Week 2 - Reflections on Using Wikispaces

This week in our tutorial we engaged in an activity on Wikispaces which required us to provide our opinions on whether mobile phones should be used in the classroom. The wikispaces activity was scaffolded using De Bono's Six Thinking Hats model, with the class having to answer a series of critical thinking questions for each of the coloured thinking hats (these questions led us to directly address the focus topic of mobile phones).

The use of De Bono's Six Thinking Hats was an extremely effective way to scaffold such a discussion, as it personally got me thinking deeply and critically about the question at hand. I believe the biggest benefit of this wikispaces activity however, was the fact that it provided a platform by which we could build on the thoughts and knowledge of other students in the class. This idea of building on the ideas of others links directly to Vygotsky's reserach on the learning theory of constructivism, and is vital for ensuring that we not only construct new knowledge, but replace the incorrect knowledge we have with the correct knowledge we gain from others(Handfield-Jones, et. al., 2002, as cited in UBC, n.d., p. 3).

This very notion of replacing knowledge occurred in my own mind whilst completing this activity. When I answered the first set of questions in the wiki relating to the black thinking hat, I passionately proposed that I would NEVER use mobile phones in the classroom. Sounds pretty resolute right?! However, as I moved to answering the next set of questions relating to the blue thinking hat, my once very set opinion began to crumble! As I read one of my peers' arguments, which had some very strong evidence of how mobile phones could be successfully incorporated into classrooms with the right security measures, my mind totally lit up to the amazing benefits of using such a well-known and readily available ICT tool with students!

To me, this is what real and meaningful learning is about. The type of learning that is carefully scaffolded to produce higher order thinking skills and that encourages us to question and challenge the ideas we have come to understand as truth.

But not only is the mobile phones wiki activity grounded in the constructivist learning theory, it also incorporates elements of the cognitivist and connectivist theories. Part of Piaget's cognitive theory is the idea of 'accommodation', which is quite similar to constructivism in that it focuses on how people modify to accommodate the new information they come across (PSU, n.d.) . This means that when my brain took in the new information presented by my peer about the positive ways mobile phones could be used in the classroom, my cognitive structure actually changed so that it could make room for that new information. Pretty cool huh? Connectivism is also apparent in the activity through the way we as a class were accessing the information provided by our peers to shape our own ideas, as well as using knowledge from other digital sources such as websites, blogs etc. to form our arguments.

There was one clear drawback involved with participating in this activity, and this was that when we tried to put our ideas on the wiki in our tutorial every new person who attempted to add their viewpoint actually typed over/deleted the previous person's work. This was due to the fact that we were all working from the same uni network server at the same time. Effectively, we could only begin to add our ideas when we got home to our own computers, and I found that a lot of the thoughts I had come up with to post during our tutorial discussion had completely left my mind by the time I got home! This was quite frustrating as you can imagine, but it was good for us as pre-service teachers to see that sometimes technology can fail (shock horror!) and it is in these times that we have to be flexible and find ways to work around it.

Overall, I believe the mobile phones wiki activity was very effective in scaffolding higher order thinking through its clear foundation in current learning theory and the effective questioning used as part of De Bono's Six Thinking Hats model.

Time to sign out for another day guys, happy blogging! :)

Sarah

______________________________________________________________________

References:

University of British Columbia (UBC). (n.d.). Self-assessment, self-direction, self-regulation and other myths : Deconstructing our beliefs about the adult learner. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books

The Pennsylvania State University (PSU). (n.d.).Cognitive theories of learning. Retrieved from http://www.personal.psu.edu/wxh139/cognitive_1.htm

Image Acknowledgement:

Six Thinking Hats - http://www.mkk.school.nz/Site/Learning_MKK/Thinking_MKK/De_Bono_s_Thinking_Hats.ashx

Surprised Face - http://regjackonline.com/what-two-words-can-characterize-your-personal-brand

Cartoon Brain - http://www.apr16.com/?cat=27

Thumbs Up - http://www.radian6.com/blog/2010/09/guest-post-getting-managements-approval-for-incorporating-social-media-into-your-ir-program/istock_000005604144xsmall/