Reflection 1 Week 2

During this week's activities with DeBono's Hats I felt that this thinking routine showed the learning theories of behaviourism, cognitivism, social constructivism and connectivism quite well. Behaviourism is the study of changes in one’s behaviour and introducing mobile phones into the classroom would certainly change students’ behaviour. Cognitivism theory is looking at the mental process of how people learn. As mobile phones are a large part of people's lives now, they are a part of exciting the senses. As such, mobile phones could be incorporated into daily learning for the three -staged process to occur which is as follows:

 1. Information is taken in by senses and transferred to the sensory memory. As the information is on the phone it can be used immediately to commit to memory.

2. When the information is regarded as important, the information is transferred to the short - term storage and onto short- term memory with reinforcement to the information.

3. When the relevant information links to other areas of information, it is eventually stored in the long -term memory.

Social Constructivism is at the core of mobile phones being integrated into the classroom as the theory is based upon social interactions within a learning community. The teacher can mediate scaffolding and supervise all interactions that are online. All the while the students can interact with one another all times of the day, support one another, learn together and most importantly add thoughts and experiences creating a richer more comprehensive learning experience for all students.

Connectivism is a theory that has been developed for learning in the digital age. It focuses on students learning with computers, the internet and networking with people on line. This theory becomes more and more relevant each and every day as society as a whole become ever more reliant on "always on line."

The characteristics of the wiki lead me to the understanding that all theories were in play through the nature of each hat. It made me consider many factors such as for and against, how would the teacher implement this effectively? What creative approaches could be used with mobile phones? How do I personally feel about this matter? What benefits are there to consider? What information (statics, research and examples of implementation) do I need to obtain before I can approach the school about implementing new technology or even new thinking into the school.

Posting on a wiki and following one allowed me to see what other people's views, thoughts and considerations that I myself may have missed. In viewing these I have expanded my understanding of the topic. My posts to the wiki may have also helped someone learn something they may have over looked and we both had gained some useful insight. I myself personally have not come across any issues or drawbacks with this week's calibration other than my own fears of someone looking at my work and thinking that it is all bollocks.

This Hat activity was a fantastic way of showing us how to look at a new concept, technology or idea we wish to or are being made to implement into our classroom. It makes you think beyond your initial thoughts and look at the topic objectively. I will certainly be using this approach to contribute to the learning of my students in the future.