De Bono's Six Thinking Hats

This week we have been asked to participate in an online activity. The activity asked us a question "What do we think about mobile phones in the classroom?" From this question we were then asked to write our answers in a collaborative wiki. But before we could answer this question we were asked to think about our answer from different perspectives. To help us think from different perspectives we used De Bono's six thinking hats. There are six thinking hats and all of the hats have a different meaning and colour. De Bono's thinking hats are often used in the classroom to get students thinking outside the box or from another perspective. De Bono's hats are not just a tool to be used with children they can be used with adults, which was shown in this activity. I personally found that from using De Bono's six thinking hats it makes you look at the question from many different perspectives, not just your own. I decided to go with my first preference which was the green hat. The green hat makes you look at the question in a creative way. I then decided to choose the white hat, which makes you look at all of the facts around the question. From doing this I got the opportunity to look at two different sides of the question.

(http://www.mindmapinspiration.com/six-thinking-hats-mind-map-paul-foreman/)

By putting our ideas and thoughts onto a collaborative wiki it allowed all of us students to see not only one opinion but many different opinions. I think this was a great idea as again it opens your mind up to many different perspectives and allows you to read some ideas that maybe you wouldn't have thought of yourself. As someone who has never used a wiki before, I found it very easy to navigate and to put in my thoughts on the question. I believe that social constructivism links in with De Bono's thinking hats. Social constructivism relates to students being able to interact with one another to help them through their learning journey. It also relates to the teacher being supportive and scaffolding lessons so that students can get the support they need. Believe it or not there is also some theory behind the use of a wiki. The two theories that I believe stand out are constructivism and connectivism. I have already spoke about how constructivism is when people are able to collaboratively work together, but this only works if there had been scaffolding by the teacher or person who is in charge.

(http://www.inspiration.com/blog/2011/06/constructivist-theory-inspired-learning/)

Now connectivism is all about being able to use different types of technology in many different ways. In a classroom situation for example, some people believe that teachers or students should know everything. Well that is not the case, the important thing is that teachers and students know where to look and what to use to find information on topics that are unknown. Because we are becoming a very tech savvy world it is important that people are able to use technology to help them find answers. A wiki is a great way of understanding how to use technology to help you find answers to the questions you are unsure of. That is what I believe connectivism is all about.

(http://preetisingh65.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/connectivism-and-social-learning-in.html)