Mobile Phones Wiki

Week 2 - Engagement Activity 4

 

Reflection on Mobile Phones Wiki 

This post will serve as a reflection of my recent experience as a participant in the Managing E-Learning Mobile Phones Wiki. Elements of learning theory that I believe influenced the design and purpose of this wiki will be outlined, and the overall effectiveness of the scaffolding and achievement of learning outcomes will also be discussed.

In preparation for this first assessable post to our newly created blogs, students were asked to participate in a wiki activity, which required them to consider and provide various written perspectives on the controversial use of mobile phones as student learning devices in the classroom. The wiki was provided by the learning designer as a common web page where students could communicate their thoughts, read the contributions of others, and determine the most common rationales for and against this controversial subject. Students were then asked to reflect on their own learning as a participant in this exercise, identify which learning theory, or theories, were evident in  this exercise, and consider how effective the scaffolding was in achieving learning outcomes.

There is evidence of the influence of various learning theories within the learning design of this assessment activity. Elements of Behaviourism are present in the step-by-step instructions presented to students by the learning designer. That is, the task is prescribed by the learning designer who outlines a series of steps in completing the assessment task: adding thoughts to the wiki, and then responding to a series of questions in the form of a reflection. This is then assessed to determine the learner’s competence and/or achievement of the learning outcomes. 

Also evident in the learning design process of this activity is the Cognitivist theory of learning. Information is ‘chunked’; that is, the responses to each perspective are organised into groups or elements within the table to assist processing into cognitive schemas.  The learning designer has asked students to process and filter information from many different perspectives, synthesise ideas, and evaluate those opinions that are most prevalent, and therefore most relevant. The use of ICT assisted the success of this activity in the form of a table, which served as an organising tool that grouped responses to the various perspectives, and which could easily be edited to include more information as it became available. This allowed for efficient communication of ideas to students to assist their decision making regarding the most relevant rationales for and against the issue in question.

The influence of the Social Constructivist theory of learning was also very clear, through scaffolding the activity to include contributions by all learners, which can also be revisited to evaluate student understanding. The learning designer assisted learners to move beyond their current level of understanding through embedding the learning exercise in a social context, where it was clear that some participants fulfilled the role of more knowledgeable ‘others’. 

Finally, Connectivism played a crucial role in the design of this learning experience.  Students examined information from a range of on-line sources, including other wikis and websites, including course readings, and shared their own thoughts on-line with one another. The learning designer assisted students to access the knowledge of others, and synthesise this vast array of information into a more meaningful and useful form. 

The learning was scaffolded through the use of de Bono’s Thinking Hats. The learning designer had embedded the various coloured hats along with the key perspective each one represents in a table on the wiki. Key questions were posed in the column beside each hat, to prompt appropriate thoughts regarding the different perspectives represented by each colour hat. In response to these questions, students identified and recorded, within the wiki table, a variety of negative (black hat), process (blue hat), positive (yellow hat), creative (green hat), intuitive (red hat) and objective (white hat) perspectives on the use of mobile phones as learning devices in classrooms. The key questions posed beside each ‘hat’ served as thought provoking mechanisms to assist learners to focus their contributions according to the requirements of the task. 

I found this activity very enlightening, since I previously had very limited understanding of what a ‘wiki’ was, and have certainly never contributed to one before. I think a wiki provides a very non-threatening, non-judgemental forum for individuals to express their current understandings on a topic, and read the opinions of others. I can see how this type of activity has the potential to enhance learning outcomes through providing a positive and thought-provoking learning environment, in particular when the discussion and learning is scaffolded for the learners, ensuring that learners remain on track. 

Please click on the link below to visit Group 1 Mobile Phones Wiki:


http://fahe11001-3-11.wikispaces.com/Group+1+Mobile+Phones