Mobile Wiki NOT SO tricky!

Now onto the mobile phone wiki and finally the penny has dropped for me about what this course is all about. I’m beginning to understand that we need to reflect on where this activity fits in with the learning theories we have been reading about these last few weeks.

I’m also beginning to understand that De Bono’s Six Hat’s (1992) is a framework for thinking, and in order for us to learn, and learn effectively we need to use learning frameworks that encourage us to think and analyse. So in summary, Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956), Learning Engagement Theory ( 1999) and Tpack (2006) are learning frameworks. By using Bloom’s Taxonomy we have begun to Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate and Create.  We have begun the process of active learning.

Learning Engagement Theory has assisted in creating the activities, like the profile wiki as a way of quickly getting to know people in our course and beginning to connect with them. The learning theories wiki which allowed for collaboration, and now the mobile phone wiki allowed us to communicate with each other. Through the engagement theory we began to CREATE, our own blog, RELATE, to each other via the wikis and forums and then DONATE through the public posting of our thoughts through the group wiki.

Tpack came into play with the choice of the specific activities in relation to ICT’s. Not just jumping online and using the internet and moodle because it’s available to us but finding collaborative and constructive ways to use them and build on our knowledge. Again this was the choice of moodle forums, blogs, and the wikis where everyone from the course can contribute collectively and collaborate to yview and so forth.

This was all happening against the background of scaffolds that were created to better assist the learning processes and transform the knowledge. The PMI and Six Thinking Hats (De Bono 1992) are both examples of this, they are thinking frameworks which challenge us to ask more than the standard how, why, when, where and what. Once we have begun moving in the direction of higher order thinking skills we are then asked to reflect on what we have learned. I believe this is called metacognition, which is thinking about what thinking needs to be done. A highly desirable process in any classroom environment.

This whole process is holistic. The learning frameworks should not be considered individually but as a whole, using whatever is appropriate at the time from all three, Bloom’s Taxonomy, TPack, Learning Engagement Theory and in the next few months Dimensions of Learning.  The thinking frameworks are also simultaneous and part of the whole process, and at the same time we should be thinking and reflecting on the learning theories and working out where all of this fits in.

Lastly we need to ask ourselves how will all of this contribute to the learning of our students. 

So, on reflection I saw the mobile phone wiki as having it’s grounding in constructivism which basically says that people learn through experiencing. So we were given something active to do…… think about mobile phones in the classroom. We used our learning frameworks, and our thinking frameworks to contribute to the wiki.

 Our teacher’s role was to encourage learning and reflection and this was done using scaffolding and the end result was a collaborative effort on the wiki which took our prior knowledge, helped us to analyse and reflect on our new knowledge and advanced it even further. A constructivist classroom will always rely on collaboration. Constructivism is about transforming the learning from someone who sits and merely absorbs information to someone who takes an active role in their own learning.

Up until this point I felt confused about what was required. My previous experience in education was Behaviourist. The teacher talked and we listened and absorbed information. We were told what to do and how to do it and we were assessed on the facts only. Siemens (2005) wrote that “constructivist principles acknowledge that real-life learning is messy and complex. Classrooms which emulate the “fuzziness” of this learning will be more effective in preparing learners for life-long learning”.

And there you have it… now I understand. We’re not going to be told exactly WHAT is required. Part of the process of this new way of learning is muddling through, discovering, analyzing, reflecting on what worked and what didn’t. So I realized that I should stop worrying about whether I was doing the right thing, just get stuck in and start doing it and guess what… it all fell into place.

Now I realise that Connectivism, a learning theory for the digital age was also involved because the “teacher” realised that it’s no longer possible for one person to have all the knowledge, it is more important to identify how and where to find knowledge. So readings and links were provided which allowed us to source information from a variety of places and then reflect on that information in the wiki.

It was a group activity, conducted online, using De Bono’s six hats as a scaffold for lower and higher order thinking.

I think the mobile phone wiki helped me to understand the true benefits of a wiki, something that I hadn’t really achieved in the profile and learning theories wikis. This wiki became far more interactive, collective and collaborative.

One drawback in all of this is that I think as adult learners we are all a bit nervous about commenting or reflecting on other people’s ideas. We are happy to put our own thoughts out there on the wiki which is collaboration but I don’t see much interaction or reflection as to others opinions on mobile phones and whether you are willing to enter into a debate on it. By that I don’t mean to critique someone’s work and find out the right or wrong answer. That’s not the intention and debate over right and wrong should be discouraged. I am just wondering when we are going to begin to “debate” the topic as opposed to simply posting our own ideas. I would imagine the same thing happens in a classroom and that while the online nature of this sort of learning offers a kind of anonyminity to throw it all out there, many of us might still be holding back before we feel more confident in what we are doing.

Vitally the lessons I learnt from this activity could be well utilised in any classroom. It allows every student to have their say from the outspoken confident ones to the shy and less outspoken by posting comments in a public forum. It allows the students to consider different ideas and points of view that they may have missed had they studied independently at home at their desk.  It allows social interaction in the course which leads to new relationships being formed and it also allowed us to engage with ICT’s. So that those of us who are unfamiliar or nervous about the technology can begin to use it, play with it, discover how it works and gain confidence for the future.

Lastly and most importantly it took the students prior knowledge about mobile phones in the classroom and transformed it into something much more. It taught the students a valuable lesson and that is what we learned wasn’t nearly as important as how we learned it.  That is we learned HOW to learn and that is a life-long skill.