Week 2 Engagement Activity 4: Blog reflection on wiki activity

After completing my post on the Mobile Phone Wiki, I felt like I was connecting to the outside world, which was reassuring, giving me some "confidence" to keep plodding away at the set tasks each week.  Studying by Distance Education is a new concept to me, so I was happy to know, I had been able to share my thoughts on the Wiki page successfully.

I believe the forum utilised numerous learning theories.  Some examples of this are as follows;
Constructivism, the ability to take my own previous knowledge and experiences and consider others experiences and perspectives.
Working in the Wiki was a great opportunity for me to "build upon" what I though I knew or believed in, my schema about "mobile phones in the classroom".

Engaging in social learning , networking with my peers and the teacher was a great way to obtain new information, tips for further research and keep me motivated to construct "new" knowledge.  I could create my own personal collaborative learning space, meeting others that were interested in the same topic.

The use of de Bonos six thinking hats, within this wiki forum, allowed more objective and comprehensive considerations of the issue at hand.  It broke down the thinking process into six components.  I chose to comment wearing the Red hat (feelings) and the Yellow hat (strengths). 
The use of visual colours and cues, worked well with my learning style (visual learner) and so it made the "information" stick.
Behaviourism as an approach to learning focuses largely on stimuli and responses, things that we can see or hear to cause a change.
Cognitivism, which is based on the thought process behind the behaviour became evident after reading other contributing comments on the Wiki.  I was able to view the organisation of the comments but then could reorganise that new information in a way that I could process and accommodate it.  The new information was adding to my schema, extending it and altering it.
I believed a majority would be pro mobile phone usage in the classroom but I was wrong!
A lot of people still believed they were a distraction in class, they couldn't be controlled by the teacher, were used for cyberbullying and were just a plain nuisance!  I did tend to gravitate towards the positive responses or open minded discussions more, as I guess they were similar in their schema to mine.
The teaching strategy of connectivism was also utilised as an adjunct to learning.  Connectivism for me has become more of a lifestyle than a learning theory but it serves its purpose, just the same.
The use of the Mobile Phone Wiki, was a great experience in allowing me to share my ideas with a group of "learners".  We were able to connect and collaborate all of our thoughts, feelings, opinions, facts and further questions for continuing learning.  The use of technology allowed this to occur and hence the importance or "way of life" this has become.  Connectivism made the learning more fun, enhancing each approach in a certain way. Devices such as ipods, ipads, laptops, notebooks have just made my personal learning more fun!
All these learning theories can actually complement each other or sometimes just work on their own, depending on what I'm learning.

I was very intimidated about creating a blog or participating in the wiki.  It's all very foreign to me and so with anything new, I tend to become doubtful, questioning my ability to be able to successfully complete the task.  After following the very clear instructions on the moodle page, I created my blog and began adding reflections to it.  I followed the prompts and added my comments to the Mobile Phone Wiki.  This was a huge achievement and I felt very excited and empowered that I managed to do these things, without the help of my IT husband!!
I felt comfortable leaving my message on the Mobile Phone wiki, as it was "common ground", for all to make comment and not be "rubbished or ridiculed".  Their was a sense of trust within the framework of this wiki.
I did notice however, once I was in the edit page, you could accidentally delete anything that was in there.  I accidentally put my blog at the very top of the page, where the original question was. Whoops !!!  I just went into edit and moved it down to an appropriate space.

Overall, some benefits of working in a wiki would be:

• Anyone can edit
• Its easy to use and learn
• Its instantaneous, a virtual textbook in the making.
• Its a flexible tool, used for a wide range of topics.

Some issues or disadvantages may include:

• Anyone can edit or open for example confidential information
• Open to SPAM
• Requires Internet connectivity to collaborate
• The information can begin to look disorganised

I believe Wikis would contribute to the learning of the students by:

• Stimulating writing, it becomes fun!
• Low cost but effective communication and collaboration tool (with emphasis on the text)
• Promotion of reading, revision and tracking of comments, opinions, similar in perspective
• Writing to a bigger audience
• Encouraging a "higher thinking" outcome, using Blooms Taxonomy.
• To summarise their findings on the wiki, so others can edit collaboratively to improve accuracy and completeness of the information.

Wikis in general can allow students to:

• meet virtually at their convenience and work on projects together.  This is so relevant for me as I'm studying part time via Distance Education.
• to gather, organise and share writing, photos, video presentations and other digital creations.
• enable rich, flexible collaborations that have positive, psychological consequences for the group.
• preparing your students to make innovative uses of collaborative software tools.
• for the group.

The scaffolding supported the range of perspectives within the wikis with the use of de Bonos six thinking hats.  The students could regroup and analyse the top or most popular responses (similar coloured hats/perspectives), making comment or researching further about their perspective.

The collaborative and public nature of the wiki, I believe helps students understand and collaborate in a continuous publishing process in which their strengths and talents add to the research and final product.

I've always believed that I would learn form my students and that I need to know them and what they need in order to teach well.  I also believe that learning is a social activity and that we learn by participation.  In addition I believe that all kids can learn and that they are "smart" in different ways.  Finally a student can learn if s/he can see a target has various supporting structures and resources and has the opportunity and time to practice and improve with continuous feedback.
A wiki provides the structure for all of these pedagogical implications.

Learning activities

• Engaging students in projects that inform others in real situations with option, promoting interests and strengths.

Learning resources

• Multimedia or live venues where students can learn both the information and the process of gathering (adding links to), analysing and putting together the learned concepts.

Learning support (via peer or teacher)

• Provide the feedback and structure for students to succeed according to their needs.

Everything is visible and transparent, within a wiki, supportive of all students and styles.  It builds the conversation and the community through a 21st Century communication connection .