Learning Theories Wiki Reflection

Well then, it wasn’t too long before the information we created and gained from the “Profile Wiki” was implemented.

When asked to work in groups usually I cringe with hatred as you normally aren’t too sure of your partner’s capabilities especially in only week 2 of the first term. However, when given the option to choose a partner with the aid of the profile wiki, group work seemed a tad bit more interesting as I could almost stalk their profile finding good traits I want in a partner. I guess this part of the activity was structured so we could become connectivist thinkers for the future, whereby we now know where to find information on our cohort.

Okay, so…. Once finding a group, being asked to read and source information on a subject usually requires a brainstorm between the group members, to produce an overall summation of what we found about the topic. This of course is learnt in a contructivitic way, whereby our previous experiences and perceptions of group work come into play…. We all know how it goes, normally done in one lesson, sprawled out in a classroom this experience has been well worn by many a teacher and has become somewhat monotonous. However, when the classroom is virtual and the students don’t live in the same town, group work gets interesting....

Going with what I know best, I emailed my two group members, proposing we all source and read information on the topic and culminate our information together by a virtual- online meeting at the end of the week using Skype. One would now assume that the lecturer had almost scaffolded part of the activity on a behaviourism-based factor, whereby our learning was a response to conditioning i.e. were led to explore other means of electronic communication to effectively work together (even if the task didn’t clearly stipulate us to do so).

P.M.I FTW?!

Well now… Of course in brainstorming in a groups setting, there are many ways to pinpoint the main information on a topic. Plus – Minus – Interesting…. the use of the P.M.I template quickly using a lower-order thinking action of understanding by classifying and comparing gives the group grounds to base an opinion on a topic.

So where now?

Okay our group has had our meeting on Skype where we assimilated, compromised and compiled our thoughts on the topic and now have been instructed to add the findings to a….. WIKI! Yes indeed, our lecturer has asked we delve back into our knowledge bank on how to use/edit/save Wiki’s online to provide the rest of the students with our findings on a topic. A very cognitivistic way to draw back to information learnt previously and stored in the memory but recalled and reiterated in this activity, which we all know as KNOWLEDGE!

Now, given the fact we all know what the benefits of Wiki’s are, when coupled with our information provided in a P.M.I format, the entire cohort are able to gain a broader range of ideas which would hopefully cover a large majority of the pluses, minuses and interesting facts about the topic. In this forum now information has been provided in a connectivistic manner whereby the students are able to identify where to find knowledge that is known (although also created by themselves) about a topic.

The Learning Theories Wiki acitivty (that’s a mouthful!) was well designed in a way which incorporated more than just an outcome of finding out information on a topic. The activity taught new skills (such as eMeeting), revised and implemented fairly new information (such as the Wiki tool) and also revised old information and skills needed and acquired from previous group work.

Now….. considering the information we have learnt in the previous week on Wiki’s as well as the connectivist thought process of knowing where to find information, the lecturer was able to create a learning experience for us whereby less scaffolding was needed for the activities i.e.

In choosing our group - we had created our own information from the activities in the previous week (Connectivism).

In knowing how to go about group work – we all had previous experiences/perceptions of group work and used that knowledge to help structure how we were going to work together to produce the results of the activity (Constructivism).

Having to work together over the internet to produce work – we explored other methods to get together over the internet to work as a group (Skype), by using previous knowledge (constructivism) as well as identifying how and where we could find the knowledge (connectivism) to be able to get our group work discussions going.

Adding the information to the Wiki – we once again used previous knowledge acquired through mental processes such as thinking which was needed to be recalled using the memory (cognitivism) to add our groups thought to the online Wiki.

Accessing the information on the Wiki - In turn adding the information to the Wiki created a connectivist forum whereby others could know how to find/access the information we had gained and produced in our group activities.