SMARTPHONE AND PODCAST APPLICATIONS TO EXPAND THE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

Smartphone readable QR (quick response) matrix barcodes can enhance the educational environment and deliver information to students. In a pilot example, self-guided tours and display explanations with audio and video content is provided by QR barcodes throughout the Frederick A. Sutton Building, an eco-friendly home for the Department of Geology and Geophysics. Department students regularly use the artful displays in the building for class exercises and virtual field trips from introductory to graduate levels, and the Sutton Building has become a major draw for visitors including school groups. Rapidly expanding QR barcode applications greatly expand the teaching capabilities and outreach potential of the geoscience displays, and introduce students to sustainability concepts by explaining the “green” features in the building’s design.

The education and outreach project consists of an undergraduate teaching major student partnered with a faculty member to: record educational information on the building’s displays and design; generate the QR codes for smartphone applications; and post the online podcast information. The QR codes are indexed and keyed to an online map posted on the Geology Department’s webpage.

A goal of the University of Utah is to make the campus more engaging. The QR technology allows students and visitors to explore their own self-guided tours of the Sutton Building’s displays, and enhance their educational experience and sense of discovery. The display tour is exciting and dynamic, inspires learning, and is an introduction to the institution’s vision, mission and academic priorities. Visitors and students experience this creative building more completely and leave with positive feelings, heightened awareness and awe of the scientific discipline.