Mobile Phones Wiki Reflection

This week's task was to add to the mobile phones wiki which was related to De Bonos six thinking hats. By using De bono's six thinking hats scaffolding process, we, as a group, were able to critically analyse the topic of the use of mobile phones in the classroom from multiple perspectives. I found it interesting to look at all the different perspectives and creative ideas that students came up with for each perspective. Especially, as there were fewer positive points rather than negative, students still contributed ideas to the positive hat. I found this to encourage creativity in their thoughts and higher-order thinking when providing evidence for their thought.

I feel that the, mobile phones wiki which I participated in this week was linked to, and reflected upon all of the learning theories being, behaviourism, constructivism, cognitivism as well as connectivism.

My understanding of behaviourism is that it is not only about the rewards and punishments that effect learners behaviour but, also the breaking down of learning material into smaller instructional steps to encourage students feelings and behaviour towards a task. The breaking down of information was a process which was required to complete the wiki task.

Constructivism however was evident when students collated their ideas and experiences of the use of mobile phones in the classroom within the wiki. My understanding of constructivism is that we as learners are creators of our own knowledge and try to understand this knowledge by applying our own experiences. However, Mergel (1998) says, collaborative learning is where students interact and build on each other’s ideas which is constructivist in nature. Therefore constructivism is when individuals contribute their own ideas and experiences and build their knowledge by the collation of ideas from others and their own.

Cognitivism theory was also linked to the wiki activity as it is theory which is based on the processing of information into short-term memory and long term memory coding.

I can honestly say that at first I struggled with the learning theory "Connectivism". My understanding of this theory is that of the connecting of ideas from differing sources to our own ideas. I feel as though connectivism was used with the mobile phones wiki as we connected with other people and others sources to build on our ideas.

After taking part in the mobile phones activity which questions the use of such technologies in the classroom, I have come to see the many disadvantages that this would attract. It is clear that the use of digital technologies is only suitable when there are clear learning benefits for learners. So what is it that mobile phones could bring to the classroom that no other digital tool can? How would it achieve learning advantages? As mobile phones are a communication tool which is used to socialise between individuals, I see no beneficial use for it in the classroom. After taking part in this activity and being involved in the different methods of learning, I see the importance of their uses in the classroom. However, these methods of learning should be used in partnership with many other theories to provide a learning environment which is supportive of diversity.