Alfred Guzman

Dr. Dogan

CUIN 6320

1 December 2022

QR Codes in School Settings

As personal technology has become more accessible to people of all ages, this has

undoubtedly led to young students at all grade levels having their own smartphones and other

electronic accessories such as smartwatches and Apple AirPods or other wireless headphones.

Common Sense Media found through a study that 53 percent of children possess their own

smartphone by age 11 and by age 12 that number increases to 69 percent (Warkentin, 2019).

With our students having access to smartphones and other personal technology, it becomes clear

that instruction in the K-12 classroom must find new methods in which to make full use of the

technology around us. One such technology to be investigated in this regard are QR codes and

how they can be used toward effective instruction and classroom management, among other

various possible uses.

As a start, QR codes are already finding uses by teachers and administrators everywhere.

Administrators, with the assistance of tech-savvy school librarians, have discovered that QR

codes can be placed onto the school bulletin boards for students and parents to scan and acquire

information, such as notices on school policy, upcoming events, or be directed to portals to

purchase tickets for the upcoming athletics events. In an ironic twist, or perhaps better described

as contradictory, some schools, if not most, have policies in place directing students to not be on

their personal devices and smartphones while on school grounds, yet administrators still expect
to reliably dispense information through QR codes that require students to inadvertently

circumvent school policy. Nonetheless, QR codes have proven to be a valuable tool for sharing

content and communicating information (Stein, 2020).

Teachers have found uses for QR codes by placing them on the overhead, SMART board,

or even somewhere along a classroom wall which their students can scan to be directed to videos

or websites. In Johnes’ article, QR Codes In Education, she describes an example in which

Social Studies teachers can provide QR codes that lead students to resources that will help them

learn about the different presidents of the United States. In this way, not only would students

better comprehend the content, but it is also delivered to them in an engaging experience versus a

pure lecture (2022).

It is no secret that schools and districts everywhere print stacks upon stacks of paper for

the many assignments and handouts that are planned to be given to students at all grade levels.

According to one survey, a school may use well over 2,000 pages per day, which becomes a

more alarming number when an entire school year’s worth of paper is calculated. Within an

average 180 school days, a school could expect to have used over 360,000 pieces of paper

(Masters, 2020). To determine whether these numbers have remained consistent, increased, or

declined since this article would warrant another nationwide survey, but in the interest of making

the move toward using less paper, teachers have found that instead of giving out mass amounts

of handouts that they can give their students a QR code or two to access everything they would

need, such as instructions for an assignment or homework. Consuming less papers lends a

classroom to become more greener, and may reduce clutter and costs associated with mass

printouts (Miller, 2011).

 One day while instructing at the campus I am employed at, I had noticed an unusual

amount of students roaming the hallways. Normally, the school wishes to limit the number of

students outside of the classroom during instructional time, but this was an exception I had come

to learn about. I had witnessed an interesting use of QR codes thanks to the 8th grade science

department. Their students were sent on a scavenger hunt during a unit on geographical features

and with the iPads provided to them, they were searching and scanning pages taped to the

lockers that had QR codes on them! Once scanned, it would open a PDF on their iPad with

information for them to read, such as information on mountains, plateaus, rivers, and oceans as

well as a hint to where the next QR code page can be found. Students were tasked to read

through each PDF they had gained access to and fill in their notes on the worksheet provided.

Observing this, it appears that it made for an interesting and engaging lesson for the students.

Learning was made fun and I am positive the students enjoyed a break outside of the classroom.

This was absolutely one of the more interesting ways to use QR codes for instruction, and a

viable method of interaction to enhance student learning (Kharbach, 2022).

Jotform’s blog and its associated YouTube video, How to Use QR Codes in the

Classroom, lists yet more ways to incorporate QR codes into instruction. Much as scavenger

hunts can be conducted as previously mentioned, QR codes can also deliver ideas and examples

of high quality to students as they engage in major classroom projects, be used as a method of

organizing research and learning stations, as well as encourage student choice in making

decisions through student surveys or classroom voting. Each of the mentioned uses serve to

change the pace of instruction in the classroom and make learning fun (2021)!

In the ever-evolving modern classroom, QR codes have a multitude of uses. The research

into this has opened up many possibilities for my own instruction, of which my favorites and
most interesting uses are creating an engaging lesson through a scavenger hunt and using QR

codes to direct students to short readings without having to print mass amounts of papers to hand

out. The technology is far too convenient, accessible, and advantageous in instruction to not use

it in today’s classrooms! Considering all of the benefits QR codes offer in organization, content

delivery, and communication, this is a technology that should absolutely recommended to all

educators to incorporate in one way or another.

 References

Johnes, Simona (2022). QR Codes In Education. Nexus Education. Retrieved from https://nexus-

education.com/blog/qr-codes-in-education/#

Jotform (2021). How to Use QR Codes in the Classroom. YouTube. Retrieved from

https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2016/07/10-interesting-ways-to-integrate-qr.html

Kharbach, Med (2022). 10 Interesting Ways to Integrate QR Codes in Your Lessons. Educational

Technology and Mobile Learning. Retrieved from

https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2016/07/10-interesting-ways-to-integrate-qr.html

Miller, Andrew (2011). Twelve Ideas for Teaching With QR Codes: Creative tips for the

interactive classroom. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/QR-

codes-teaching-andrew-miller

Stein, Adriana (2020). How Teachers Are Using QR Codes in the Classroom to Enhance

Learning. QR Code Generator-Bitly. Retrieved from https://www.qr-code-

generator.com/blog/qr-codes-in-the-classroom/

Warkentin, Shahrzad (2019). A Majority of Kids Have a Smartphone By Middle School,

According to Study. Tinybeans. Retrieved from https://tinybeans.com/smartphone-tween-

teen-usage-age-of-first-phone/