Week 2: Reflection 1

This week we all participated in a wiki activity using the de Bono's Hats approach about the issue of mobile phones in the classroom.  Now I was a bit baffled and it took a little bit of minor research to see what exactly these ‘hats’ entailed.  I apparently wasn’t exposed to this in primary as many of you were.  But after a quick Google search light was soon shed on this practice, and I dove in to the wiki. 

Source: peak-ict.wikispaces.com

And speaking of wikis, this was also my first experience with those. Although not altogether the same, I used to post on certain internet discussion forums, and those have a slightly similar way about them, so I it didn’t take long at all to wrap my head around what was going on. 

As for the design of the activity, I thought using a wiki as the platform for the mobile phone discussion was a good one, as well as the de Bono's Hats method.  This method of learning/discussion is a great example of how people can effectively gain insight and understanding not just from the opinions and posts of others, but by ‘putting on’ the different colored hats and thinking about the topic from another angle, self-reflection, understanding, and further analysis can also occur.  It also goes to show that this activity was a good tool of effective pedagogy.  Here’s why:

Source: http://expertbeacon.com/blooms-taxonomy/

By using the de Bono's Hats, we were presented with a topic, forced to analyse the topic from different viewpoints (regardless of our humble opinion), ranging from past, present, future and to the possible and hypothetical.  This is a perfect example of using scaffolded learning to promote those higher order thinking skills, which lie in the higher tiers of the Bloom’s Taxonomy triangle. This is what effective pedagogy aims to achieve in learners.  It goes beyond the scope of just regurgitating facts to thinking about the knowledge, applying it to a real, personal, or hypothetical scenario, analysing the reaction and/or effect, and evaluating the overall outcome or possible outcomes.   So in this way, I thought the design of the activity was very effective in getting students to think more deeply on the topic, exercising those cognitive skills, in an environment where they felt comfortable and safe voicing their opinions, therefore promoting a healthier, safer, more productive learning area.

After reading about different types of learning theories over these past few weeks, things are slowly but surely looking a bit clearer as of late in regards to the incorporation of different learning strategies in activities, and this mobile phone wiki activity was a good example of that.  Coupled with the deBono’s Hats method, the scaffolding was presented to us through the multiple hats (along with some early birds who made the first postings), guiding us through a discussion, engaging and building on, and sometimes disagreeing with the opinions of others.  Working together and learning through discussion and ‘social’ discovery represents the learning theory of Social Constructivism which was apparent in this activity.

The fact that this activity was done using an online medium known as a wiki leads one to believe this is also using a proposed learning theory for the modern era called Connectivism.  We gave our opinions online, but I am sure that many were at the same time using the internet to research more over the topic, finding handy links to add to your posts in order to gain more of an understanding of the topic and to have more of an informed opinion when posting.

Source: http://edtechvoice.com/lesson-1/the-samr-model/

Now wikis aren’t exactly a revelation or a transformative tiered medium, and citing the SAMR model, they are at best a substitute or an augmentation of what could be done without this technology.  However, one might lean toward the augmentation tier, as the online forum provides an immediate vast audience that puts a singular classroom to shame!  Without careful moderation on public wikis, however (as people can delete, alter and edit other people’s posts), it could get quite messy, confusing, and downright dirty in many situations, especially when assuming the online community as a whole is not so trustworthy or mature. Luckily our little activity was done amongst our own cohort, where we are sure we can safely voice our opinions and aren’t in danger of being bullied!

Overall, I enjoyed this activity and thought it was an insightful and effective method for getting us to use those higher order thinking skills about a topic we as future educators have a distinct opinion about. Bravo!