DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!
Next, my imagination was flooded with the thought of a class of 25 teenagers, their heads buried in who-knows-what on their phones, as a well intentioned teacher madly rushes about in the vain attempt to maintain a semblance of order while engaging in the futile task of keeping students on-task. The more I pondered the practicality of students' in-class use of mobile phones, the more I became convinced such an undertaking would be nigh-on impossible. How does one prevent unauthorised texting? Emailing? Surfing? Blogging? Gaming and goodness knows what else, on a student's private, unfiltered web device?
The potential problems seemed insurmountable, which was convenient as black was the first of deBono's hats I was to wear. My fellow colleagues had done a great job of articulating many of my initial concerns, along with a number I'd not considered. I managed to add a few more to the list after doing some research on Google Scholar and discovering there was solid peer-reviewed evidence that points to a consistent correlation (importantly not causation) between high levels of mobile phone usage among young people and some mental health issues.
The processes hat followed, which stimulated my thinking in the direction of how my aforementioned concerns might best be overcome. What surprised me after reading my colleague's contributions, was that I could now see each issue we covered in the black-hat section had a plausible solution. My own offering put forward the proposition that a school's IT department might be tasked with ensuring internet access be made possible only through the school's own properly filtered and monitored secure WiFi network. Bullying could be curtailed by ensuring all communication between students be collated and stored in a way that complies with the appropriate privacy mandates, and students informed of a strict zero-tolerance policy to bullying.
Being able to learn and understand the various perspectives of my classmates in the hats that followed stimulated me to conduct additional research into some benefits of integrating ICT.
DeBono's scaffolded wiki activity struck me as based mostly on constructivism, as we were working cooperatively and gaining new knowledge through interactions with fellow peers. Vygotsky (1962) proposed that learning is heavily influenced by social interaction. It can clearly be seen that the wiki facilitated higher order thinking, as we worked through the hats, we were able to conduct a mental SWOT analysis and evaluate which side of the mobile phone debate held the strongest position. I was quite surprised at the outcome of my evaluation stage, as I had entered the exercise skeptical about the use of mobiles in class, but after due consideration, changed my view to that of cautious optimism. The bullet points below point out some of the strategies used in the scaffolding to support complex thinking.
(CQU 20491 week 1 resource materials)
A cooperative learning environment was created by deBono's scaffolded wiki when we were able to bounce ideas off each other while working with our working memory before finally internalising our new knowledge in long-term memory. This shows that there was an element of cognitiveism in the exercise too. I was also able to show learning through connective methods of learning theory by tasking myself to undertake independent research in peer-reviewed professional journals through the use of Google Scholar. This is an example of connecivism because, according to Siemens (2005), knowledge exists outside the realm of the individual in networked environments exactly like that available online, accessible through Google and many other means. Connective learning is achieved as I practice and refine my search skills and continue to develop successful techniques to locate and evaluate the relevance and credibility of different sources.
Lastly, I noted the 6 hats wiki activity was an example of a well structured learning environment, where learners were given the opportunity to see other peoples perspective, giving us the chance to discuss, debate and challenge each other, thereby providing an oportunity for peer tutoring. These are all examples of higher-order thinking, which as we know, is always the goal when teaching. According to Hattie (2009), the following are core principles of co-operative learning, as opposed to 'group work.'
The 6 hats wiki ticked all the co-operative learning boxes listed above, and can therefore be considered to be a quality learning exercise that truly stimulated higher order thinking. As such, it is something that I look forward to using in a classroom of my own.
Lastly, I just thought I'd pop this video in. It's a quick little video clip that has some innovative pedagogical strategies involving cooperative learning. I particularly enjoyed the part about borrowing other teachers' methods and adapting them to suit one's own style. 'Standing on the shoulders of giants' at its best!
- Support contributions by ALL students in the group
- Make thinking "visible" so that teachers can see inside the reasoning of EVERY student in the group
- Create a permanent, text-based record of discussions and conversations for future analysis and reading
(CQU 20491 week 1 resource materials)
A cooperative learning environment was created by deBono's scaffolded wiki when we were able to bounce ideas off each other while working with our working memory before finally internalising our new knowledge in long-term memory. This shows that there was an element of cognitiveism in the exercise too. I was also able to show learning through connective methods of learning theory by tasking myself to undertake independent research in peer-reviewed professional journals through the use of Google Scholar. This is an example of connecivism because, according to Siemens (2005), knowledge exists outside the realm of the individual in networked environments exactly like that available online, accessible through Google and many other means. Connective learning is achieved as I practice and refine my search skills and continue to develop successful techniques to locate and evaluate the relevance and credibility of different sources.
Lastly, I noted the 6 hats wiki activity was an example of a well structured learning environment, where learners were given the opportunity to see other peoples perspective, giving us the chance to discuss, debate and challenge each other, thereby providing an oportunity for peer tutoring. These are all examples of higher-order thinking, which as we know, is always the goal when teaching. According to Hattie (2009), the following are core principles of co-operative learning, as opposed to 'group work.'
- Positive Interdependence: This means that members of the group need to work together to finish the task, as it's not possible to do individually; the group sinks or swims together.
- Individual Accountability: Everyone must contribute, and the project should be publicly displayed with each contribution's author acknowledged; there's no place to hide.
- Monitor the Group: Which students are working? which are playing? What kind of co-operative learning is taking place, such as listening, compromising and negotiating? Which are lacking?
- Equal Participation: The co-operative learning activity mustn't be dominated by one or a few people, while others remain silent. Teachers must ensure even levels of participation through strategies such as timing conversations where one student discusses a topic for a certain period before swapping to a different student.
The 6 hats wiki ticked all the co-operative learning boxes listed above, and can therefore be considered to be a quality learning exercise that truly stimulated higher order thinking. As such, it is something that I look forward to using in a classroom of my own.
Lastly, I just thought I'd pop this video in. It's a quick little video clip that has some innovative pedagogical strategies involving cooperative learning. I particularly enjoyed the part about borrowing other teachers' methods and adapting them to suit one's own style. 'Standing on the shoulders of giants' at its best!
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