This week we have been asked to contribute to a discussion on mobile phones in a wiki. A wiki is a scaffolded design tool which encourages a social constructivism approach, it allows students to post ideas and consider other's point of view. Scaffolding is essential as it encourages students to think beyond their initial thoughts, and in this instance De Bono's six thinking hats was deployed. Social constructivism takes place within community and conversation. Provided participants are respectful of others view we can learn from each other, as we all contribute from varied backgrounds and life experiences which shape our thoughts, for example I cannot help but put my "mother" hat on. Within the classroom environment it helps support the collaborative learning of students.
There is an element of connectivism which centres on ideas that you begin researching the topic yourself and then build on your knowledge and that of others through networks. Personally I don't believe our wiki assignment has taken me that deep. Of the top of my head I added my initial thoughts on the topic. Did I think deeply, maybe not, however as I reflect, I did read though others comments and was able to contribute four comments that up until this point had not been mentioned. Is it harder for the last person to add something new? Is it supposed to be hard? A wiki is a collection of others expression on a topic. If we are asked to next week further comment on the wiki by reading others comments and add more this would mean going back into the wiki and choosing a comment that I didn't agree with or hadn't thought about and then going away doing further research then posting a comment based on my investigation this would take learning to a higher level and engage further in the process and see connectivism in action. As a learning tool it is good to revisit and during the week this topic has been somewhere in my subconscious and when I re visited the wiki earlier I had something more to add. Thinking takes time!
Bloging also fits into the same social constructivism learning theory. We have access to everyone elses blogs we can go into them and see how everyone answers the questions their thoughts and comments on the assigned questions - Is that cheating? In my old mindset I would have thought yes - However now I understand more about what collaborative learning is, if someone wants to quote me that's fantastic!
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