Week 2 Reflection

Closing in on our week 2 learning materials was a pleasant experience, 14 hours of reading about learning theory, countless crashing of websites, difficulty logging into the blogger program whilst having my uni account logged in. It seemed like this week would never end! Within the tutorial our student teacher assigned us with a task, collaboratively work with our peers on the university wiki space. Our topic, mobile phones in classrooms, the context, defining this controversial topic under the 6 de Bono thinking hats. The thinking hats ask the participant to think about the topic from all points of view, including all positives and implications. The hats are as follows, Black Hat- Negative, Blue Hat- Process, Green Hat- Creative, Red Hat- Intuitive, Yellow Hat- Positive and White Hat- Objective. Initially listening to the description of this task I thought it to be quite interesting and relatively simple. Find information that supported our viewpoints and share them on an online collaborative interface. Writing up my opinions and about to hit 'save' an uproar began in the classroom, distraught cries of work being deleted over the top of others work being the cause. It appeared that with all the people editing and saving the current work was not being kept. Feeling very grateful that I had not yet saved, I copied my work into a word document and saved it for later editing. The theory behind this activity is quite effective, social contructivism comes into play with learners brining forth their own beliefs and experiences about the use of mobile phones in the classroom. Connectivism is also a major learning theory being implemented here, students first put forth their own beliefs but then are asked to find examples or information regarding this topic. Discovering this new information for themselves gives the learner the skill of understanding where to find information that supports their theory. Discussing the situation from all viewpoints allows the students to think and express their thoughts extrinsically, as all students need to consider all viewpoints it limits the possibility of students being criticised for their beliefs. completing my second week of Managing e-Learning I am still struggling to comprehend the technology aspect of the course but in regard to the learning theories we are covering I am really enjoying expanding my knowledge base!