Reflection of Learning Facilitated by Mobile Phones Wiki

Source:  http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/learning/learning.html

INTRODUCTION

This weeks activities centred on gaining an understanding of teaching in digital environments with the aim of shifting the focus away from ICT tools and skills to instead incorporate learning about ways of working in the digital world. Such an approach requires the application of productive pedagogies to develop intellectual quality, connectedness, supportive classroom environments and recognition of differences (Slideshare, 2013). Productive pedagogical frameworks enable teachers to focus on their instructional methods to improve student outcomes by considering and understanding; the background of their learners in conjunction with their learning styles, identification of curriculum expectations, evaluation of teaching strategies and the importance of making correct selection choices prior to application to ensure appropriate teaching strategies are implemented. Additionally, teaching in digital environments also requires a responsibility to ensure legal, safety and ethical issues are addressed. However it should be emphasised that productive pedagogies don't have the capacity to cover all components of effective teaching such as safety or time management issues and thus require separate attention from the learning manager (slideshare, 2013). Therefore policies covering the legal, safe and ethical use of online technology completed the weeks learning material.

WIKI ACTIVITY

To scaffold learning in a digital environment the combination of a group Wiki and De Bono's "six thinking hats" teaching strategy was explored with regard to learning outcomes.

After participating in the mobile phone Wiki activity, I now realise the learning theories of behaviourism, constructivism and cognitivism together with the "pedagogical view" connectivism are all featured when using a group Wiki combined with De Bono's "six thinking hats" method.

Behaviourism

Behaviourist teaching approaches reflected in the Wiki activity included:

• Material being broken into smaller units (each different hat is a representation of this)
• Opportunities for feedback are provided (individuals responding to each others ideas)
• Describes the terminal behaviour and organises material to be learnt in steps. (each different hat contributes to this behaviour)

Constructivism

Constructivist principles reflected in the Wiki included:

• Social negotiation (Participants shared a reality with others using the same or similar processes).
• Facilitated by exploration of real world environments and influence of new environments.         (Participants explored m-learning for education environments from the influence/intervention of a Wiki).
• Students collaborate together and with the teacher. (Participants shared information and ideas in the Wiki and the teacher mentored this process).
• Provided case based problems derived from real life environments and based on real practices.

Connectivism

Connectivist principles reflected in the Wiki included:

• Diversity of opinion influences learning and knowledge (The opinions created by different individuals under different thinking hats enhanced knowledge and learning).
• The process of connecting specialised information or sources influences learning (connections made through the Wiki activity have assisted in learning outcomes).
• Non-human means may influence learning (using digital technology such as a wiki).
• Facilitating continued learning requires nurturing and maintenance of connections (Wiki connection allows groups to be formed and opportunity for groups to be maintained).
• Core skills are enhanced due to an increased ability to see connections between subject areas, ideas or concepts (thinking hats encourage higher order thinking and problem solving skills).
• Decision making as a learning process (The Wiki gives learners the opportunity to decide what information is relevant, current and trustworthy)

Cognitivism

Cognitivist principles reflected in the Wiki include:

• Emphasising active mental processing for learners as different schema's are required for different learning tasks. (The Wiki experience created the need to react, respond and report to learning materials creating different mental states such as emotional, memory and connections).
• The learners have an active and creative role in the activity rather than passive. (this description mirrors the Wiki activity as participants were expected to conduct research to answer topic questions on the Internet, course reading or text books)
• Information processing (the Wiki enabled data to be gathered, processed and stored)
• Formulation of Hypothesis (Individuals within the Wiki were able to form their own ideas with regard to the rules relating to particular concepts e.g the six thinking hats).   

Bloom's taxonomy

The learning that occurred as a result of the Wiki can be identified using Bloom's taxonomy to analyse the facilitation of such learning.

