Assessment 1: Reflection 1 - Edward DeBono's 6 Thinking Hats & Mobile Phones Wiki Activity

This weeks activity was to use Edward DeBono’s 6 Thinking Hats to critical analyse our personal opinion of the use of mobile phones in the classroom. Our responses were to be posted on the Wiki page, which had been set up for all students to access, edit the page and add their post to the appropriate cell within the table. Students could also read each other’s responses and make comments to start discussions about the responses. After we participated on the Wiki page, we have been asked to reflect on the technology used within the activity and post our response in our blog. 

In my opinion the major learning theories that this Wiki page activity would reflect is Constructivism, Cognitivism and Connectivism. Through the Wiki page I saw the following characteristics that reflect Constructivism:

·       Scaffolding provided by the teacher to draw out individual opinions and critical thinking– in this case DeBono’s 6 Thinking Hats was used.

·       Online social interactions, discussions between peers about their answers and opinions on mobile phones in the classroom.

The following characteristics on the Wiki page reflect Cognitivism:

·       The use of the Wiki page would help transfer the students knowledge from their sensory register, to long term memory and even through to long term memory.

·       Expand on prior assumptions or knowledge of mobile phones use in the classroom, researching and transferring that information onto the Wiki page therefore transferring the knowledge into my long term memory.

·       The use of Edward Debono’s 6 thinking hats is prior knowledge for me so I am recalling on old information that has been stored in my long term memory and developing new ways to incorporate this in my classroom using ICT’s.

And the following characteristics on the Wiki page reflect Connectivism:

·       All students had to work on a smart phone, computer/laptop or iPad/tablet to complete this task.  

·       When looking at other student’s responses it was clear that some have used different internet tools (YouTube, images searches) to expand their knowledge and find creative ways for them to post their responses on the Wiki pages. 

Edward DeBono’s 6 Thinking Hats was the scaffolding provided on the Wiki page to complete this tasks.  The purpose of using the 6 thinking hats is for the students to be able to think about the question at all different angles therefore challenging their initial reaction/ answer.  Edward Debono’s 6 thinking hats is a valuable scaffolding tool in my opinion because it scaffolds the students to expand on the basic yes or no answer. They then justify using different methods of thinking and encourages further research on the topic.

The learning outcomes that were achieved from this activity were; editing a Wiki, expanding on knowledge of Edward DeBono’s 6 thinking hats, looking at how students can answer a simple question using higher order thinking instead of yes or no and different ways to incorporate them in collaborative work and with ICT’s, analysis of other students opinions.