About the QR Codes...

Story by Max Frommelt

Asmany of you have noticed, there are strange images of Henry Hillman floating around the school. These images are QR codes, a coded image that you can “scan” with a QR app like QRReader. When you open the QR scanner and scan the app, you are taken directly to the pre-programmed location, usually a website. In the case of the QR codes around PHS, these QR codes take you directly to The Voice’s blog. After so many years of just printing the paper, you might wonder why we bothered making a blog this year. “The purpose of this is simple,” describes Editor-in-Chief Sumaia Masoom (‘14). “The whole goal of the newspaper at PHS is to create an open forum for discussion about relevant issues, but as with all newspapers, the ability to directly respond to The Voice is limited. Your interactions with the stories are relatively one-sided, unless you choose to write a letter to the editor. Even then, your response won’t be printed until a month after the original story comes out, since we’re a monthly newspaper.” She continues, “With the blog, not only can you comment directly on the stories, but you can also access them from anywhere you have an internet connection.”

  So far, the response to the QR codes has been positive. Carla Hoppe (‘14) says, “With the QR codes, it is simple to get to the web site and it is easy to talk about the subjects. I have recommended to friends to scan the QR code when they’re bored in study hall. The blog has everything from student profiles to polls you can vote on, like the appropriateness of Miley Cyrus’s performance at the VMAs.” The other simple aspect of the QR codes is you do not have to remember or bookmark the web site for the blog. Just hold your mobile device to the code and scan it. The device does the work for you. The newspaper staff uses this site as a feedback mechanism so the newspaper is more of what you want to hear. If you don’t already have it, download QRReader on your device and check it out!