Bloom's taxonomy consists of  three learning domains:

• Cognitive Domain - mental skills (knowledge)
• Affective Domain - growth in feelings of emotional areas (attitude)
• Psychomotor Domain - manual or physical skills (skills)

Each domain features categories of behaviour ranging from simplest to more complex forms which can be identified by using Bloom's action verbs. Teachers are able to plan intended learning outcomes using Bloom's action verbs depending on what is being taught and the level of prior knowledge children possess. Observation of these behaviours also provides teachers with a process to reflect on the effectiveness of the lesson delivered in regard to the intended learning outcomes so that adjustments can be made for future improvements.

Edward De Bono's six thinking hats

De Bono's teaching pedagogy "six thinking hats" encourages the development of characteristics reflective of the different learning domains and behavioural categories in Bloom's taxonomy depending on which hat is used as a response to the particular topic of interest. For instance using the the white hat approach in the group Wiki allowed knowledge about data, facts and information to be considered. Therefore this teaching approach according to Bloom's taxonomy resulted in a learning outcome located within the cognitive domain and categorised as knowledge. Each different hat is responsible for eliciting a different direction or type of thinking which resulted in multiple behaviours being identified in the three learning domains of Bloom's taxonomy thus indicating whether higher order or lower order thinking skills were utilised in the activity. Physically utilising the Wiki technology, becoming accustomed to how the technology worked and the communication advantages it provided also had a significant influence on learning outcomes judging by the categories of behaviours in Bloom's taxonomy that can be related to such characteristics.

Strengths 

The presence of contructivist learning approaches within the Wiki lesson (social interaction scaffolded by the teacher) means the learner is more equipped to adapt to real life situations and problem solving or analytical skills are enhanced.

The presence of cognitivist learning approaches in the Wiki lesson whereby individuals continually accessed the Wiki in the same way on a number of occasions to accomplish a particular task is advantageous when individuals must respond in the same way to similar situations.

The presence of behaviourist learning approaches in the Wiki lesson whereby the learners were given a clear goal and expected to respond automatically to signs of the goal, is advantageous in situations when the individual is expected to act in a particular way to a certain type of situation.

Connectivist approaches such as combining Wiki technology with connections of individuals during learning activities is responsible for moving learning theories into the digital age whereby an individuals ability to act outside of their primary knowledge can be achieved through the enhancement of an ability to synthesise and recognise connections or patterns. Rather than competence being formed by learning from personal experience, an individuals competence is instead derived from forming connections thus giving a distinct advantage to overcoming learning difficulties caused by the tyranny of distance.

Weaknesses

In behaviourist approaches mental cues may not match what has been learnt which can be a problem in real life situations where a response to abnormal behaviour does not eventuate.

When using cognitivist approaches the learner or particular situation may not be suited to the way in which a task was learnt.

Constructivist approaches whereby social interaction fosters many different levels of understanding and ideas, is not advantageous in situations that require individuals to follow a defined set of key performance indicators which occurs as when assessing the performance of others.

Behaviourist, cognitivist and constructivist approaches fail to consider the learning that is stored and manipulated by technology as they are only concerned with the actual learning process rather than the value of the learning taking place.

References

Rizvi, A., Bilal, M., Ghaffar, A., & Asdaque, M. (2011). Application of six thinking hats in education. International Journal of Academic Research, 3(3), 775-779. Retrieved from http://www.ijar.lit.az/.

Slideshare (2013) Productive pedagogies. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/GerryC/productive-pedagogies

Nagowah, L., & Nagowah, S. (2009). A Reflection on the Dominant Learning Theories: Behaviourism, Cognitivism and Constructivism. International Journal Of Learning, 16(2), 279-285. Retrieved from http://www.commongroundpublishing.com/

Department of Education, Training and Employment (DETE). (2012). Pedagogical practices. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/qcar/curr-pedagogical.html

Mentone Girls' Secondary College. (n.d). Making a difference research guide: defing Edward De Bono's six thinking hats. Retrieved from http://www.parade.vic.edu.au/MD/teacher_research_guide/Defining/defining_debono.htm#