The activity for the learning theories wiki was to work with your partner(s) and choose one of the learning theories from the wiki list and do a Plus, Minus, and Interesting, (PMI) on the related article describing the theory. This was a very straightforward task that needed little in the way of scaffolding. My partner (Rohan) and I discussed the theories at the tutorial and choose cognitive constructivism. Working within the framework I undertook some additional research to obtain a better understanding of our chosen topic of cognitive constructivism. During this time our other partner emailed me to say she was dropping from the GDLT due to childcare issues.
I created an initial PMI and emailed it to Rohan. We were unable to post this to the learning theories wiki because the content part of the wiki had disappeared from Moodle. It came back up the next day but before Rohan could make changes to my original and post it, it was gone again. My next log-on had the wiki back and I posted my original PMI to the wiki. Rohan added some additional content before the wiki went down again. I add this detail as a learning experience for myself to apply to my teaching. Just as success can lead to increased self-efficacy so to can failure, regardless of fault, lead to reduced self-efficacy. The more things have gone wrong, even though they were not my fault, the more I became uncomfortable with the technology and my own ability. The activity was scaffolded well but problems arose in the technical execution, specifically continuing wiki failure. Going into the classroom I will need to be aware of the technical capabilities of the school network. It will become frustrating to my students if I have designed a task that is not compatible with my schools technical infrastructure or is beyond my own capabilities to administrate the activity on the network.
I could envision the use of a wiki in manual arts as an interactive discussion board where students could go to present design ideas or even share tips about how they were able to achieve certain effects. Often in a workshop environment the time for dialogue is limited as each student is busy on their projects and a wiki could become a digital ‘water cooler’ or ‘coffee shop’ where students go to chat and share ideas. The same concept could also be used in business on marketing plans or a host of other topics. This could be a different structure to allow for unique learning styles to be heard. The use of wiki’s as an eLearning strategy would assist student learning by creating an additional path that students could take to participate in discussions that aid in the constructivist approach to learning.
The constructivist approach to learning played an important part of this exercise. Working with our partner we needed to define the specific learning approach through a PMI. The interactive nature of the wiki facilitated the creation of a unique but somewhat shared meaning of what cognitive constructivism meant to Rohan and myself. For me, the interaction shaped the discussion in my own mind about what cognitive constructivism looks like, with Rohan adding some points that I had neglected to take into account. Had I not been partnered with Rohan my definition of this concept would be slightly different than the one I eventually arrived at. As with the prior activity there are elements of behaviorism related to the construction of thinking routines that are meant to become automatic. Cognitivism was similarly present in the transfer of information into long-term memory. The elements of connectivism were present in that the wiki could be used as a resource to connect with other classmates who had studied the different topics. This was not part of the scaffolding but if I am having difficulties understanding a specific learning theory, I can use the wiki as a source to connect with someone who covered the topic and may have a better understanding of it.
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