This week we participated in a WikiSpaces Activity based around de Bono's Six thinking Hats and the use of mobile phones in the classroom. While the activity was seemingly about the use of mobile phones in schools, the real content was found in the learning design of the activity on WikiSpaces.
Learning Design: Using WikiSpaces To Enhance Learning
21st century technology offers educators the change to completely transform their pedagogy. With the introcution of more ICT into the classroom students will be provided with the skills required to function in society, as well as flourish academically. However, before students can explore this, teachers need to master it. It is imperative that pre-service teachers fully understand and appreciate the use of technology, such as WikiSpaces,
WikiSpaces is essentially a space where teachers and students can collaborate. It provides a space where teachers can set task and students can respond, comment on each other's work, receive peer and teacher feedback and many many more things.
"Wikispaces Classroom is a social writing platform for education. We make it incredibly easy to create a classroom workspace where you and your students can communicate and work on writing projects alone or in teams."(WikiSpaces.com)When I was first shown WikiSpaces I had my doubts. Okay, I hated it. It just seemed so fiddly and unnecessary, something I would never use again. Turns out I was completely wrong. The de Bono's Hats activity showed me how great it could be. So easy! click on a link and all of a sudden we could all be online doing the same thing and looking at each other's work. It dawned on me that while this might have limitations, I could really use this as a part of my pedagogy. Furthermore, this site could support the building of knowledge, both higher and lower order thinking; and collaborative learning. By completing this activity myself via WikiSpaces and not on a work sheet, it proved to me that if I can use this website, so can my students, and why would I use a worksheet when I can use e-learning in such an effective manner?
If integrated properly into pedagogy, this digital tool could increase student interest and participation as it offers the chance to create an individualised learning space. It is an excellent tool for self reflection, much the same as a blog, but with a privatised feel to it; as you can be members of groups. Such digital aids can motivate, intrigue and include students.
The Benefits Of WikiSpaces:
- Offers students the chance to participate in collaborative learning
- Potential to develop higher order thinking skills in students
- Develops communication and ICT skills
- Able to store vast amounts of information and work
- Can support a variety of learning styles (individual/group work/entire class)
- Can support a range of activities
- Is a new form of engagement to develop skill sets.
The Drawbacks Of WikiSpaces:
- Students may become distracted while on the Internet
- Not able to support more than one person editing a document at a time
- Requires an Internet connection
- High risk of plagiarism
- They layout may become confusing if not managed properly
The activity was centred around the de Bono's Six Thinking Hats. It was a straightforward, yet had hiddle complexities. Particpants were not able to answer the question; should mobile phones be allowed in schools? With a simple yes or no, followed by a justofication.
The actvity forced me to consider alternative points of view and internally assess if they agreed or disagreed with that point of view. If successful, this hat scaffold develops the participants higher order thinking skills, in particular evaluation, as they have to make judgements and write from different perspectives. The six hat scaffold was as following:
- Black - Judgement: What is wrong with this? Why will this not work? Is this safe? Can this be done?
- Blue - The Process: Where are we now? What is the next step? Where have we been? What sort of thinking is needed?
- Green - Creativity: What new ideas are possible with this? What is my suggestion for success? Can I create something new?
- Red - Feelings: How do I feel about this? What do I like about the idea? What don't I like about the idea?
- Yellow - Benefits: What are the good points? Why can this be successful? Why is this a good thing?
- White - Information: What information do I have? What are the facts? What information do I need? What do I want to KNOW?
The six hats directly relate to Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy as they offer approaches to thinking that facilitate all the domains. I found myself moving steadily into the analysis, synthesis and and evaluations segments, rather than sticking with what we already we knew back in the knowledge, application and comprehension segment.
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| Blooms Taxonomy (https://juliaec.wordpress.com) |
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| SAMR Model (https://sites.google.com/a/richland2.org/svh-tech/pedagogy/samr) |
Branching away from Bloom, the hat scaffold fits into the SAMR model by trying to develop a pedagogy that is entirely student driven and technologically focussed. The activity sits in the Augmentation level, as while it is a substiution for pen and paper, technology through the use of WikiSpaces has made a functional improvement by allowing students to collaborate. By including students from other classes this activity has potential to fit into the Modification level, as networking with a wider community is not feasible without technological tools such as WikiSpaces.
How Could This Be Applied To My Disciplines?
I believe this type of activity could benefit students and contribute to learning outcomes.
WikiSpace based work, if used successfully it has the potential to boost student engagement across all disciplines, its just about finding an activity that will suit the format. My discipline areas are English and History and I believe this sort of activity will be useful in both areas. For example in History, students might have to research a topic and create a report in Wikispaces. Students would be expected to teach each other about topics and ask questions on one and others WikiSpace. Comparatively, it could also be used in an English classroom to hold a recorded class discussion about a set topic.
References: http://suzielporter.blogspot.com.au/ http://clarebielenbergedse.blogspot.com.au/p/home.html
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