Sunday, May 19, 2013

Repurposing

In a talk that Punya Mishra gave at Interlochen Arts Academy back in April of this year, he stated "Only repurposing makes technology educational." I fell in love with the word repurposing for I think it allows the use of technology to be malleable enough to fit each educator's pedagogical immediate objectives and long term goals.

Here is an example of repurposing in action [Note: I used this repurposing scheme long before Dr. Mishra's presentation and this is why the terminology resonated with me.]

Eye Chart Pro for iPad on the iTunes App Store is a cool app that eye doctors may use and so would laymen as a an eye chart for what it was set for. But, here is how I used it in my Physix classes. 

Students doubt that the image of an object is behind a plan mirror at a distance equal to the distance of the object from the mirror. So, I fire the app, ask volunteers to read the chart that is set at the same level as the mirror and keep moving away until a certain line of letters is barely discernible to the volunteer. I then set the iPad next to the volunteer's face and turn the iPad to face the mirror, randomize the letters (a nifty function of the said app), engage the mirror mode of the app (cool feature also), and then ask the volunteer who is still standing at the same distance away from the mirror to read the most recent and barely discernible row of letters displayed by the app. The reaction has always been cool to say the least. Repurposing in this case made a medical app a Physix app! How cool is that?

Share your repurposing Coolisms in the comments. Thank you

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