What is that wierd box I see?

That weird box you are starting to see that looks like a cross between a puzzle and a bar code is actually called a QR code (short for Quick Response) is a specific matrix bar code, readable by dedicated QR bar code readers, smart phones, and camera phones. The code consists of black modules arraigned in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be text, a URL or other data.

QR codes storing addresses and URL's may appear in magazines, on signs, in stores and supermarkets, business cards, website or on just about any object which users might need information. Users with a smart or camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the phone's browser.

There are many free, easy to use sites available for creating QR codes on such is http://createqrcode.appspot.com/

Bit.ly

Think about the last time you tried to get all the students in your classroom on the same webpage at the same time. How long did it take to make that happen?

If the URL (short for Uniform Resource Locator) for that page was something like this http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22C6LEW85F/ (CTE Sr Survey) and you wrote it on the whiteboard in your room or you projected it on a screen, it probably took longer than you would have liked to get every student on that page.

There is and easy-to-use tool to fix that problem and it is called Bit.ly.

Bit.ly is a URL shortening service. Anytime you have a long, complicated URL you can use Bit.ly to shorten it down to something much more manageable.

You can create a free Bit.ly account you can customize your shortened URL to make it even more manageable.

For example, it's far easier for me to direct people to http://bit.ly/dKSQZd than it is to http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22C6L3EW85F/. You can use Bit.ly by copying a URL and pasting it into Bit.ly.

Try Bit.ly the next time you're setting up a lesson plan that requires all of your students to enter a long complicated URL.

You can find the link to Bit.ly below and over to the right under Cool Free Stuff.

http://bit.ly/