Future Technology

Technology is updating at a high speed so that it is important for teachers to keep learning new technologies in order to better engage students in the classroom. One emerging technology that will most likely be incorporated into teaching and may already be available in certain respects is the QR codes. You see them everywhere these days: at the back of the box of cereal, on movie posters at subway station and on advertisements in the window of H&M stores. 

QR, or Quick Response codes, is two-dimensional bar-codes that can be read using smartphones, tablets, laptops and dedicated QR reading devices. They link directly to articles, emails, websites, phone numbers, videos, social media pages and more. All you need is a camera lens on your device and a QR code scanning program which can be downloaded online for free as an app. 

QR codes are brilliant in education. Instead of printing out a long web article to students, QR codes could give them direct and instantaneous access to the same resource in class or at home, which saves time and money. They are also very easy to generate and can be printed on literally anything: paper, textile or walls. As a future modern foreign language teacher, I could use QR codes to give access to GCSE listening papers by printing them out on stickers and stick them into students' planners for homework. I am confident that QR codes can contribute a lot to enrich my lessons.

Please watch this video to find out more about QR codes in the classroom!