"Divert" technologies to develop creativity

Do you divert the functions of an application to make another use of it? Can you develop students' creativity by encouraging them to do so? Educational advisers Alexandre Lanoix and Maude Labonté, from the RÉCIT national service in the field of the social universe, proposed, during the last AQUOPS conference, to reflect on unconventional uses of several current technological tools in order to open up its horizons.

The development of ICT competence was at the heart of this animation ofAlexandre lanoix and Maude Labonté, both in the national service of RÉCIT in the field of the social universe. Their starting point? Use the diversion, this reuse "by an artist of slogans, advertising images and marketing campaigns to create a new work carrying a different message" and transpose it to the technological tools used in the classroom. In short, it is about using software for a purpose that was not originally intended.

“Obviously, we cannot be in redefinition (Editor's note: one of the stages of SAMR reference model in pedagogical integration of ICT) all the time, specifies Alexandre Lanoix. But it is justified to wonder if the task that we ask of the pupil pushes us towards redefinition. Technological diversion can be part of this trend ”.

Advocating by example, the animators chose to use Pinterest, a social network designed to collect images from the Internet, and to use it as their presentation medium. Why? Because it makes it possible to juxtapose strong images (corresponding to the visuals of a slide show) and to enter a description (corresponding to the notes of the presenters). As a bonus, Pinterest allows the presentation to be made public in addition to collecting participant comments, which traditional presentation software cannot. In education, Pinterest could very well be used to create documentary files in order to collect, for example, historical documents useful for research.

The two facilitators proposed to “hijack” several technological tools to meet the needs of teachers and students. For example, Google Forms, a popular survey tool, could very well become a place where students deposit their data during a collective information search. Thinglink, a simple image annotation tool, could be used to design a timeline or to add detail to a concept map. WordPress, a blogging platform, can be useful for distributing a document, for creating a discussion thread on a historical topic using its comment function and for carry out a collective search.

There is no shortage of original ideas from facilitators and participants. How else to use applications like Google Presentation, PowerPoint or Tellagami? The first to make a collective image analysis and scribble on the picture. The second to create a comic strip with a 6-slide board. The last so that the avatar describes a geographical map or an image placed in the background.

Technological diversion can prove to be a saving lead when it comes to managing a fleet of different devices, for example if you have a BYOD class (or AVAN in French - for Bring Your Digital Device). In fact, by focusing on the educational objective to be achieved rather than on the application to be used, the students will be able to use their creativity to arrive at a solution which will undoubtedly involve a little diversion.

And you, how will you divert your favorite technological tools to meet your educational intention?

To view their presentation on Pinterest:
AQUOPS 2015 - Technological diversion