The 6 thinking hats created by Edward DeBono for the purpose of a thinking framework to scaffold learners thinking and learning. This process is valuable to scaffold thinking and learning and allows different thinking to be applied to different situations. It is a framework to guide rather than restrict thinking. Students can use this framework as a valuable tool to reach a deeper level of thinking and then engage in higher order thinking by thinking about their thinking.
This process was used to scaffold our thinking about the question of mobile phone use in classrooms. This process has worked well with a large variety of thinking coming forward.
This forum is reflective of constructivism. During this process the learner takes an active and self managed role in learning. The learner seeks out knowledge either individually or collaboratively. In order to participate in this forum we were required to seek out information and then share this information with our peers to collaboratively build knowledge.
The forum also reflects the cognitivism theory as this involves mental processing of information. Information is transferred to the long term memory through organising, chunking and connecting this information. Edward DeBono's thinking hats provided scaffolding for information to be organised and grouped. So now this information that we have individually and collaboratively constructed has been organised and stored into our long term memory.
Behaviourism states that the learning is acquired through external stimuli. This stimuli can be in the form of physical rewards, or motiviation to learn more. During e learning the material can often be broken into smaller steps and provide positive or negative feedback along the journey to motivate the learner. I was motivated by the behaviourism theory to participate through the motivation to learn more, knowledge of the outcome of passing my assessment and because I was only required to contribute a smaller section to the forum.
Reading this wiki has been interesting, I participated personally by commenting in the red hat, intuitive section. This hat provides opportunitiy to put forward feelings on the topic. My feelings have both negative and positive perspectives as outlined below.
"Mobile phones are a great device with many features listed above, these features each have endless teaching opportunities for teachers who are willing and able to embrace this technology. Students can learn how to organise themselves and their school task, record events through a photographic diary and many other things".
"Some things I don't like about this idea is the potential for distraction that could come about in classrooms if the use of mobile phones isnt introduced and monitored well. Also there would be a lot of work convincing some parents that their child really is learning while using a mobile phone as there are still parents who don't believe in the child having a mobile phone".
The black hat provides the judgement perspective, the negative aspect of the topic.
"The art of hand writing might become a dying art if mobile phones are used to complete homework, send messages and complete lessons. Will the students of tomorrow be able to write their name?"
Benefits of participating in a wiki like this:
A wiki like this provides opportunities for all students to participate. It is less confrontational as there is no face to face discussions. There is opportunity to participate anonymously. Wiki's like this one help participants to build trust in their peers, as they share their thoughts and learning in a public arena. One element of trust is knowing that your peers will not change or delete your comments, another element is trusting your peers judgement about your personal thoughts and learning.
Issues participating in a wiki like this:
Issues that could arise from a wiki like this would be other participants changing or deleting your comments or posts. In order to participate each member would need to have complete trust in their peers.
Drawbacks of participating in a wiki like this:
I found it hard to comment on this wiki, as I did not want to post information that was incorrect. I did not want to look silly in front of my peers. If using a wiki like this for students they would experience the same feelings of apprenhension.
Wiki's like this one can contribute to student learning by providing the students with the opportunity to share and build on their own and their peers knowledge. It could be a very effective collaborative learning tool if learners are scaffolded effectively. Scaffolding would include how to use a wiki, ethics involved in participating, such as not altering or deleting other persons comments and posts, being sensitive to other learners abilities and perspectives.
By providing specific questions to guide thinking this wiki supported the collection of a range of perspectives from each individual participant. This range was extended by allowing a variety of participants who come from different walks of life and have different views about the same topic. Each participant will be able to provide a unique perspective for each different thinking hat even though each participant is answering the same questions to guide their thinking they will still have a different answer to each other participant.
TPACK
Teaching Pedagogical and Content Knowledge
Content: Actual subject matter that is to be taught.
Pedagody: The process and practice or methods of teaching and learning
Technology: Chalkboards, books, computers, video.
What is TPACK?
- A framework
- Teacher knowledge is required to integrate technology into teaching, simply adding technology to teaching is not enough, teachers need technological knowledge to incorporate technology effectively.
- Teaching is a complex activity and cognitive skill that is dependent on access to highly organised systems of knowledge including knowledge of student thinking and learning and knowledge of the subject matter being taught.
- Recognises that pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge need to be known and work together to make an effective teacher, TPACK provides the framework for combining these two elements, it blends pedagogical and content knowledge.
- The teacher takes the knowledge of subject matter then using their pedagogical knowledge organises, adapts and presents the content knowledge in an accessible way for learners to achieve learning.
- Technologies have now come to the forefront of education and are changing the nature of the traditional classroom.
- Technologies can be used to represent and formulate subject matter and make if morea ccissible to learners.
- Representations, analogies, examples, explanations and demonstrations all make content more accessible to the learner and can all incorporated into learning through the use of technologies.
- Teachers can often be reluctant to embrace the change of technology for many reasons including but not limited to: fear of technology or fear of change, lack or time, lack of support, lack of access, lack of knowledge. However teachers not only need to know how to use today's technology but they also need the skills to embrace future technology.
- In the past teachers could focus on content and pedgogy in their teaching as technology moved slowly and did not change much in their career, this is no longer the case. Now teachers must have up to date knowledge not only of technology but also how to incorporate this into their teaching successfully.
- Technology has often been considered separate to content and pedagogy but the TPACK framework states that this is not so, all three areas must be blended and thoughtfully interwoven for successful teaching today. Technology must not be taught in isolation to pedagogy and content, it must be used in relation to the content or subject matter in a meaningful and authentic context.
- PCK - Pedagogical content knowledge.
- TCK - Technological content knowledge.
- TPK - Technological pedagogical knowledge.
- TPCK - Technological pedagodical content knowledge.
- The complexity of teacher knowledge makes it difficult to represent it in one overarching framework, but TPCK provides a framework for teachers to tease apart some of the key issues and consider how content, pedagogy and technically work together to create a richer learning experience for today's learner.
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