QR codes at Bath

As the project starts to draw to a close I’m starting to take ideas forward to where next. Two things have struck me from the discussion of potential uses. Firstly, many people make reference to the use of QR Codes for virtual tours / treasure hunts. Secondly, the use of QR Codes within an integrated solution to record and monitor the submission (physical hand-in) of assignments.

The second piece of work we are starting to work up at the University of Bath. This will involve the passing of information from and to our student record system (SITS).

The first piece is relatively straightforward given the they can be created manually. However, a recent comment on 2d Code – http://2d-code.co.uk/qr-code-application-scripts/ – thanks They note …” Blazej Zieba alerted me about two php scripts he has written. “Mobile Virtual Guide” is a web application which allows you to create a virtual tour and generate QR Codes to mark locations and “Mobile 2d Code Hunt” is a web application which allows you to create urban games. Both applications are free …” See http://code.google.com/p/konektocom/. This looks a very interesting development to enhance the functionality and ease of authoring of guides and hunts. If anyone has positive and/or negative experiences of using the software I’d love to hear it. I’ll be arranging the installation in the near future.

I was invited to talk at a Museums Computer Group event in London on the 2nd Dec. During this event I saw a really interesting application developed by Mike Ellis (Eduserve). This was the inclusion of QR Codes on conference badges (yawn, yawn you say, …  however this was a different take). For more details see

http://electronicmuseum.org.uk/2009/12/07/uk-museums-on-the-web-2009-qr-in-the-wild/

I think this is a really useful application for a number of reasons (compared to scanning text based QR Codes). Firstly, the whole process feels much quicker than decoding a text based qr code. This is probably due to text based QR Codes being quick difficult to scan when they contain a lot of detail. In addition, being a link it is easier to save and revisit later than trying to get the info into your contacts list on your device, while talking to someone and joining the coffee queue.

It is also more inclusive to people who don’t manage (sync) contacts between their device and a computer, but use an alternative means of managing contacts. So this approach is flexible enough so people aren’t forced into a certain way of working. This is also evident with the use of the unique IDs on our badges / delegates lists. You don’t actually need to have access to a QR Code Reader on your phone. It would be easier, however, you can use your phone’s web browser (or even a laptop!).

Where next with this? Read Mike’s thoughts at; http://electronicmuseum.org.uk/2009/12/07/uk-museums-on-the-web-2009-qr-in-the-wild/

This post is trying to apply the constructivist theory (http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm, accessed 22nd Nov, 2009) to an emerging use of QR Codes in Museums.

The scenario is based on a learner visiting a museum. In many museums the learning material for an exhibit is provided via guides, and multimedia displays. The learner engages with this material, and may have the chance to engage with others (peers) and the tour guide. The majority of the self paced material is pre-structured, linear and has no explicit feedback loops.

Social Constructivism implies the learner is much more actively involved in a joint enterprise with the lecturer (teacher), their peers and others within their personal learning environment for the creation (constructing) of new meanings. The development of ideas requires the individual to be stretched to articulate new ideas and understandings. For this to work the person needs to communicate ideas and gather feedback.

So how might we change the emphasis in the previous scenario to accommodate a social constructivist learning model? How might we facilitate the learner stretching themselves, and where does QR Codes fit into this discussion?

The first part is relatively straightforward (admittedly I’m no expert, so I’d suggest following up with those who implement these approaches in museums). You need facilitate the learner accessing information created by others around the exhibit (links to wikipedia, encourage people to use a tag convention to help people find learner created content), you need to ask questions and challenge their ideas, through exposing them to ideas and interpretations (links to supporting discussion spaces and blogs). So the emphasis is assisting (scaffolding) the connecting to people and ideas, then simply providing these ideas.

I’ve included a few technologies which are commonly used to support this approach. However, the potential barrier is linking a physical learning space with an electronic. This is a particular issue with museums where the learner is often engaging with the material on their own or in small groups. To overcome this … we could use a set of QR Codes. The key is to use the technology in the individuals pocket, i.e., their phones. So, providing a QR Code which links to the discussion space (in the example above a blog), and this resource includes links to other user generated content, i.e. wikipedia, as well as RSS feeds of the agreed tag will help with the discovery process. The individual will be able to engage with others, and material to create new meanings around the exhibit.

The role of QR Codes is to provide a very easy and accessible means for people to access this material. The use of linking to one online resource, and this acts as a gateway means you don’t need to provide lots of QR Codes, and you can develop the material without having to keep replacing the QR Codes.

A note of warning, this focuses on asynchronous routes. Social constructivism requires the creation of meaning through conversation, often synchronous conversation. So, perhaps include a link to an organised chatroom ….

Museum people … would this work? is this happening already?

The following survey is being carried out by a number of educational institutions across the UK to act as a snap shot to identify student awareness of QR Codes, what experience people have of using them and the type of technology they have in their pockets.

