Communicating Generates Ideas

Week 2 - Additional Post

 

Blogging, Wiki-ing and Commenting Generates Ideas

The value of reading and commenting on the blogs of other students is beginning to dawn on me, and I would like to encourage others to read and respond to, or 'comment' on, fellow-bloggers' posts. In this way, I believe we can contribute to the furthering of our own, and hopefully each others', generation of ideas, as members of this particular learning community. 

As I read through other students' posts, I find myself interested in the various learning outcomes students feel they have achieved, and which aspects of the first assessment task they feel were of most value to them in their MeL learning journies so far. I have not managed to read everyone's posts due to my current commitments (3 courses and a family; not to mention Christmas looming and end of year exhaustion - the latter of which I am very committed to ...ha,ha!), but of those I have perused and concurred with, I have found myself wanting to take the time to add a comment. (Or, totally disregarding the above, is this more a case of 'procrastination', I wonder?)

So far, I have commented on Symone Bell's and Sarah Cooke's posts regarding assessment 1.1 and, in doing so, I have come up with ideas for my future teaching practices that, had I not participated in the  learning materials and requirements of this course and followed through with reading and commenting on these posts, I might not otherwise have considered.

One idea I managed to produce, is to engage students in a game of musical chairs, utilising de Bono's Thinking Hats. Let's call it ... 'Musical Hats' - I'm sure I will come up with a more descriptive and exciting title somewhere down the track - please feel free to offer more creative suggestions if you would like to!

Musical Hats:

Students are given a topic or, even better, come up with their own topic on which there can be several perspectives. As they play the game of musical chairs - in the old fashioned way, except perhaps generating music from their iPhone or other digital tool - the chair they occupy when the music stops will have a coloured hat on it. If donning a hat that others have previously worn is considered a hygeine issue (and it is, really), perhaps laminated cards representing the various couloured hats can be placed on each chair. Students then give a perspective on the topic question according to the colour hat they found on their chair.

Further, when taking TPACK into consideration:

1. Perhaps students could use a mobile phone to record the perspectives given during the Musical Hats game.
2. These perspectives could then be recorded in a wiki (as we did) to determine which perspectives are most common among the group. 
3. Following the game, when students have had a chance to consider the different perspectives presented, a post-game poll via mobile phone (if the technology is available), or post-game vote could be taken to determine the most popular perspectives held after the game.
4. The results of the poll or vote could be entered into an excel spreadsheet to generate a graph.
5. The most popular perspectives on the wiki (during the game) could then be compared with the most popular perspectives on the poll/vote graph (after the game). As there is likely to be some variation between the two sets of results, due to students changing their perspectives throughout the process, this would demonstrate to students the importance of being open-minded and considering all aspects of an issue, before simply assuming one perspective.   

This type of scaffolding encourages students to consider a range of perspectives, which can play a valuable role in either confirming or informing the actual opinion they themselves choose to hold. These types of activities/scaffolding can significantly impact student learning, in terms of critical and creative thinking, while embedded as much as possible in technology.   

As I commented to Symone, regarding our wiki exercise ... 'While essentially I believed I was against the idea [mobile phones in classrooms], when it came to considering the 'positive' yellow hat perspective, I almost talked myself into completely changing my mind and believing what I said! It was like having a multifaceted debate with myself ... with everyone else also on every 'side' of the debate!'

In some ways, it sounds more like a nightmare, doesn't it?! But of course, we know the difference!

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 

Productive Pedagogies

Week 2 - Engagement Activity 1

Cooking Rice

 

 

Even the simplest of tasks can provide the foundation for a quality learning experience. From cooking rice, to discussing the safe use of microwave ovens, visiting scientific concepts, and the culture and eating habits (perhaps even socioeconomics) of the world! An activity that provides instruction for a simple task (behavioural approach), but overall adopts a very learner-centred, constructivist approach, in which students work together with their teacher to achieve a common goal while sharing individual knowledge, thus socially constructing each student's learning/knowledge through collaboration.