I had the privilege of attending a session with Peggy Reimers at TCEA2016.  She has done some fabulous things with QR codes.  The most important point, as with all ed tech, that the activity is more about the question than the tech tool.  Here are just a few of the ideas she shared:

Find your match– Generate QR Codes to play any matching game.  This could also be used for facts that are one-liners. Ex: Which part of the story is where the problem started?  Cut the QR codes in half, with the answer on one side and the question on the other.  When students find their match, they can scan the QR Code to see if they were right.  A prompt will appear if they are correct.  The great part, the QR Code says simple statements like, “Awesome” or “Good job!”  Making the QR Codes reusable for other activities.  Even better, Reimers created a template for this.  You could use this activity for almost anything.

Ideas for the little guys–  Learning to read?  Want those wiggly bodies to get up and move?  Reimer has a number of ideas here to use QR Codes in the K-2 classroom.  My favorite was a mix and match with a numeral on top and the word match on the bottom.  When you scan the QR Code, you get a picture that shows that number in real life use (eight cookies, twelve eggs, 5 basketball players).

Mapping-  Geography comes alive when you add QR Codes.  My World Cultures classes studied Africa through QR Codes.  Credit given to Carole Pattison for creating these.  I took blue tape and made a huge shape of Africa on the floor.  In each region the students needed to study, a QR Code was taped to the floor under clear packing tape.  Students were encouraged to discover Africa through these codes.  Some were videos, some were interactive websites, and some were news stories of current events.  Students took notes and made a S’more on the political, economic, geographic, or social aspects they found.

The BEST part-There’s an add-on for QR Codes.  If you are part of the Google world, Google Sheets has a great add-on, called Generating QR Codes.  What once took eons to create a bulk of QR Codes, now takes minutes.  Follow the directions listed here: