Welcome to the new
world of wikis in the classroom!
Hello again!
What’s a wiki?
I'm glad you asked! Well…
A wiki is a
type of internet software that allows for online participation, basically any
visitor to the wiki can become
a participant. A wiki is “a collaborative tool that allows students to
contribute and modify one or more pages of course related materials.” http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/wikis/
One famous example is Wiki-pedia,
an online encyclopedia with no “authors” but millions of contributors and
editors. http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
There are many benefits of a wiki activity as shown through my mind map below.
After undertaking the wiki activity (6 Thinking Hats) looking at Mobile phones in the classroom, I felt the general design of
this particular wiki was one dimensional, you could add text…and that was about
it. Although the participants had the options of slight editing changes, such as
coloured text, there was very little you could add without being a computer wizard. And if you weren't a wiz, there was also a high risk (and well repeated warning)
that editing issues could lead to erasing and losing other participants work.
I think that the design
of the wiki platform makes it ideal for group projects
that emphasize group collaboration and individual editing. Such as mini
research projects, collaborations on course work and creating and maintaining
an online communication between students and teachers.
Although I do agree with the statement “Wikis work best when individual authorship is less important than the outcome that is created. Also, wikis are most appropriate for content that doesn't need to be protected from accidental editing” http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/wikis/
Although I do agree with the statement “Wikis work best when individual authorship is less important than the outcome that is created. Also, wikis are most appropriate for content that doesn't need to be protected from accidental editing” http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/wikis/
What’s de Bono’s six
thinking hats?
Again, I’m so glad you asked!
A bit of back ground…In 1985, Dr. Edward de Bono’s introduced the Six Thinking Hats which is a very versatile thinking skills tool. It allows participants to “simplify thinking by dealing with points consecutively and carry out a switch in thinking‟ (De Bono, 1999).
Below is an outline of the different ‘hat’ or thinking styles,
The six hats of
thinking is a great scaffolded approach to increasing cognitive thinking skills. It forces the
individual/group to for a perspective or opinion but from a different variety
of mind set. It reduces conflict and increases collaboration in a very clear analytical results. I also believe it helps to open individual’s views to
consider a topic from a different schema or mind set whilst reducing conflict. I
find de Bono’s view on reducing attack and increasing the ability to think parallel
amazing, and to have great benefits in not only the classroom but in business decisions for all industries.
Using the 6 Thinking Hats, the higher level thinker creates new ideas, the picture below is a pretty good example of the green hat!
Using the 6 Thinking Hats, the higher level thinker creates new ideas, the picture below is a pretty good example of the green hat!
http://woculus.com/make-better-business-decisions-edward-de-bonos-six-thinking-hats/
Attached is a link to Edward de Bono - discusses the Six Thinking Hats®, a fantastic interview with a great emphasis on reducing conflict and increasing learning in group settings.
There are many
benefits to using the 6 thinking hats as I have tried to outline;
But how does the wiki’s design link to learning theories?
Wow, you ask such interesting questions!
Let me see…
Let me see…
The
requisite of teaching thinking skills is perceived by the growing awareness of
the change in society and skills that may no longer be appropriate to prepare
students for the world beyond school (Fisher, 1999). Thus as teachers as
Schafersman, (1991) states “today’s curriculum thrives towards teaching
students how to think.”
This links
very closely to the learning theories such as Cognitivism and Constructivism,
whilst also aligning with the development of higher order and critical thinking
skills as identified in Blooms Taxonomy, TPACK and the SAMR model.
Blooms Taxonomy was created in 1956 after what must have been a very unproductive debate determining taxonomy for scientific organisms, the aim of Blooms Taxonomy as defined in Wikipedia.org was to ‘distinguish the fundamental questions in education’.
This links to the purpose of the de Bono’s 6 thinking hats, another step by step (behaviourism) scaffolded guide with the aim of creating a productive and creative approach to group discussions and research. The fundamental questions have been distinguished for us and create a great template for achieving higher level critical and creative thinking, thus moving the participant from knowing information to creating new ideas.
Dhanapal
(2013, pg4)
The Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition (SAMR) Model, offers a method of seeing and reflecting on how technology might impact on teaching
and learning in today's classrooms. Like the 6 Thinking Hats and Blooms Taxonomy, it also shows a progression that teachers utilising technology often follow as they progress through using ICT's in the classroom as a tool to redefining teaching and learning with technology.
All three models aim to produce a higher order thinking and encourage student centered teaching and student engagement.
I can see
how using such a software such as Wikis, would give students the
opportunity to shift from ‘consumer of knowledge’ to ‘creators of knowledge,’
which is a great way as a teacher;
- to encourage and scaffold (behaviourisim) your students to develop critical and cognitive thinking skills (de Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats and Blooms Taxonomy)
- to learn from one another through group participation linking with social connectivisim, and,
- to improve their ability to work in groups (reduction of attacks and arguments thus aligning with Dr. Judy Willis learning and the brain theories).
