Students in Lufkin are enjoying a much more technology friendly experience in their lessons.
Students across the Lufkin district in Texas took part in a Digital Learning Day, which allowed them to learn about how to use a popular type of mobile devices to be able to scan QR codes in order to gain more information through the use of technology.
The students discovered how mobile gadgets could read the quick response codes.
According to Jaren Chavros, a student at Dunbar, “A QR Code without the devices, it just looks like black dots, but the devices can scan and all the little dots are like words for the device.” The students learned how to use common mobile devices to scan QR codes and open up a range of information. In this case, it was presented to them in the form of clues that were critical to moving forward in a recycling scavenger hunt.
The QR codes were seen as a great opportunity to help to bring together technology and a lesson in recycling.
According to Summer Garcia, the LISD technology specialist, “I thought it would be a great way to integrate what they are doing with recycling and something they could easily use with the devices they were bringing.”
Once the students used the mobile devices to scan the quick response codes, they would receive the clue that they would need to head off to the next among the five different stops – the first among which was the playground. Finally, when they had completed the scavenger hunt, they had the opportunity to show adults what they had discovered along the way.
Although the program was available to children from the second grade and up, Garcia acknowledged that they could have started younger as kids before that age are already well aware of how to use those mobile devices and could quickly learn how to scan QR barcodes.
By the time the children had scanned the QR codes and learned all of the recycling lessons from the scavenger hunt, they were then keen to share what they had discovered with their parents, spreading the word even further.
A smartphone friendly trivia game has been launched through a SparkBridge partnership.
QR codes are being used in a new way to appeal to smartphone users who enjoy mobile gaming as different locations in the vicinity of Park Royal North, South, and the Village will be encouraged to scan quick response codes with the new Snappz app.
By scanning, the mobile device users will be asked trivia questions about pop culture and fashion.
When the QR codes are scanned and the questions are answered correctly, the users will be rewarded points. As they answer more correct questions and continue their mobile gaming experience up through the various levels of the game, they will be able to earn more points. These can then be converted into Park Royal gift cards that can be redeemed at brick and mortar locations through the use of the smartphones.
This use of QR codes is the latest element of a broader Park Royal mobile marketing strategy.
This mobile marketing strategy is designed to link the use of smartphones to the brick and mortar shops. According to the Park Royal communications coordinator, Amanda Eaton, “Park Royal is a leader in the beyond-the-bricksand-mortar strategy.” She went on to say that the Snappz is a perfect complement to their existing strategy. She described the mobile gaming experience as being “fun and hip” and that it is focused on the latest pop culture and fashion, which the company feels will be particularly appealing to the target market of the store, young female shoppers.
The latest statistics released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project has revealed that among people between the ages of 12 and 17 years, more than three quarters are now armed with mobile devices such as smartphones. In fact, almost half of the devices carried by individuals within this demographic are, indeed, smartphones.
The same source has shown that teen girls in the older years of that age span are most likely to say that those mobile devices are their primary method of internet access. This has encouraged Park Royal to focus on a mobile marketing strategy that will bridge the gap between their physical store locations and the digital world, by way of the devices that their primary market have with them at nearly all times. Through QR codes, this bridge is quite inexpensive and easy to build and maintain.
