Beginning February 1st 2008, students, faculty and staff at Case Western Reserve's Cleveland, Ohio, campus will be participating in the nation's first trial of "2D codes"�commonly referred to as "QR Codes"�by bringing the cell phone technology to campus.
The 2D codes, first introduced on campus during fall orientation will be used as a link to mobile content in the form of pictures, music, videos, news articles and other interactive media.
For companies, the codes present an avenue for extending the value of their product packaging. For students, the codes are a way to deliver information and entertainment to friends. For professors, they allow a new level of interactivity for engaging the Facebook generation.
All faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of the university who have a case.edu e-mail address can enroll in the pilot beginning February 1st at http://www.mobilediscovery.com.
From this Web site, members of the university community will be able to download to a cell phone the software needed to read the codes, create their own 2D codes and connect the codes to content�for free. Some wireless carriers may charge users for each code read and content downloaded to the phone.
Sometimes I get the feeling the educational institutions are behind the game when it comes to technology, it is nice to see some taking risks and leading.
