DeBono’s Hats


One of the activities for Week Two was to put on DeBono’s hats and record our responses into a wiki. Until a couple of weeks ago I didn’t even know what a wiki was! I asked a ‘techie’ workmate and he replied that it was an acronym for ‘What I Know Is’.

After completing the set activity and having read about the learning theories I concluded that this wiki’ activity is an example of Social Constructivism. The activity was clearly scaffolded by getting us to use DeBono’s hats, therefore we just had to write our opinions by answering some simple questions. The graphic organiser enabled easy access for input and collaboration. The ‘hats’ also ensure that I considered the question from different perspectives to ensure that I was looking at the whole picture rather than taking a bias stance based on my previous experiences. Additionally, wiki provided the opportunity for peer mentoring as we were able to both publish our thoughts and comment on each other’s responses. This evidently led to the clarification of any prior misunderstandings and a deeper understanding of the concepts covered. Therefore leading to the construction of new and valuable knowledge on this topic.

Use of wiki's in the Manual Arts class could be for collaboration on design ideas.
For an explanation of DeBono's Six Thinking Hats follow this link:
 

http://www.debonogroup.com/six_thinking_hats.php