Assignment Post 3: Mobile Phones and the 6 Thinking Hats

One of the main activities for week two was to collaborate with other students on the issue of 'Mobile Phones in Education'.  To complete this collaboration we were provided with a scaffolding table that incorporated De Bono's 6 Thinking Hats.

De Bono's Thinking Hats

• What is wrong with this?
• Why will this not work?
• Is this safe?
• Can this be done?

• Where are we now?
• What is the next step?
• Where have we been?
• What sort of thinking is needed?

• What new ideas are possible with this?
• What is my suggestion for success?
• Can I create something new?

• How do I feel about this?
• What do I like about the idea?
• What don't I like about the idea?

• What are the good points?
• Why can this be successful?
• Why is this a good thing?

• What information do I have?
• What are the facts?
• What information do I need?
• What do I want to know?

(The above images and questions were sourced from CQU 2011)

Two articles were provided to give us some 'facts' and some general information on the use of mobile phones in education.  The information provided in these sites assisted me to understand the basic idea or the notion that mobile phones can be used effectively in the school classroom.
In the collaboration activity, it became evident that some students had a lot to say/offer on the subject.  And some interesting points were raised.  Admittedly, I only contributed a couple of small points to the table as many of my views/thoughts/ideas had already been raised by other students involved in the collaboration activity.  I did however, engage with what the other students had written, which is how I can to notice that most of my opinions on the subject had already been raised; hence why I barely contributed to the collaboration.

Again to me, the learning theory that this activity is based around is constructivism, as we are again collaborating our ideas and learning from what others think.  However, in saying that, this task to me shows the basic 'framework' and introduces the theory of 'cognitivism' into activities and in the classroom.

For me, there are both positives and negatives when looking at this issue.  While it is evident that the majority of students have access to a mobile phone, there can be issues surrounding how these phones are used.  There is an open invitation for example, for some students to 'bully' other students, especially if say, a classroom activity involves sending/receiving text messages.  Another issue then comes to light, the use of phones would place added pressure on the teacher to monitor the use of phones so there is none of this 'abuse' and so that all students would feel comfortable enough to get involved.  On the plus side however, there are many fun and creative ways that mobile phones could be integrated into classroom activities without students feeling victimised.  In one of the readings that we were provided with for this excersize, there is a big 'plus' focused on the use of mobile phones as now-a-days mobile phones can allow users to view PDF files, spread sheets and word processed files, mobile phones also have stopwatch and GPS capabilities, all of which would come in handy when completing some activities or tasks in or outside of the classroom (Hartnell-Young & Heym 2009).

References:
CQUniversity (CQU) e-courses EDED 20491 ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/course/view.php?id=17135.
Hartnell-Young, E. & Heym, N. 2009. 'Mobile phones and student learning in secondary schools'. Curriculum leadership: an electronic journal for leaders in education. vol. 7, no. 26, August. (available online), http://cmslive.curriculum.edu.au/leader/default.asp?id=28526&issueID=11897.