All in all, this format would be
beneficial as a group activity, as the end results are easy to collate and
compare as a class. The results could be followed up in class, maybe
identifying the top five points for each area and collaborate the results (i.e. PMI, Pros and cons or 6 think hats).
How did you find participating in
the wiki activity?
Wow, you really are an interesting conversationalist!
Wow, you really are an interesting conversationalist!
After my own
participation in a group wiki (in this particular wiki utilising de Bono 6 hats
- mobile phones in the classroom), I found that the three most beneficial parts
of the participation in technology applications such as wikis is that,
1. Wiki
activities “provided a vehicle for exercising most, if not all, of Bloom’s
‘higher order thinking’ activities”. http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/wikis/
2. The critical design elements of the wiki activity encourages a range of
benefits and above all, processes such as the utilising of models like the Six Thinking Hats encourages higher-order thinking skills, while being
student focused, leading to better learning outcomes and academic performances.
3. The Six Hats also
aligns with what we know about the brain and learning, that the more comfortable the
learner (minimize conflict and arguments) and the more engaging the teaching (student
centered) than the more efficient gain in the knowledge that gets 'into' the
brain.
I found the
activity very engaging and scaffolded to produce a clear outcome. The structure
of the activity made it easy to become an analytical and critical thinker. It
encouraged me as a participant to be creative in the way I thought, and made me be less negative (black hat) and emotional (red hat). Overall it made it easy to align my thinking into a clear and easy group format (aiding productive
team work).
The end
result of this particular wiki activity is a development of higher order critical thinking skills including creative, problem based and analytical
thinking. The activity is student centered and encourages the learner to
process data and facts, and to move to a higher level of thinking and form an
opinion, new views and ideas. The result of the design allows for easy and
efficient analysis and data collection as opposed to an essay, while the use of
de Bono hats reduces the potential for attacks and arguments between
participants.
I can see
how this activity could be extremely beneficial in the classroom, as it balances
assessment and evaluation of a topic, while maximizing group collaboration and higher level critical thinking. It even sets a fair playing field that allows each individual
to make their view or point, without the threat of people attacking or commenting on their views. The focus is on collating each individuals view in parallel.
Although as a teacher I would personally be creating clear rules and ethical guidelines, outlining the students rights and responsibilities. These need to be clearly outline with agreed consequences with the aim of setting a safe working environment. I would aim to develop this in class with the students, giving them ownership over their behaviour and the consequences.
Although as a teacher I would personally be creating clear rules and ethical guidelines, outlining the students rights and responsibilities. These need to be clearly outline with agreed consequences with the aim of setting a safe working environment. I would aim to develop this in class with the students, giving them ownership over their behaviour and the consequences.
The last point I felt was paramount
to my own experiences with this wiki's and my own Post Graduate assignments, has
been discussed by many academics and education consultants including Dave
Foord.
Foord states that with all types of assignments and standard of assessments, the more clear you (as the teacher) are with your expectations and expected learning outcomes, the more likely students will be able to meet them.
Foord states that with all types of assignments and standard of assessments, the more clear you (as the teacher) are with your expectations and expected learning outcomes, the more likely students will be able to meet them.
A great acronym to consider as a
teacher when using with wiki activities in the classroom is STOLEN developed by
Foord.
S
|
Specific Overall Objective
(Clear objective for the wiki, Understood by all, Not a “general” area)
|
T
|
Timley
(Definitive times for different “stages” of use, Definite end point ‐ even if left open after) |
O
|
Ownership
(People need to feel that they “collaboratively own” the wiki)
|
L
|
Localized
(Some structure of what is expected, Starting points for editing)
|
E
|
Engagement (Who can edit, Which parts they can edit, Acceptable and unacceptable use)
|
N
|
Navigation
(Clear navigation structure, Simple) |
http://www.a6training.co.uk/resources_Social_Software.php
And lastly, just to remind ourselves why these individual difference
that we are trying to manage are actually important, take a look at the great
minds below and consider that although
no two minds think alike, they can think parallel!
Reference
list
De Bono, E. (1999) Six Thinking Hats (New York: Little Brown Company
Dhanapal, S., Tabitha, K., & Ling, W. (2013) A Study to Investigate How Six Thinking Hats Enhance the Learning of Environmental Studies. IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education (IOSR-JRME). 1(6), 20-29
Schafersman, S. D. (1991) An Introduction to Critical Thinking.
http://woculus.com/make-better-business-decisions-edward-de-bonos-six-thinking-hats/
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
Awesome work Cassie. I love the questions at the to bringing in the humour and the STOLEN acronym. Nice and clear with defining headlines.
ReplyDeleteCheers Katrina