Blog, Wiki or Website?

This week I created my first Wiki and my website. So far I have found the Blog the most straight forward to use as well as the most visually appealing. However there are different benefits of each which I have posted on my website and Wiki.
The link for these are

• Wiki: http://keisha-noack.wikispaces.com/
• Website: http://keisha-noack.weebly.com/ 

The most challenging activity for me this week was the Wiki as I came accross some issues when creating it and it also crashed on me a couple of times without saving my work.

Mobile Phones..

Overview

Education in the 21st century is starting to adapt technology as a learning tool for teaching content knowledge. The Department of Education, Training and the Arts (2008) facilitates this by suggesting ICTs are being used to transform traditional learning into meaningful learning opportunities for students. This week’s activity involved this notion of learning through ICT as it required expressing ideas about the use of mobile phones in schools on a Wiki. The Wiki was set out in a table with a space to contribute ideas and each row contained different questions which related to each of De Bono's six thinking hats.

My thoughts and links to learning

I think this task was a constructivist learning task as participants are building upon their schema about mobile phones from new information found and then requires them to organise it into one of the six thinking hats. These processes are outlined in Mergel's article (1998) under the constructivist theory. Furthermore I think it is also a social constructivist activity as learning also occurred through social interaction on the Wiki as each peer had individual ideas and background knowledge which influenced others’ views or understandings on the topic.

My experiences with the Wiki

As I had some prior experience with Wikis after participating in last week’s Wiki activity, I felt more confident approaching this task. To contribute to the Wiki I offered my opinion and research which I had collected. I feel I benefited from participating in this activity as I was able to gain insight from my peers by reading their responses in the Wiki. This allowed me to view the situation from others perspectives and also made me aware of aspects which I would have not considered if completing the activity on my own.  I therefore found this a valuable learning experience.

After partaking in this Wiki I believe it would be a successful activity for learners to undertake, particularly distance education learners.  The way in which the activity was scaffolded allows learners to easily express their opinion and knowledge and read their peers’ views. This therefore benefits learners as they are developing their cognitive and affective learning through collaborative learning. This activity also combines content learning, pedagogy, and technology and this is promoted in the TPCK framework.

Overall, by engaging in this activity I was able to become more familiarised with Wikis and discover the different ways they can be used. I was also able to participate in a learning experience through working with my peers to create the De Bono thinking hats Wiki.  As a future learning manager I will be able to use this new knowledge I gained from the Wiki to create meaningful learning experiences through the use of ICTs.  

21st century learning..

Overview

When receiving new information, particular strategies can be adapted to ensure the knowledge is processed. Marzano and Pickering (1997) suggest utilising graphic organisers is an effective way to acquire new knowledge. For this particular activity I used a graphic organiser to display key messages when researching about 21^st century learning. The key messages were then presented in the format of a PMI chart and then placed onto a group Wiki.

My initial thoughts

Once I discovered the activity required using a Wiki, I was unsure of whether I was going to achieve the task as I had no prior experience with Wiki.  Questions such as; ‘how am I going to put this information on a Wiki?’ and ‘what is a Wiki even used for? were running through my head. As I had little confidence with this activity I decided to complete the activity with one of my peers. This made me feel a bit more comfortable with the task as I was no longer participating in something completely new on my own.

My experiences with the Wiki

When creating the Wiki page there were a few issues which I had to overcome. I first designed the PMI chart in a word document and after creating this I attempted to paste the table straight into the Wiki. However, once I did this the formatting was lost. I had to experiment with the different tools in the Wiki to recreate the table. Once the table was created I pasted the dot points into the different columns and I ended up with unequal sized columns (one very wide and two very thin). After a while I realised it was only a matter of clicking ‘preview’ and the table automatically formatted into three equal columns.

After viewing the completed PMI chart on the Wiki I feel as a team we had successfully completed the activity. I also found the Wiki activity valuable as I was able to organise key ideas from research and also view others key ideas from their research. This therefore benefits me as I can learn new concepts or enhance my current understanding from others PMI charts, by simply viewing them on the Wiki.

As a future learning manager I would implement connectivist activities similar to this as I participated in a learning journey and I feel this would also be beneficial for learners. I became familiarised with aspects such as 21^st century learning, collaborative learning, and technology. As the activity was well scaffolded it resulted in a valuable learning journey. For instance, there were set readings, structures for reporting (PMI), pre designed Wiki with pages for each group and a table with topics to choose from. As a future learning manager, when implementing similar activities I will have to ensure I scaffold the learning journey in order to achieve learning outcomes.          

“Put another way, learning design enables professional knowledge and skills to be enacted as capability or ‘know how’ knowledge where the learning manager is able to achieve learning outcomes for all learners.” (Lynch, D., Smith, R. & Knight, B.A., 2010)

My understandings about 21st century learning

I already had prior knowledge about education changing as the world is developing. However, after researching further into this aspect I realise how much this impacts on me as a future learning manager. Once I organised this information into a PMI chart I realised 21^st century learning poses both benefits and challenges to education.

“Information Communication and Technolgies (ICT) have evolved at a rapid rate over the last twenty to thirty years. Educational use of ICT has also changed as new inventions forge new pathways for learning opportunities.” (O’ Neil, P. & Knight, B.A., 2007).

Benefits: I learnt all these new modes of learning have opened up a world of opportunities for learners where education can easily take place not only at school but in the community. For instance, people can easily research, report and reflect. All these new skills which are being developed are preparing learners for the rapidly changing world. This therefore benefits learners as they are learning relevant skills to prepare them for future jobs.

“Education systems need to make major transitions from the industrial era to the knowledge based economy.” (Lynch, D. & Knight, B.A., 2010)

Challenges: I also discovered 21^st century learning creates issues for learning managers as they are required to teach students content within the key learning areas as well as skills needed to meet the demands of this technological world. Educators are also preparing students for technology and job positions which do not yet exist in order to ensure they will have the required skills to participate in society.

“Teachers and knowledge workers often struggle often struggle to remain current with the use of these technologies.” (O’ Neil, P. & Knight, B.A., 2007).

    Overall

This new information about 21^st century learning relates to me as a learning manager as it will be my responsibility to ensure I am facilitating learning experiences which foster the development of relevant skills. In order to do this I will have to be familiar with technology. I will achieve this by partaking in a learning jouney and I have begun to undertake this journey from this week’s activity as I have become familiarised and almost confident with Wikis. From this experience I’ve learnt not to fear new or unfamiliar technology, but to embrace it!