Week 2 - The Mobile Phones debate using de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats

What was the purpose of this activity?

The purpose of this activity to introduce pre-service teachers to a powerful technological tool and e-learning approach: a Wiki exercise. A Wiki allows teachers to scaffold a learning activity on a particular topic or scenario. It can be utilised as a fundamental part of a teacher’s digital pedagogy as it can be used to promote higher order thinking in students, creating a platform for critical thinking and the analysis and evaluation of information. In my personal opinion, I believe this purpose was achieved through the completion of this activity, as it effectively introduced and familiarised me with the new tool – a Wiki, showed me how learning activities can be scaffolded within the platform and also through the completion of the learning activity, showed me the learning power and potential of the technology and how it can be used to stimulate interest, engagement and develop fundamental higher order thinking skills within students.

Learning theories/frameworks: Where does this activity fit in?

This activity falls under elements of both the SAMR model and the Blooms Taxonomy learning frameworks. In the SAMR model, the activity would fall under the modification domain. The characteristics of the Wiki design which lead me to adopt this viewpoint are the platform’s ability to go beyond mere substitution of activities and completely resign the nature of the activity to one that can be carried out with limited guidance, solely online with an interactive collaborative community of users. In contrast, within the Blooms Taxonomy model, this activity would use the evaluative domain. The characteristic of the Wiki design which lead me to adopt this viewpoint is the nature of the embedded task itself; its requirement for students to form a judgement and perspective for each different colour hat or domain.

What are the benefits in participating in a Wiki?

• Ability to stimulate discussion and collaboration amongst students
• Ability to develop higher order thinking skills in students
• Ability to present a range of different views and perspectives
• Ability to act as an effective tool to collect and collate information
• Ability to hold a vast amount of information
• Ability to support a variety of different learning approaches – individual/group work
• Platform is flexible and versatile – can support a range of different activities

What are the issues or drawbacks of participating in a Wiki?

• Unable to cope with a large quantity of users at one time
• Possible loss of information
• Possible issues associated with accessibility – different browsers or operating systems
•  Possibility issues associated with authenticity and originality of responses
•  Limited tools available for the formatting and layout of information
• Students may experience a degree of uncertainty in the formation of responses due to the lack of traditional face-to-face support during learning activities

How could this type of activity benefit students and contribute to learning outcomes?

This technological tool – the Wiki can be used to benefit students and contribute to learning outcomes in a variety of ways. If used successfully, it has the potential to boost student engagement, interest and participation. It can also be utilised across a wide range of educational settings and disciplinary areas. For example, it could be utilised in a Year 11 Accounting/Business classroom context to allow students to present and discuss their responses to a particular scenario. Comparatively, it could also be used in a Year 10 English classroom context to promote the discussion of theory questions from a set text.

What is the purpose and value of the scaffolding provided and how did the scaffold support the collection of a range of perspectives?

The purpose of the scaffold (de Bono’s thinking hats) was to help facilitate critical thinking in a range of different viewpoints and perspectives. If successful, the value of the scaffolding is the development of students’ critical and higher order thinking skills, particularly that of evaluation as they are facilitated to make judgements and form a perspective for each of the different thinking hats. The scaffold was effective in supporting the collection of a range of perspectives through its creation of the six thinking hats and collection of ideas in a range of different domains (Black hat: judgement; Blue hat: the process; Green hat: creativity; Red Hat: feelings; Yellow hat: benefits and White hat: information).