Wiki Mobile Phones Activity

WIKI Reflection - Mobile Phones in Education

This activity required me to participate in a group activity in which we had to provide our ideas and thoughts on the topic of the use of mobile phones in education.

The activity required the use of De Bono’s six thinking hats, being:

 

The negative aspects of using a mobile phone in education
The Black Hat 

      

      Creative ideas for using mobile phones in education

The Green Hat

 How we felt as a group to the use of mobile phones in education

                              

The Red Hat

The benefits of using mobile phones in education

 The Yellow Hat

 
The information we knew, needed or wanted to know

      

The White Hat

                       
Summary or overview
                        

The Blue Hat

It was clear from this activity that each person had their own views, prior knowledge and experience under each of these hats. 

 Learning Theories

 The mobile phone activity was a learning design and as such as a learning theory.

There are four (4) learning theories, namely:

·       Behaviourism
·       Cognitivism
·       Constructivism
·         Connectivism   

What Learning Theory Was Used  in This Activity?

The mobile phone activity required us to socially interact and bounce ideas off each other.  By seeing the opinions and knowledge of others it is easier to make an informed decision about the topic.  It also requires us to seek out information on our own.  As a result of this it is clear that one of the learning theory used was constructivism.

Reflection on Own Personal Participation in Wiki

I enjoyed participating in the wiki mobile phone activity.  It was interesting to view other people’s point of views on the topic. 

Mobile phones in the class room was a contentious issue and it was clear that some thought the idea was great and they were excited about the possibility of exploring new ways to use mobile phones in education whereas others were more apprehensive and were not ready to commit to the idea and considered that it may hinder student’s participation.

Strengths of This Activity

The strengths of this activity included:
·         Seeing ideas that I had not thought of prior to reading other’s perceptions on the activity;

·         Gaining an awareness of the “Six Thinking Hats”;
·         Collaborating with others;
·         The use of ICT and the knowledge gained in using Wiki. 

I personally, had not used a Wiki before commencing this course and so this opened up a new experience.

Weaknesses on This Activity

The weaknesses of this activity included:

·         The repetition involved.  Often the same comment was posted several times;

·         The inability to discuss in person the issues.  Although reading the results worked reasonably well, I personally would have liked to engage in person with other students and participate in a conversation about it.  Possibly having a debate?

·         The use of the technology.  Typing was often delayed and it was difficult to edit and attach media content.

Opportunities that could rectify the weaknesses

• Having a discussion in class after participating in the Wiki
• Set a day for groups, ie. Group 1 is Monday, Group 2 is Tueday and so forth.

Threats

• No threats were present in this Wiki, however, in activities of this nature content would need to be regularly checked to ensure acceptability.

Scaffolding Nature of Activity and Issues Raised

I thought the scaffolding nature of the activity assisted in collecting a wide range of perspectives and assisted in raising many issues, including:

·         The distraction of students using mobile phones;

·         The importance of keeping up to date with technology;

·         The understanding that students will use mobile phones regardless of school policies;

·         The safety in using mobile phones, including bullying, intimidation etc.

·         The control of mobile phones in the classroom;

·         The cost of imposing each student to have a mobile phone

The list of issues was long and surely all these issues will need to be considered prior to the introduction of mobile phones in classrooms.

How Would This Activity Contribute to the Learning of My Students?

By using Wiki and undertaking a scaffolding activity such as this it would encourage students to use ICT methods to understand the topic but also encourage them to engage and collaborate with other students.  It is an effective tool for learning.

This type of activity would assist active learners as they can actively participate in providing their opinions and comments but would also assist reflective learners as it enables time for such learners to contemplate their responses.

It also enables sensing learners to gain facts and knowledge on the topic and provides those facts in the activity but also allows intuitive learners the freedom to discover new theories or facts and provide their opinions in respect of those.

The activity assists visual learners as it contains pictures of the “6 Thinking Hats” to consider but also assists verbal learners as there are descriptions attached to the thinking hat pictures.

Therefore, the activity assists a wide range of learning styles.

The Key Learning Areas attached to this activity would include:-

·         English and

·         Technology

References:

R Felder and B Soloman (no date) - Learning Styles and Strategies - online resource -http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm

K Lein (no date) - ELearning Pedagogy - online resource - http://elearningpedagogy.com

BGFL (2002-2012) - Multiple Intelligences - online resource - http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/ict/multiple_int/what.cfm,

P Mishra and MJ Koehler (2006) Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge;

Blooms Taxonomy of Learning Domains (no date) - online resource - http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html

De Bono's Six Thinking Hats