Mobile Phone Wiki: Collaboratively Learning Using de Bono’s Hats

This is a review of the activity where we had to collaborate in a wiki about using mobile phones in the classroom. The wiki was pre-scaffolded to force us into thinking using de Bono’s Hats.

I do not see the need to relay information that is readily available, so for an overview of de Bono’s Hats, the following page provides an excellent explanation and related resources – http://www.kurwongbss.eq.edu.au/thinking/Hats/hats.htm

Before analysing the implementation of this task, I would like to list some of the key features:

• Group discussion (about 20 people)
• Scaffolded to force us to think in multiple ways and get outside our comfort zone
• Develop ideas based on other people’s response
• Facilitates higher order thinking

I consider this activity to be constructivist by nature, in that it requires you to build on what it is you already know, express that and expand your prior knowledge. I also feel that the fact that considering it took place in a wiki to be completed as a group makes it connectivist, as it directly connects us with our peers through technology, allowing us to work together. As proposed by Siemens (n.d., cited in Fasso, 2012) connectivism can be thought of as the “learning theory for the digital age” as it deals with the networked nature of computers and using this fact as a learning tool.

I personally think this was a very good exercise to undertake. I was originally very two minded about the mobile phone issue, and while I still am, working in this format forced me to consolidate my reasoning and give me a much better understanding of why I think what I do. Although the content itself is irrelevant for this particular task, I think this is crucial in getting students to participate – understanding what it is they are thinking. This to me means that de Bono's hats also uses elements of cognitivism to draw links between the areas of understanding.

I believe that all the learning style aspects of this task are very well geared to achieve high standards of cognitive learning. The constructivist/connectivist approach results in group work where a large range of answers can be contributed, and the de Bono’s Hat scaffolding encourages areas of thinking that would probably not otherwise be explored.

While I feel that this was a very good and relevant way of scaffolding a task that I can see myself potentially using with my own students, I did have issues with it. Below is a SWOT analysis of how I feel about this exercise.

Strengths Working as a group broadens range of answers Easy to take part in Forcing participants to think away from their bias	Weaknesses Later participants have less to write about Can be difficult to think originally with so many other ideas Potential for deleting other people’s work Not easy to follow if people don’t colour code, allowing ease of tracking Participants might be inclined to just let others do the work
Opportunities          Expanding current knowledge by reading other people’s views          Elaborating on other people’s views in ways not previously thought of          Participation worldwide Editing over a broad timeframe, allowing learning growth	Threats          Deleting people’s work (maliciously or accidentally)          Simply pasting information from elsewhere online          Students without internet not being able to take part Potentially nothing at all to talk about for later participants, thusly no higher order thinking

References


Fasso, W. (2012). Learning theory and eLearning. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=254715