BP3_2010011_Web2.0T1-Repper

I selected to test out the Repper app, which allows you to create patterns from images within the program or from images that you upload. The site is aesthetically pleasing and a lot of fun to use. It can be found at http://repper.studioludens.com/#. The image pattern that I created is found in the gallery at http://repper.studioludens.com/gallery.html and by searching for kelli.

My initial thought was that a patterning app would be great to use with young students needing to reinforce patterning skills. When I entered the site and created my first repper pattern, I realized the site was not for patterning as I was thinking of it. The site allows you to create a pattern image that is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license. When the image is complete, you are able to download it to your computer, copy the URL provided to add to your social networking profile, copy the CSS code to add to an html page, assign tags to the image so that others may find it in the gallery or even create a postcard (via a 3^rd party tool that charges money).

I uploaded an image of ocean rocks that I took last summer at the Highlands Institute outside of San Francisco. When the image uploaded, it appeared in the bottom right corner of my pattern with a “movement” box in the center. As I moved the box, my pattern changed and I was able to stop it where I wanted. It was great to see how the image changed based on the area I selected. Many pattern images are available on the site so that you do not have to upload your own image.

How would I use this in a classroom setting?

**One of my favorite units to do with my former students (GT) was a unit on perceptions. Students had to take a picture of something from the view point of something else and write about the perception of each thing from each point of view. Sound confusing? For example, in Boston there is a beautiful and very old church that sits across the street from a very modern, all mirrored-glass building. I took a picture of the mirrored-glass building that reflected the entire church. I then wrote a brief story of about the mirrored-glass building from the church’s point of view and then another brief story about the church from the mirrored-glass building’s point of view. The point of the assignment was for students to become more aware of both sides of issues and how perceptions impact what we think and feel about others. I could see using this site to enhance this unit by having students all use the same image to upload and create a pattern from, then discuss how various people selected different areas of the pattern to be their final image. Students would evaluate their pattern image and how it reflects or represents the original image that was uploaded.

**This site could also be used in an art class setting. Students could create their pattern image on the computer and then try to reproduce it using their chosen art medium.

**Students could use this for language arts or writing by creating their pattern image and then describing how that image represents them or how it relates to a novel that is being studied in class.

**For a math assignment, students could evaluate how the pattern created could be represented numerically. There may not be a right or wrong answer to this one, just a creative way to have students think about the relationship between patterns and numbers.

**In social studies, students could use the pattern they create as a part of a shield that represents a country that they create and explain how and why this representation would make an impact.

Although this is a simple tool to use and is basically art by nature, there are many applications for its use in the classroom…if you let your creativity guide you.