Should mobile phones be allowed in classrooms?

Hooray!  I actually found this activity to be far less challenging than I had anticipated. And I was really surprised with the opinion and ideas I formed throughout the activity. 

My first step, as I am a highly visual/kinaesthetic learner, was to find a YouTube clip demonstrating how De Bono's six hats are used during a class lesson in order to really gain a deep understanding of this tool.  This was the video that I posted in my first blog. The way the video demonstrated the use of the hats really made sense to me and I felt it was sequenced in a logical order.  So for the mobile phones task I answered the questions in the same order as the clip in order to more constructively scaffold my thinking.  I feel by scaffolding my thinking this way, it is similar to Bloom's Revised Taxonomy; start small with prior knowledge and experience and extend it. 

The first hat I addressed in my draft was the red hat, where I focussed on my emotions and feelings about the subject; which I felt rather negative about.  Once I got the emotional stuff out of the way I began thinking more clearly about what I factually knew - the white hat.  Here I listed the facts that I knew about mobile phones and their uses.  Then I looked at the positives, negatives, creativity and outcome of what I had learned.  This is where I was really surprised - I actually had changed my thinking and finished by stating that mobile phones have the potential to be really positive tools within the classroom!  I think that Mr De Bono really knows his stuff and I am so excited to use this in further lessons!

I also found the use of the wiki to be a great tool for engagement and connecting with others.  As the word limit for our responses to the hats was very limited, it was great to be able to read everyone else's contributions and extend on ideas they may have missed.  The activity was fantastic for self-directed learning, as not only did I need to figure out a new technological tool, but also to view the subject through a variety of different lenses. 

So in  a nutshell, the underlying theories that I mentioned in my earlier blog were all present and working harmoniously and effectively next to each other throughout this activity.  There was behaviourism where my thinking was re-shaped throughout the process, cognitivism - where I discovered the massive benefit of using De Bono's model to become a more effective thinker, social contructivism - where I was able to read what my peers were thinking and elaborate or widen my original perception of the subject and connectivism - where we all added our thoughts, ideas and experiences to a learning place to enlighten our minds.  Overall I am feeling really positive about this experience and think I will be ok to continue my learning journey!