Working in a Wiki with De Bono's 6 Thinking Hats - Reflection

As a background for those who may not have been involved in this activity we were asked to participate in a Wiki using De Bono's 6 thinking hats. The topic of discussion was "Mobile Phones - should they be used in the classroom?"

By the end of this exercise I could see a lot of benefits for using wiki's as a learning tool for students collaborative learning. However, I must admit at first it was a bit overwhelming for two reasons. Firstly, I wasn't quite sure I had a full understanding of the task and secondly, inside the wiki was just plain messy. My personal learning style requires that I create some order and direction and I need to end up with a result that consolidates my learning, so I was feeling a little out of my comfort zone in the beginning as I didn't have my head around the task.

Instructions for getting into the wiki and editing it were great but the links to explain De Bono's 6 thinking hats were not working so I had to google the concept of De Bono's 6 thinking hats to work out the task. I also emailed Wendy who confirmed I was on the right track. Once I made a decision about what I was supposed to do I just had to navigate my way around the wiki.

I have to say I haven't seen other wiki's to compare this one to but it did feel messy and hard to follow. Originally that frustrated me but by the end of the task I realised it was ok for it to be messy. It was similar to brainstorming and collecting ideas. If this engagement task was to be used in our classrooms with the true purpose being to learn about the content such as the mobile phone debate, the collection of information using De Bono's six thinking hats in the wiki would only be the first stage of the learning experience. As Wendy mentioned in our engagement activity description, this activity would normally be followed up by a sorting and filtering process. I think that is the part I feel is neccessary to do to consolidate my personal learning. However, I now see that consolidating my learning about mobile phones wasn't the purpose of the exercise and I am glad we didn't have to follow through with that part of the learning experience in this case. The second part of the exercise is actually this reflection which is in fact consolidating my learning experience just as I was hoping.

So what have I learn't and how did I learn it?

I believe I have learn't that the design of this learning experience in the wiki is an example of the learning theory Social Constructivism. Using the wiki in this way is not only a great way to share ideas and introduce new ones but allows students to digest their understanding of the material, look at different viewpoints and possibly even change the way they think about the topic using collaborative learning. The great thing is all of that learning is documented. It also allows students to contribute in their own time allowing the wiki to become an evolving piece of work.

It would be interesting in a classroom situation (online or offline of course) to see the results of this type of exercise. And by results, I mean see if students have changed their original way of thinking about a topic.

I also consider the learning theory of Connectivism to play a part in this wiki exercise as it has certainly connected the learners ideas and thoughts using 21st century technology. However, in my opinion I think the main learning theory is still Social Constructivism. My understanding of connectivism at this point of time extends beyond using a wiki to share ideas, to using technology to search for information, critically analyse it and collate not so much the content knowledge but the access to the knowledge onto some form of on-line space which then supports the learning experience. Although this exercise shares information among learners which is then considered and consolidated by the learners, I don't feel it extends to a learning experience that is primarily based on the Connectivism theory.

What are the benefits, issues, drawbacks of participating in a wiki like this?

The first obvious benefit is collaborative learning without the restriction of physical presence. Being able to change and edit is certainly valuable as well in that it allows interaction between learners as well as creating an evolving learning experience.

As I noted at the beginning of this reflection, I found our wiki very messy and it had a lot of information, contributed by other learners, to sift through which was difficult. In saying that I now don't believe that is a negative issue in relation to wiki's but a characteristic of collecting ideas. I consider that the way we used our wiki was like a brain-storming exercise, just getting the ideas on paper. I am sure there are scaffolded ways of then consolidating those ideas using wiki's. There is also the possiblity that the students using this wiki, myself included may not have very much experience, so that could have possibly contributed to the poor formatting?  As I was working through the wiki I did think it  would be better used in smaller groups of maybe 5 students, but now I think that maybe it depends on both the task and the technological skills and experience of the students.

I have started using one of the quizz wiki's and find that very useful for sharing ideas. We are in a small group of 4 and at this point in time it is easy to follow and contribute to. It is also now not a completely new experience.

There are pros and cons to everything in life so even with wikis there are some drawbacks as well.

The main drawback that I have noticed, is that a few of my fellow learners have experienced the situation where there contributions to the wiki have been removed or over-written.. Apparently there is a history button or section of the wiki that will keep a record of all work contributed but I haven't experienced it's use as yet.

The only other area which I think is a drawback is that I would like further editing options. It may be that I will learn more about setting up tables etc in wiki's in the future but the editing task bar felt very limited.

How did the scaffold support the collection of a range of perspectives?

I think De Bono's six thinking hats is a great way to extend student's thinking. The concept of ensuring the student has thought from all viewpoints is valuable in creating a thicker sense of understanding of the topic. It is often too easy throughout life in general, to jump on the bandwagon of one train of thought and comfortably stay there. Considering other view points and perspectives encourages better participation in society as well as extending learning in general. It also allows the learner to criticize their own viewpoint which may either strengthen it or change it. In addition to using the thinking hats, reviewing other students comments and perspectives in the process further enriches the process of thinking and critiquing.


As a final note, I did see a you tube video in our learning material about organising a camping trip using a wiki. I found it on the smart copying web-site. That video gave me an overview of wiki's and highlighted the potential of the collaborative use of wikis. The fact that individuals in different locations can create collaboratively is fantastic.

I think that I will use wiki's in the future for smaller group activities, whether they be as communication tools in planning group assignments or the actual assessment task themselves. I am sure my ideas will evolve with my own exposure to wikis.