Learning Theories Wiki (Reflection)

After completing the profile wiki as outlined in week one's activity schedule, I was approached by another student via email, to partner for the learning theories wiki activity.  Unfortunately this process was off to a slow start, as I have had endless trouble with my home internet connection, evidently putting me behind on everything.  Eventually my partner and I decided on ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants’, by Marc Prensky as our wiki learning theory.  Solely we used a PMI scaffolding tool to complete the task.  We then met to collaborate our constructive pieces and through connectivism, distinguished the differences in our PMI’s to construct our final PMI, to be uploaded onto the learning wiki profile on the moodle website.  I found that using the PMI tool, allowed me to acquire a deeper thought process of the wiki as well as clear understanding of the direction in which to take my ideas and construct them. For some this tool may prove to be a good filtering system, assisting in the knowing of what is important.

This activity makes learning easier for students that are kinaesthetic when it comes to collaboration and connectivism with your partner, while still appealing to auditory and visual learners in terms of the reading itself, both individual and group work and collaboration of ideas in a group environment.  Learning outside of one’s own thinking strategies is another positive element to this technique.  In reference to the reading this activity could also be achieved by the group constructing together the PMI instead of each individual constructing their own to be collaborated at a later date.  This direction allows students with learning disabilities to take part without intimidation or discrimination and with complete peer support. 

This activity is an important follower from the profile wiki.  The elements are similar; however the algorithm of it progresses to higher order thinking, thus expanding on the past schema.  This time students are working together with an individual who reflects their attitudes toward learning and choosing a topic to discuss.  The collaborated construction of the PMI is then uploaded onto the wiki for the rest of the class to view, comment, reflect and learn from.  This allows digital pedagogies of a vast range of topics to be covered in a short period of time.  Peer input toward these topics posted, provides evidence to the teacher of students learning. 

REFERENCE:

Prensky, Marc. (October 2001). 'Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants', in MCB University press, Vol. 9 No. 5. Retrieved March 11, 2011, from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf.

Prensky, Marc. (September/October 2005). 'Engage me or Enrage me: What today's learners demand', in Educause review, p60-64.  Retrieved March 11, 2011, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf.

CQUniversity (CQU). E-courses EDED20491. ‘ICTs for Learning Design’. Retrieved from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/course/view.php?id=17135.