WEEK 2

Mobile Phones Wiki and de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats

This weeks wiki activity was on Mobile Phones in the Classroom. This time however instead of using the PMI framework to deconstruct our thoughts like in week 1 we used Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. The Six Thinking Hats method requires you to extend on your way of thinking about a topic by wearing a different hat that each represents a different mode of thinking. See Below:

This framework is a good way for students to share their thoughts, ideas and perspectives and would be a valuable resource in the classroom as it helps students to learn to refect on their thinking instead of just finding the positives and negatives or just receiving information from the teacher.

After completing the de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats task about my perceptions on mobile phones in the classroom my opinion has changed. I first thought that mobile phones would not be a successful ICT tool to use in the classroom as there were just too many negatives. For example: students texting during class time, using facebook or searching the web for things other then what they should be looking at, bullying and disruption to the class to name a few. After reading everyones elses ideas and opinions as well as my own I now come to the conclusion that infact mobile phones would be a great resource to use as long as they were monitored effectively to ensure the protection of students as this is our biggest priority.

Both week 1 and 2, although different, were similar in a way as the activities required you to participate as a group by reflecting on your own understandings and perceptions on a topic using the wiki and adding or commenting on other peoples perspectives. This helped me greatly in developing a new and more valuable understanding of the topics that I otherwise would not have had. Both these activities I believe were a great reflection of contructivism as they support higher order thinking and group collaboration of ideas thus bringing new interpretations and meanings to the learners.

When I first set up my wiki I wasn’t sure that this would be a very successful tool to use in the classroom but after taking part in week 1 and 2 activities and seeing how effective it has been with my own learning I now believe it would be an excellent ICT tool to use with students. 

Blooms Taxonomy

Blooms taxonomy is not something that I have come across before and I have found it a little confusing but this is what I have found.  I have taken most of this information from Andrew Churches wiki site as my understanding of this is not yet good enough to summarize myself.

Blooms taxonomy simply the process of thinking. It was first created in 1956 but has since been updated to account for new behavior actions and learning opportunities emerging as technology advances and becomes more universal. The taxonomy is not about the tools and technologies but about using these tools to achieve, recall, understanding, application, analysis, evaluation and creativity. 

Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Sub Categories

Each of the categories or taxonomic elements has a number of key verbs associated with it

            Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS)

• Remembering - Recognising, listing, describing, identifying, retrieving, naming, locating, finding
• Understanding - Interpreting, Summarising, inferring, paraphrasing, classifying, comparing, explaining, exemplifying
• Applying - Implementing, carrying out, using, executing
• Analysing - Comparing, organising, deconstructing, Attributing, outlining, finding, structuring, integrating
• Evaluating - Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, Experimenting, judging, testing, Detecting, Monitoring
• Creating - designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing, devising, making

Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)


Bloom's Taxonomy in its various forms represents the process of learning.

Before we can understand a concept we have to remember it
Before we can apply the concept we must understand it
Before we analyse it we must be able to apply it
Before we can evaluate its impact we must have analysed it
Before we can create we must have remembered, understood, applied, analysed, and evaluated. (Churches, 2009)

TPACK

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is a framework for teachers to use to help integrate ICTs into the classroom. At the heart of the TPACK framework, is the complex interplay of three primary forms of knowledge: Content (CK), Pedagogy (PK), and Technology (TK).

- Content Knowledge (CK) is knowledge about the actual subject matter that is to be learnt or taught.

- Pedagogical Knowledge (PK) is deep knowledge about the processes and practices or methods of teaching and learning and how it encompasses, among other things, overall educational purposes, values and aims.

- Technology Knowledge (TK) is knowledge about standard technologies, such as books, chalk and blackboard, and more advanced technologies, such as the internet and digital video.  

The basis of the framework is the understanding that teaching is a highly complex activity that draws on many kinds of knowledge.

References:

Churches, A. (2009) Blooms Digital Taxonomy. Retrieved 17 July, 2011 from, http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+-+Introduction.

CQUniversity. (2011). Readings: Active Learning, Learning Diversity and the Theory (pp. 6). Retrieved from CQUniversity Course Resources Online FAHE11001
http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=186311

Mishra, P. & Koehler, M,J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108, 1017-1054

Mindwerx Pty Ltd. (2011). Dr Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats [Image]. Retrieved from   http://www.mindwerx.com/mind-tools/5970/six-thinking-hats