Guest blogger Ria Coffey, teacher librarian at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat, shares some ideas about using QR codes.

QR codes (abbreviated from Quick Response codes) are a great way to communicate with students and staff.  QR codes are a form of barcode you can link to things like websites and read with your smart phone.

They have become popular because they can transmit a lot of information, including geo-coordinates, urls and text.  You may have seen QR codes in magazine adverts, on a billboard or website.

To create a QR code, use a QR code generator like Kaywa.

For example, this is a simple message I made for students at my school.

To read the code, download a free application from the iTunes store to your smart phone.  QR codes are free and fun to use and the students love reading the messages.