#3 Utilities

Utilities: The word that makes people want to sleep...or maybe weep.

But.....I use and love lots of the utilities on my devices...especially my calendar and calculator.

To complete this "thing" about utilities I downloaded RedLaser, which I would likely use on my phone rather than my iPad, and for mostly personal reasons...like saving money.  I have an Amazon app that does some of this same stuff.  I also use Target's Cartwheel app for shopping, so I see the usefulness of RedLaser.  The app itself was pretty intuitive, and it was easy to create a QR code on it....though it's not the app's main focus.  If you're intuitive about technology, it's easy to get to the QRCode part.

There are a number of places QR codes can be created, and they all operate in pretty much the same way.  When exploring RedLaser, I went on my laptop and created one on goQR.me.  I also created one on my iPad at qrstuff.com.  That site was kind of "busy" and might be intimidating for a novice.  It's pretty robust and someone who does a lot with QR codes would probably love it because you can save codes and do analytics and all sorts of things. I like that I can use any of my three devices to make a code.

How would I use a code at work?  I'd post it in the library near a display.  I created this mini-poster to put up with a Nancy Farmer display we're doing next month:

It's pretty basic, but I'm glad I did it.  I didn't realize creating a code was so easy....I can see doing this in the future for all sorts of things in the media center.  When we're fully 1:1, I can see us doing it for things like trivia contests and scavenger hunts.