This piece of research is very important as it will give us a much better appreciation of how we might use QR Codes and similar technologies in teaching and learning. People are becoming increasingly interested in the potential of using QR Codes to connect physical and electronic learning spaces. This is being investigated in a JISC LTIG Project run by the University of Bath (http://blogs.bath.ac.uk)

The survey is available from http://www.survey.bath.ac.uk/qrcode1109

The survey should take you only a few minutes, and you will be able to enter for a prize draw to win an iPod Touch or a Nintendo DS Lite. There is an iPod Touch and a Nintendo DS Lite available for each of the seven institutions involved in the JISC LTIG Project (Gloucestershire College, Manchester Met University, University of Bath, University of East Anglia, University of Gloucestershire, University of Leicester and University of Sheffield)

The survey is available from http://www.survey.bath.ac.uk/qrcode1109

The closing date is 6th December, 2009

I recently invited to ran a workshop on QR Codes at  the ALT / BECTA “Successful deployment: networked handheld devices for learning and teaching” at the National College for Leadership for Schools and Children’s Services in Nottingham. Slides available on slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/andyramsden/qr-codes-fad-or-fab-at-alt-becta-successful-deployment-workshop

At the end of the session I asked 2 questions and requested they texted me the answers.

Q1: in three years time do you think QR codes would have been fab for L&T or simply a fad?

Q2: at this stage would you strongly support the prioritisation of resources to create and support the implementation on QR Codes related activities within your institution?

The group was 20 people from across the different educational sectors. The answers where;

• 15 people thought QR Codes would be viewed as fab in 3 years time (5 thought they’d be seen as a fad)
• 10 people where willing to strongly support the prioritisation of QR Codes at their institution (10 said they would not).

Interestingly, in the final summing up of the event (http://etherpad.com/altgoodpractice) two people mentioned they’d taken QR Codes as the key insight from the event (very pleasing )

The following link is to a screencast of a summary of the presentation I made at ALT C 2009. I’ve created and uploaded it using Panopto (a lecture capture tool which is about to be rolled out at the University). It is 16 minutes, and should be accessible via your web browser.

http://coursecast.bath.ac.uk/CourseCast/Student/CourseContents.aspx?id=942603a5-2d5c-4c18-ab34-02cccdcee6af

Just a quick nudge for an article which recently appeared on http://2d-code.co.uk/diy-qr-code-ticketing-anyone/

There was the question why given we have the technology in our pockets? Well, the answer appears to be robustness. The application in our field? handing in assignments. This normally causes significant amounts of resource for administrators in offices. However, an approach I’m really interested in progressing is the following;

1. student accesses their profile on institutional website and visits their assignment area. This displays what assignments are due to be handed in, and when. They print of the assignment cover sheet. This automatically includes lots of details, including a QR Code. The QR Code contains the unique ID (student number), unit and assignment number.
2. when they hand in the assignment they include the coversheet (as they have to anyway)
3. the assignment is scanned using something like http://2d-code.co.uk/diy-qr-code-ticketing-anyone/
4. the details are logged. This enables staff to run various reports, and cross reference with extensions etc., they can also identify who hasn’t submitted and contact them if required.

Not exactly new, it has been raised by lots of people when I’ve presented on QR Codes in education, and offers significant time savings for people / courses who aren’t / can’t adopt on online submission route.

We’ve discussed some important points to consider when designing the QR Code, and the learning activity. The following post on 2-d code sums up these ideas as three rules. I think they are really important and the concepts transfer very easily to educational QR Codes.

See: http://2d-code.co.uk/three-rules-of-qr-codes/

This post is entended to capture people’s thought after they’ve attended the two sessions I’m running at Alt C.

The discussion question which runs through both sessions is … how do you think QR Codes (or tags) could be used in learning and teaching?

Please submit your ideas using the comments box below.

The links to the presentation and the poster will be available soon …

For me, this is a very important question, and I keep revisiting it with more data and stories. All this interesting stuff we are rolling out in terms of QR Codes in education is not going to embed if students can decode them. Therefore, I have tended to break this down into two (proxy) questions;

• are people aware of QR Codes?
• do they own phones which can run a QR Code Reader?

The latest evidence is suggesting very positive responses to these questions. For instance a recent survey in “What Japan Thinks” (http://whatjapanthinks.com/2009/07/05/qr-code-reading-phones-held-by-almost-four-in-five-japanese/, see also http://whatjapanthinks.com/2005/09/26/qr-codes-extremely-popular/), indicated 78% knew they had a QR Code Reader on their phone (sample = 300), while 84% had used their phone to read a QR Code (sample = 235). This translates to 4 in 5 people (in the survey) had accessed a QR Code. I’d imagine, this level of engagement would transfer to UK Culture in a relatively short time. So very good news.

Another piece of interesting evidence to suggest there is a high potential was from a recent press release by Semapedia (http://blog.semapedia.org/wordpress/?p=182). This service monitors accesses to web sites, and “ran a query over the most used devices worldwide and crossed that with the QR Code capabilites”. They found 63% of Phones can install a QR Code Reader Application !!! They also provide a really neat service to enable people to easily identify a QR Code Reader for their phones … http://www.tigtags.com/getqr

Overall, this doesn’t give a definitive answer, yes they can. However, it is a good indication of change. It is becoming clear that in some cultures “scan and go” is becoming much better embed, while access to QR Code Readers is becoming more accessible.

It does answer the next wave of questions, just because they can, doesn’t mean they will !