Week 2 - de Bono's hats

Hey guys it's Jess!
It has suddenly become week 2 in my third year of university, how crazy!

As you read last week I talked about what learning theories there were and what they meant. Today I am back to discuss which learning theories were used in an online activity for my class Managing E-Learning.
The activity was based around de Bono's six thinking hats. 

Source: Google Images

We had to 'put on' one or more of these six hats and respond to the topic of mobile phone usage in a classroom situation. 

Brief Summary

Black Hat: Negative, what is wrong with this? Why will it not work?

White Hat: Information, what are the facts? What information do I need to know?

Red Hat: Intuitive, how do I feel about this? What do I not like about this idea?

Blue Hat: Process, where are we now? What sort of thinking is needed?

Green Hat: Creativity, what new ideas are possible? Can I create something new?

Yellow Hat: Positive, what are the good points? Why is this a good thing?

Out of the four learning theories discussed last week this activity had us (well me anyway) using one of them (constructivism). 

When I first stepped onto the wiki page I used constructivism to understand my peers thoughts and understanding of the topic as being apart of this technology generation I already had both my yellow and black thinking hats on. My Zone of Proximal Development was used throughout this topic as the support I was given from both online discussions and face-to-face discussions helped me interact with this weeks topic. 

Throughout the course this week I was being scaffolded by the tutors by the opportunity to come up with and give my own opinions in this online wiki. 

All of this was helped by the scaffolding that:

1. Supported the complex reasoning process
2. Supported contributions by ALL students
3. Made thinking visible both to student and teachers
4. Creating a permanent discussion

This week de Bono's six thinking hats topic had a lot of value to for me to finally decide on and finish my research into mobile phones in the classroom. 

This week also focused on the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK). Let's break that down. Think back to when you were in school (it may not be long ago but 
it may be quiet a while), did you ever have a teacher who knew a lot about a subject but was unable to teach it? I am going to assume you said yes, this often means that the teacher had the content knowledge but not the pedagogical content knowledge. Adding technology to the mix of things turns Shulman's pedagogical content knowledge into TPACK.
Now using the diagrams below it is understood that a learning experience is compromised if there is limited pedagogical knowledge or limited technological knowledge. It is only when all three elements (TPACK) are understood that an optimal teaching of ICT can occur. Although I am part of the digital age and having to explain and understand my pedagogical knowledge already I have found over time that sometimes it is harder to explain one thing than to just do it for the person.

Source: CQUModdle.

Thank-you for reading and I will see you next week!