This week's task was to complete six questions on the controversial topic of mobile phones in the classroom through an established Wikispace site. To guide responses, "De Bono's Hats" were used within a table. Students were asked to fill out their responses to each question using different coloured text to assist in identifying their work.
With approximately 100 students in the course, a number of identical pages were set up. The parameters of the exercise included that only 5-6 students were to respond on each page. Each page had details regarding the exercise at the top including a link to details of De Bono's Hats, then a table with the six hats pictured with a few additionally questions to prompt thinking.
This was the first time that I have used a Wikispace. To be honest, I have found it to be quite clunky to use. I had issues with changing the colour of text. I ended up choosing a page that did not have any other students contributions on it and posted my contributions in black. It is also quite nerve racking to think that someone else may be posting on the same page as you and the idea that you will lose your work if you are not saving it every few words. I did utilise Microsoft Word to assist in combating this concern and in keeping to the 40 word limit per hat. The other major concern I identified was the ability to accidentally (or purposely) delete contributions that were already made. These were the three key issues that I found with the program. Having said that however, I can see value in incorporating this medium into the classroom.
One of the first things that I did when starting this task was to have a brief look at the contributions already made by students. I had firm statements already drafted about my beliefs however there were a number of considerations that I had not made or included in my views. This, to me, demonstrated the collaborative features of this program. Had this been a teamwork project, I could have built upon what other students were using as their thoughts and arguments. Under the current scenario, I was able to build upon and expand my knowledge and thoughts on the topic through other student's points of view and research, which is all part of the Social Constructivism learning theory.
Vygotsky's theory of Social Constructivism looks as the idea that students and teachers work collaboratively through modelling and scaffolding (McLeod, 2013). This exercise scaffolds the thinking of students through the use of De Bono's Hats. It provided a guide for students such as myself to channel thoughts and arguments by assigning different considerations/questions per hat. Personally, I found that this assisted with the organisation of my thoughts, and forced me to consider not only my arguments, which are against the use of mobile phones in classrooms, but also on the positives that the phones may provide.
After doing some research and setting up my own Wikispace, I can see unlimited of ways to use this program in the classroom across all subjects. For example, in another subject we are required to provide lessons regarding children's literature and provide activities for before, during and after reading. I have planned to use a Wikispace as an activity with the students to assess and develop the student's understanding of the main characters in a novel, as well as important relationship links. It is my opinion that what a teacher and student can do with a Wikispace is limited only to their skills and imagination. While the program may not be entirely fluid, it does offer a great range of possible uses that are easy enough to set up.
I touched briefly before about security. Security is something to be mindful of when you have students accessing the internet (Education Queensland, 2012). I would take steps to minimise risk by providing students with a links page that is categorised based on the subject of the content. I would also regularly check this sites to ensure that they have content which is deemed to be safe. For information that I wanted to ensure document control over, I would remove editing rights or change the privacy settings to restrict who had access to the pages.
Overall, this is a good medium for any classroom. The collaborative avenues that it offers are limitless and I would suggest that all teachers investigate it further and implement it. I definitely will be.
Melissa
References:
Education Queensland. (2012). Risk Management. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/web/schools/riskman.html
McLeod, S. (2013). Lev Vygotsky. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html
With approximately 100 students in the course, a number of identical pages were set up. The parameters of the exercise included that only 5-6 students were to respond on each page. Each page had details regarding the exercise at the top including a link to details of De Bono's Hats, then a table with the six hats pictured with a few additionally questions to prompt thinking.
This was the first time that I have used a Wikispace. To be honest, I have found it to be quite clunky to use. I had issues with changing the colour of text. I ended up choosing a page that did not have any other students contributions on it and posted my contributions in black. It is also quite nerve racking to think that someone else may be posting on the same page as you and the idea that you will lose your work if you are not saving it every few words. I did utilise Microsoft Word to assist in combating this concern and in keeping to the 40 word limit per hat. The other major concern I identified was the ability to accidentally (or purposely) delete contributions that were already made. These were the three key issues that I found with the program. Having said that however, I can see value in incorporating this medium into the classroom.
One of the first things that I did when starting this task was to have a brief look at the contributions already made by students. I had firm statements already drafted about my beliefs however there were a number of considerations that I had not made or included in my views. This, to me, demonstrated the collaborative features of this program. Had this been a teamwork project, I could have built upon what other students were using as their thoughts and arguments. Under the current scenario, I was able to build upon and expand my knowledge and thoughts on the topic through other student's points of view and research, which is all part of the Social Constructivism learning theory.
Vygotsky's theory of Social Constructivism looks as the idea that students and teachers work collaboratively through modelling and scaffolding (McLeod, 2013). This exercise scaffolds the thinking of students through the use of De Bono's Hats. It provided a guide for students such as myself to channel thoughts and arguments by assigning different considerations/questions per hat. Personally, I found that this assisted with the organisation of my thoughts, and forced me to consider not only my arguments, which are against the use of mobile phones in classrooms, but also on the positives that the phones may provide.
After doing some research and setting up my own Wikispace, I can see unlimited of ways to use this program in the classroom across all subjects. For example, in another subject we are required to provide lessons regarding children's literature and provide activities for before, during and after reading. I have planned to use a Wikispace as an activity with the students to assess and develop the student's understanding of the main characters in a novel, as well as important relationship links. It is my opinion that what a teacher and student can do with a Wikispace is limited only to their skills and imagination. While the program may not be entirely fluid, it does offer a great range of possible uses that are easy enough to set up.
I touched briefly before about security. Security is something to be mindful of when you have students accessing the internet (Education Queensland, 2012). I would take steps to minimise risk by providing students with a links page that is categorised based on the subject of the content. I would also regularly check this sites to ensure that they have content which is deemed to be safe. For information that I wanted to ensure document control over, I would remove editing rights or change the privacy settings to restrict who had access to the pages.
Overall, this is a good medium for any classroom. The collaborative avenues that it offers are limitless and I would suggest that all teachers investigate it further and implement it. I definitely will be.
Melissa
References:
Education Queensland. (2012). Risk Management. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/web/schools/riskman.html
McLeod, S. (2013). Lev Vygotsky. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html
Nice work Melissa. You have a post which is balanced and easy to digest. Can I suggest you only produce one blog post to cover the weekly requirements.
ReplyDeleteVoki was great and wallpaper would appeal to some students. Examples of how you would use the digital tools is needed in every blog post. As many as you can imagine.
Keep up the good work.