de Bono's Hats wiki- Reflection

Mobile Phones wiki. The forum combines a combination of Social Constructivism and Connectivism. 
The forum task is Constructivist in the way that we were to read other (potentially more knowledgeable) students' responses then produce our own response from a combination of what we know and what we had learnt from the responses already contained therein. A permanent text-based record of the forum was created, also allowing for video, audio and image submission, this can be viewed in the future to consolidate learnings (there may be a little of Cognitiveist thinking in this aspect, we can reinforce our memory by re-viewing the forum at a later date thus taking the learning from short term to long term memory.) The wiki forum was also Connectivist in the way that for some of de Bono's hats students must use their skill in finding knowledge in order to complete the response. For example, I knew that a reputable, peer reviewed source could be found in the CQU Library's DISCOVER IT! I used my skill at research to find the statistics and psychological references I required, eg. 93% of Australian Youth, between 16 and 24 years of age, used mobile phones. 

Benefits of participating in this wiki and others like it include being able to draw learnings from peers, this is also a drawback- if I am on the wrong track and my peer is also, we may reinforce each other's erroneous thinking.
I personally don't like wikis as a tool for learning, I am yet to pinpoint why, they just don't sit well with me- I must still be wearing de Bono's red hat. Potential issues include the accidental deletion of other students' contributions.

For my Math students the potential for deleting someone else's work could be quite an issue, however with enough instruction and care a wiki could be a fantastic tool for a modelling and problem solving group task- beng able to input mathematical symbols would be helpful, although a strong and accurate vocabulary would be developed if symbols were not possible. For example "to the power of three" would not be adequate and students would have to use the more appropriate "cubed" if they were to avoid confusion. 

A range of perspectives were supported because in a forum each person can post a response when they are ready, there is no talking over each other. Every person contributes their own perspective, at least under the red "feeling" hat if not everywhere else as well. The use of de Bono's hats fascinates me. I think there is great benefit in purposefully addressing only one type of thinking or one perspective of an argument at a time, methodically working through de Bono's 6 thinking hats allows for a broad evaluation of one's own thinking and reasoning, without being emotionless (red hat). I will personally use this as a problem solving activity and I will definitely incorporate it into my teaching- Especially for History.