Learning Theories Wiki

This activity will support learning as wikis can be used to facilitate the dissemination of information to enable exchange of ideas, to facilitate group interaction (Augar, Raitman, Zhou). Students can work in groups, two groups can research one area, while the other two groups find information on another area of interest. This enables students to spend more time on one specific area, putting all your researched information and knowledge into a wiki. This enables other students to edit their knowledge in the same wiki in case someone has missed some vital information. Students can then look through other wikis on different units to get a good understanding of what they are about.  Using a scaffolded thinking routine such as Pluses, Minuses and Interesting, known as PMI, this allows me as a teacher, to see the positives and negatives of this activity. The pluses for this activity include time management, group work and easy to set up and use where as minuses for the learning theories wiki include postings or unintentional deletions as wikis are fully editable websites.

The learning theories wiki includes elements of behaviourism, cognition and constructivism. With constructivism learning occurs as the learner attempts to make sense of their experiences (Siemens, 2006). With this activity, having to find the positives and negatives with the three learning theories, along with previous experiences and knowledge helping to put the information into a Pluses, Minuses and Interesting (PMI). This allows students to interact with other students by doing the activity in groups of two or three people. This activity involves cognitivism, having to think about what you have read and to be able to say whether the information goes into the pluses, minuses or interesting category.

Behaviourism relates to the views of mind in the sense that response to stimulus can be observed quantitatively, totally ignoring the possibility of thought processes occurring in the mind (Mergel, 1998). Behaviourism is more common in task-based activities such as the learning theories wiki. Students have been set a task, where they can work with another person to research information on a relevant topic, then putting them into a PMI allowing students to view the learning theories from different points of view.

Students can broaden their knowledge when they are encouraged to learn differently, such as this learning theory wiki. In this activity students can learn through the use of a wiki, but also learn through the content they have researched by putting it into a PMI.A PMI is a good way of considering the pros, cons and implications of a conclusion to the relevant topic.

Connectivism relates to this activity in a way that it is designed for twenty first century learners. This activity helps students to connect to the digital world, looking at the positives and negatives of the learning theories and putting them into a wiki for others to see. In this activity, having the ability to see the connections between ideas and concepts is an important skill.

This activity would support a diverse range of students, as computers are valuable tools for learners with disabilities (Halbert, 2011). It is also an important tool in communication, especially those students who has speech impairments. Students who may not be able to put what they mean into words can define terms using images and put links to detailed explanations.

Computer applications can be used to engage and enhance thinking (Halbert, 2011). Wikis engage students in classrooms in a new way instead of the traditional way of teaching. Any user can read or add content to a wiki site. This means that wikis are an excellent tool for facilitating online education (Augar, Raitman, Zhou). Lessons can be taught through wikis, with videos, links to other websites and supporting documents. Wikis would be a good e-learning strategy, using it for group assignments, as long as students have access to the internet outside of school, they can work in groups without having to be altogether, allowing each other to edit their wiki.

References

 Augar,N., Raitman, R. and Zhou, W. (n.d) Teaching and learning online with wikis p.93-104

School of Information Technology Deakin University

Halbert, R. (2011) Technology in Education

Siemens, (2006) Connectivism: Learning Theory or pastime for the self amused? Available: www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism_self-amused.htm