Wiki- Try Something New!

This week we (my ICT class) were asked to partake in a ‘Wiki’ forum with regards to mobile phones in the classroom (for educational purposes!). This is an interesting concept, as I reflected in my comments using the ‘Yellow Hat’ (also known as ‘the optimistic response’) from de Bono’s ‘Six Hats’ concept.

The concept of technologies such as mobile phones being used in classrooms seems to have a very mixed response of excitement and fear.    
             Excitement for the possibilities yet to come; it is almost inconceivable that, in even 5 years time, the technology we currently find new and wonderful will be completely obsolete! Some concepts that haven’t even been thought of yet will be seen as ‘old news!’ (I’m still waiting for my hover car to be invented!).
             Fearfulness of the unknown has caused a great educational rift, however, primarily due to fear of the unknown!            
             It is in the former school of thought that I agree with this new concept of mobile phones being used in schools as educational utensils! For, if we don’t begin to use them soon, we may actually find ourselves completely behind the game in the very near future!

By means of learning theories, I found this exercise to be strongly based in four main theories- Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Social Constructivism and Connectivism.              
               Behaviourism is displayed as the mobile phone wiki laid out (in table form) quite clearly the expectations of each row and column. A certain evolution can be seen down the table, as one student learns from another student, and that student learns from them before him or herself and slowly the responses in the table become more complex and thought-out.
               Cognitivism is observed in the packaging everything into neat little boxes; bite-sized bits of expectation of requirement.
               Social Constructivism is shown when we were each expected to ‘put on a hat’ and express our own views and opinions based on ‘one's prior experiences, mental structures, and beliefs’ (Jonasson, 1991).
            Finally, Connectivism is shown simply the use of the internet and computers. For some of us, this was a new experience, so not only were we learning about de Bono’s concept and mobile phones in educational contexts in classrooms, we were also learning (and hopefully growing more confident in our ability!) to use new methods of communication on the internet!

I found this experience of working on the mobile phone wiki quite, enjoyable (and was quite proud of myself for trying something new and scary!!).     
             The simplicity of the wiki and lack of ‘excess information’ (as it was all in ‘dot point’ and, as such, lead straight to the point!). The labeling was clear, not much room to digress as is so common in other exercises like essay-writing.

All in all, an educational and amusing experience!