Coming into the ICT course, I thought this course will be good, as I considered myself a Digital Native having being involved with electronics since I was a kid and having an IT degree and many years experience working in the area. However ICT is not IT and although I knew about the ICT areas we have covered so far, I had never really used them. So I went from a digital native to an ICT digital immigrant.
There are 3 Wikis this conclusion is based on
- Profile Wiki
- Learning Theories Wikis
- Mobile Phone Wiki
The Profile Wiki involved entering your details to a Wiki.
Learning Theories Wiki involved collaborating with other students to analyze a Learning Theory. I partnered with Allan Wood and Stephen Chapman to constructively analyze Multiple Intellenges using a Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI) strategy.
I have to thank (maybe) Ward Cunningham for creating the first Wiki. Called WikiWikiWeb in 1995, it can still be found at www.c2.com.
Using the Wikis has shown use of all of the main Learning theories, Behavourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and Connectivism.
Behaviorism has been popularly described “Based on observable changes in behavior. Behaviorism focuses on a new behavioral pattern being repeated until it becomes automatic.” (Schuman, 1996). There are a few behavioral patterns that occurred when I started using wiki’s. Before I used a wiki I guessed which buttons to press, after doing a few entries the behavior of using a wiki was learnt by following the steps outlined in the study guide.
In the Wiki exercises also showed cognitive practices, as new information was absorbed into my existing schemas, the schemas combined the new information with the pre-existing information. The best example of this for me was with the mobile phones Wiki. A lot of the students put forward some very good cases for each of the 6 De Bonos hats, many of these things I had not thought of before, thus altering my perception of the use of mobile phones. However until there is suitable functionality the mobile phones will still remain a novelty outside of the arts related classes.
Cognitivism is “Based on the thought process behind the behavior. Changes in behavior are observed, and used as indicators as to what is happening inside the learner's mind. ” (Schuman, 1996). General use of the different wikis also lead to distributive practicing, this is also a cognitive behavior
The main aim of the use of Wikis in this course is to get us to learn about Constructivism, with the structure of the course to promote constructivist learning through higher order learning. The wikis and reflections are designed to get me to think about the process and content and draw my own conclusions.
Although the Profile Wiki did not initially appear to have any higher order concepts, I did find out about one interesting one. When I entered my name into the wiki of names, the wiki added a “?” beside my name, clicking on the ‘?’ added a page where I could enter my profile. Being an IT person, I thought to myself, “what happened there” and interestingly a function of the wiki is to generate a new page for me to enter my information. I analyzed the higher order functions that were taking place to satisfy my query.
Constructivism is present in more significant ways through the remaining 2 Wikis. The Learning Theories Wiki uses a PMI analysis. PMI is a common Scaffold for higher order thinking exercises using ICT, other common scaffolds include SWOT and Ranking Tools, as used in the mobile phones wiki. To quote a definition of Constructivism:
“Based on the premise that we all construct our own perspective of the world, through individual experiences and schema. Constructivism focuses on preparing the learner to problem solve in ambiguous situations.” (Schuman, 1996)
Scaffolds help to provide the direction for the learner to solve the defined exercise problems.
"Constructivists also believe that much of reality is shared through a process of social negotiation..." (Jonassen)
The Mobile phone wiki was an interesting exercise because of the content and the scaffold, the ranking tool scaffold and the De Bono thinking hats made it a thorough learning exercise. the thought pattern arising from what I initially thought was a simple answer (NO) was surprising, having everyone contribute to the one wiki and the different points of view provokes a lot of thought and higher level learning.
When dealing with any ICT in education, I think there is always going to be at least some Connectivism. I see Connectivism as being an invaluable life skill for professional development. In the associated wikis there are a number of links to relevant information. The linking (connecting) of information is an important facet of the HTML standard and implemented well in connectivist learning.
eLearning is a growing concept, not only is it becoming popular in schools and universities, it is an important part of industry learning. Many larger businesses are using eLearning in preference to central training due to travel constraints and costs to the business. For any self directed elearning there must scaffolding, the scaffolding provides the direction and structure of the learning.
I recognized the 3 learning concepts introduced in week 2 (Blooms Taxonomy, Engagement Theory & TPACK) are incorporated into the wiki exercises we have performed. This course and its exercises so far has been heavy on the high order thinking concepts and lighter on the low-order learning concepts. Engagement Theory is also a strong feature with the Learning Theories Wiki, however I don’t think anyone will be lining up to get my donated outcomes.
The scaffolding employed in the wikis I have used shows the use of the TPACK learning framework, directing me to my learning outcomes. I must admit that at the start of the wikis I had trouble starting the work, as I was not clear on the procedures to carry out and with the FLEX method I am doing, the directions were a little slow getting through the cognitive part of my brain.
The functionality of the wikis has only been scratched so far in this course; I think the object is to use Wiki as a tool, not the subject of the course. But being a tech person I couldn’t help but be interested in what a wiki can do.
The wikis have simplified syntax, as we have been using, so anyone can author content. The wikis also have a type of version control, I found this would be good to remove malicious entries. Wikis can also get more technical with its linking and searching ability, Semantic wikis (Schaffert, Bischof, Burger, Gruber, Hilzensauer, and Schaffert (2006)) can use annotating to more closely relate pages. In a course more focused on the functionality of wikis, that would be a good unit.
So in a final statement, wikis can be an effective part in an ICT learning environment, designed with good learning frameworks (TPACK, Blooms and engagement theory) in mind and utilizing higher order thinking.
References
Jonasson, D.H. (Undated). Thinking technology: Toward a constructivist design model. [On-line]. Available: http://ouray.cudenver.edu/~slsanfor/cnstdm.txt
Mergel B (May, 1998) Instructional Design & Learning Theory Online, available: http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm
Schuman, L. (1996). Perspectives on instruction. [On-line]. Available: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec540/Perspectives/Perspectives.html
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