Abstract:

Oral and Dental Histology are disciplines where the morphological structure of cells and tissues are examined under the microscope and which knowledge promotes a better understanding of other disciplines, such as Physiology or Pathology. On the other hand, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have proliferated to such a degree that they impact on virtually every aspect of our daily lives. Today, smartphones and tablets are the devices chosen by people for internet use. Furthermore, the popularity of Quick Response (QR) codes for encoding information has increased exponentially in step with the ICTs. There are more than 25 applications for Scanning QR codes using smartphones, iPods, and tablets because nowadays it is a common practice.

Against this background, the goals of this work were:
1. To develop an on-line set of photographs of oral and dental histological sections (atlas).
2. To use QR codes for providing access to each picture.

For these purposes, the following steps were done:
1. Oral and dental histological slides were photographed at the microscopic level. These slides involved hard and soft palate, tongue, major salivary glands, and teeth sections using in the practical session. The photographed area was chosen according to the objectives of the practical course.
2. Annotations, such as figure legends and other descriptive text, were added for helping the students during their autonomous learning.
3. To upload the pictures to the blog. The oral and dental online atlas was established using Blogger.com. One page per picture was created and an URL per image were got.
4. To assign a QR code using a free and online QR code creator.
5. To add the QR codes to the practical manual.

Oral histology practices are presently ongoing, and it is possible to see the students working with their samples and scanning the QR code and comparing the information. Moreover, the Atlas with QR code access increase interactivity with the teacher, because they can ask their questions at any time, not only during the practical session.

Acknowledgment:
Institute of Applied Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine, CEU-San Pablo University, Madrid, Spain.

Keywords:

QR code, oral and dental histology, online.