Week 2 Reflection Task 1 - Mobile phones Wiki

Week 2 Reflection Task - Mobile phones Wiki

The mobile phones wiki space engaged learners in a parallel thinking activity which applied de Bono’s hats to elicit responses about the issue of mobile phones in the classroom. Students were required to consider the issue from a range of perspectives (de Bono’s hats) and respond to scaffolded questions related to the thought process associated with each hat. Participants in the wiki were able to view the responses of others prior to contributing their own views.

This activity links to social constructivism, in that individual meaning making is supported by, and developed through, the sharing of knowledge and perspectives in a social context (McInerney & McInerney, 2002). Learners are encouraged to read and consider the viewpoints of fellow participants prior to contributing their own ideas. Furthermore, contributors continue to work in a social constructivist domain when they monitor the responses of fellow learners and consider how additions to the wiki impact on their own understandings of the issue. In this way, the mobile phones wiki also links to connectivism, as learning occurs through the sharing and consideration of diverse  opinions in a technological domain (Siemens, 2004). In contrast, the design of this activity may require the initial contributor to take a cognitivist approach; whereby, their individual views may come solely from their own reasoning and ‘existing schema’ about the issue (McInerney & McInerney, 2002).  

In using de Bono’s hats and providing scaffolded questions related to the domains of information, processes, potential problems, feelings and intuition, benefits, and creative thought, the wiki facilitated higher order thinking (de Bono Consulting, 2013) related to the issue of mobile phones in schools. I personally found that the scaffolded questions enabled me to focus and organise my thinking about the issue, and also enabled me to objectively view the responses of others. My own thoughts about the significance of rules and regulations regarding mobile phones in schools was mirrored in the responses of others. This validation and expansion of one’s own ideas via a relatively anonymous platform could be a valuable benefit for learners who are reluctant to share their ideas in a traditional classroom environment.

A drawback of sharing ideas using a wiki could be the delay in response from other learners. In a face to face collaborative context, learners receive immediate feedback from members of their group, prompting additional discussion and possibly deepening individual and collective understanding. In using an activity such as the mobile phones wiki in a primary classroom, I would encourage further participation and consolidation of thinking by making it compulsory for students to comment on a number of other’s responses. Further, collaborative activities focused on the collation and sorting of all responses could encourage further understanding of varying perspectives, as our particular wiki was quite spread out; leaving it unlikely that every participant would read every contribution.

References:

De Bono Consulting. (2013). What are the six thinking hats? Retrieved from http://www.debonoconsulting.com/what-are-the-six-thinking-hats.asp

McInerney, D.M., & McInerney, V. (2002). Educational psychology: Constructing learning (3^rd ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education

Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm