QR Codes

Using QR Codes throughout your Worksheets and Workbooks 

In this blog post, I'm going to hopefully show you the power of a simple QR code. I'm sure you've seen these 'barcode' things everywhere. On posters, on leaflets and maybe on some schemes of work. These 'barcodes' are to be scanned by cameras to take the user to the desired website address (among other things). QR codes can be a very powerful tool if a series of videos or articles are required in order for students to complete a homework task. All the user needs to do is to aim the camera of a device with an internet connection so that the QR code is in the centre of the screen. Depending on your device, a pop-up notification or something similar may appear, to which you will need to press in order to follow it to the desired location.

There are many free websites out there that offer this service but they will usually try and get you to sign up to their paid subscriptions. For the purposes of this post, I'm using https://www.qr-code-generator.com/. To create your very own unique QR code you will need the URL (or the whole website address. Let's say my Physics class has just finished a module on the features of waves and I'm setting a worksheet to help them revise for an end of unit test. On this revision sheet, I'd like to include a link to a useful website (BBC Bitesize) that includes some handy videos and quizzes. I will have to copy the website URL and paste it where the QR code generator tells us to. A QR code will shortly appear on the side. You may either download the QR code as a picture, or you can right-click on the QR code and then press 'save as'.

There's nothing else to it! It's as simple as that. Now you can copy the image and insert it into any sort of document you'd like.

I encourage you to have a go at generating your own QR code and to think of some ways your students would appreciate this simple tool. Hope this is helpful.

Link Shortening

Shorten URLs to Place on Worksheets and within Workbooks

When handing out pieces of work with any sort links to external videos and/or websites, long links can be an issue. If these long links are printed, its obviously very time consuming to type some addresses out and easy to make mistakes. Link shorteners turn the potentially huge links, into smaller easy-to-use links. There are a few examples of sites that do this for you but I'm only going to show one. My go-to is bitly.com for its ease and the fact that it has a free version.

If I wanted to assign a piece of homework for pupils to watch a video then answer some questions on that video, then I should supply them with a link. For the purposes of this post, I'm going to link a video about generating electricity. The standard link is as follows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Vb6hlLQSg&t=31s. As you can see it would be a nightmare for students to type out. If we go to our link shortener and copy our original link in:

After pressing shorten, a new shortened version of the link is given which works exactly the same as the original one.

Now you have a better link (https://bit.ly/2RnBDxJ) to hand out on any physical worksheets.

Go ahead and try it for yourself!

Another thing to add is that you can create an account where it stores all your shortened links and it will supply you with statistics of how many people have been using the link.

I hope this helps somewhat!