Treasure hunts, reading races… This fantastic tool makes any activity that involves text engaging. Don’t believe me? Try it out for yourself and you will see how.

The basic premise is learners use their phones to scan QR codes, which reveal some text. To take part, everyone needs a smart phone or tablet and should install a QR reader. Any one will do, personally use i-nigma, http://i-nigma.com/Downloadi-nigmaReader.html.

How to create the activity:

1. Go to http://www.classtools.net/QR/ on your computer.
2. Click on Get Started!
3. Give your quiz a title.
4. Now enter the text you want to be part of each QR code.
   1. This could be numbered questions or sentence statements.
   2. When you press return/enter, it will mark the end of that QR code and the start of the next. In the examples below, both sets of questions would generate 5 QR codes each:

1. What is the capital of France?*Paris
2. What is the capital of Germany?*Berlin
3. What is the capital of Poland?*Warsaw
4. What is the capital of Ireland?*Dublin
5. What is the capital of Italy?*Rome

The capital of France is Paris. Paris has a population of over 2 million people.*answer

The capital of German is Berlin. Berlin is the second most populous city in the European Union.*answer

The capital of Poland is Warsaw. Warsaw’s old town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.*answer

The capital of Ireland is Dublin. The name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn.*answer

The capital of Italy is Rome. Archaeological evidence suggests evidence of human occupation from 14,000 years ago.*answer

Note that all examples have to have an asterisk * followed by an answer. In the first set, there are clear answers e.g. *Paris etc. Even though the second set form statements rather than questions, they still need an asterisk and some form of data representing an ‘answer’.

1. Now give your quiz a password.
2. Now click on Create the QR Challenge!
3. You will now have a link to your QR quiz e.g. http://www.classtools.net/QR/35-4DCgR
4. From this link, you can print off the QR codes.
5. Now hide them around your classroom or school and let the action begin!

As you can imagine, the activity could be driven solely by QR codes. Equally, each QR code may be dependent on other material e.g. learners read a printed text and scan each QR code for some comprehension questions etc.

There is one more thing to mention… It gives a constructive use for mobile phones during class time.  What could be better than that?

I would like to thank Susana Oliveira, who introduced me to this tool via her fantastic session at APPI in Lisbon, Portugal, http://www.appi.pt/, http://pindex.com/u/susana-tenreiro.