find a website that makes QR Codes (a QR Generator). Only use a free one! There is no need to spend money on this when there are so many free ones out there. My personal favorite is QR Stuff. If you do not like this one, there are many more out there. Take the time to find one that works for you.
Decide what you would like to make your QR Code for. I mainly make them to go to a certain website or put in text (plain text) for a correct answer for my students. There are lots more things that you can make. If you use QR Stuff (the rest of my directions will be for QR Stuff), this is all in Step 1 - Data Type.
Next, in Step 2 - Content, you will add your website or other information in depending on the type of QR Code you are making.
Step 3 is the Foreground Color. This is the fun one because you can change the color of your QR Code. I do have a word of caution with this. Be careful not to make your color too light (like in the yellow family) as this may be difficult for a QR Reader to be able to read.
Finally, you are able to download your QR Code! When you do this the first time, QR Stuff will try to get you to make a purchase. Instead, look to the bottom to bypass this step.
Now you have a picture on your computer that you can copy and add into a document that you are making.
If these steps still seem to be difficult to understand, I made a video to explain everything. Click below to check it out. It just reviews the above steps.
Take the time to play around with creating a QR Code. The more you make them, the easier they will be!
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