Sunday 12 December 2010

QR codes A tool for accessibility?

There is a lot of information about QR codes and their use in education at the moment
Its something I’ve always been interested in. I would like QR codes to work as a tool for aiding access to information  for young people and adults with a learning disability.  
I saw a good idea for Entry 3 students studying work preparation skills at South Cheshire college

However I’ve never yet been able to put it any of these great ideas into practice.
We don't have I pads,I phones or smart phones at college
Not many students have their own phones with the necessary software and the right contract that allows them to access the internet.
Iphone cameras are still not very good with QR codes
Incidentally if there is someone who can give me an idiots guide to the cost of accessing the web on your mobile device I’d be grateful!

So where do I start?
I thought if I can’t use phones I would try using a lap top and web cam.
I printed off some QR codes
using a QR code creator:
snap.vu
 delivr
and then looked for a QR code reader for the PC.

I found 

  Flash Webcam 
Still at testing stage but works!You need a web cam and the ability to allow adobe flash You have to hold the qr code in front of the web cam. You then have to use the mouse to clik “Take a his is a Photo” - t which then takes a picture. The QR code is read and the web address /text/ phone number picture is displayed
  
 
BAR capture
When you find a QR code on the web that you want to explore you use the Barcapture crop tool. You manually drag the crop tool around the QR code and it takes a picture This then lists the text/link/phone/ geo tag but does not provide a click through . It must be copied No web cam needed.  


  QuickMark
You need a web cam. You have to hold the qr code in front of the web cam window(this will appear on your desk top .)
It takes a picture The picture app
ears as a link. You can then use the mouse to click on the link.
The downside for all three methods is that it still needs a learner to use a mouse to click through to a website . I would like to see  an automatic connection through to the web
In terms of ease of accessibility to web sites using picture link sites such as Sqworl , Tizmo or Symbaloo are still better at the moment.

The other problem is that the lap top is not that mobile, and its mine!-
To get the college laptop sorted needs a “computer person” to set it all up.
And all this takes time...

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