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
Please click on the link below to visit Group 1 Mobile Phones Wiki:
http://fahe11001-3-11.wikispaces.com/Group+1+Mobile+Phones