Counseling by QR Code

This past week I had the opportunity to go on a visit to Aurora High School to meet with their tech team, administrators, and counselors to see how they are utilizing technology to be more effective in their work.  For those of you who don't know, Aurora High School boasts the states highest graduation rate in Nebraska.  After meeting with their staff, I can tell you that this is not by accident.  There is a culture of excellence and achievement within their school system.  That culture does not exist by accident.  Hats off to the #AuroraHuskies for their efforts.

During this visit, we noticed there were random QR codes around the school.  When we asked about these, they were a project for a Spanish class.  Sometimes the QR code would direct a student to use a phrase in class in spanish or some other educational activity.  This gave me the idea to use QR codes to spread 'counseling messages' or 'information' throughout Cozad High School through the use of QR codes.

I created 11 different QR codes that encoded questions and then directed students to report their answers to various classrooms, and by doing so, they could win/earn a candy bar or pop.  I hung these around the school in conspicuous places.  As the students natural curiosity took over, they scanned these and then started the activity.  I have been very lucky that our English teachers have allowed me to use a little bit of their class time for this.  Questions or topics that I encoded included things such as our graduation requirements, college entrance requirements, posting to twitter using our schools hash tag (#CozadMakers), posting a positive comments about other students with our school hash tag (#HaymakerHollers), defining empathy, the pillars of NHS, etc.  The students then had to report these things to their classmates in their English classrooms.

When I started this project, I was figuring there would be several days lag between the QR codes being posted and the first kid discovering them.  Boy was I wrong!  Within an hour I had the first student complete one of the activities.  A senior girl scanned a code and in order to earn a candy bar had to go to the English 11 class and inform them of the admission requirements to UNL.  When she came to me to reap her reward her first comment was "We should do things like this more often, this is fun!"  The students are excited and enjoying the opportunity to be the expert to their peers.

The topics I chose to use are all relevant topics that all students should know.  What better way to disseminate information than through the students.  Now, they are owners of the information are realizing that by utilizing the tools we have provided them they have the resources to inform themselves and others.  

Thank you for reading and stay tuned as I chronicle my journey of becoming a digital counselor.

Dustin Favinger
Cozad Senior High School