One primary purpose for many blogs is "illustration of technology related tips" (Duffy & Burns, 2006). This is an ideal application for blogs because the author can incorporate the technology or a link to it in the blog. Interactivity is one of the qualities that makes blogging unique (Herring, et. al).
Tammy Worcester is one of my favorite bloggers and conference presenters. She posts brief, easy to follow technology tips on her blog periodically. Recently she posted about a quick way to create QR codes. QR codes are those block like barcodes that have started showing up in our society. I notice them most often in magazines, but you can see them almost anywhere from a carton of strawberries to a billboard. They are a graphic shortcut to a URL. You need a device with a camera, Web access and the software to interpret the code. Smartphones, tablets, and iPods can read QR codes.
In Tammy's tip she uses GoogleDocs, one of my favorite 21st century tools for students, to automatically generate a QR code. Teachers could use this capability to provide students with a shortcut to a video explaining a task or topic. A QR code could also be a shortcut to an online handout.
To create the QR code in a GoogleDoc spreadsheet you need this formula (=image("https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=150x150&cht=qr&chl=" & A2) where A2 is the location of your URL.
You can see my document here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ap3SPq0QEf6odHBHcEVhM19fX09KMHE3NlFaVUFoUkE&output=html. I am SO excited to use it with kids and teachers!
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