The thinking hats and mobile phones

For this activity, we had to look at whether mobile phones should be allowed in schools. We had to use de Bono’s thinking hats to see things from a different perspective. De Bono’s six thinking hats include the white hat, which covers the information or knowledge that needs to be known. Then there is the red hat which covers feelings, hunches and intuition. Next there is the black hat, which is judgement and why something may or may not work, then the yellow hat which asks for optimism, or in other words, the positives to using mobile phones in schools. The green hat is creativity, such as new possibilities and ideas, and finally the blue hat which manages the thinking process.

I found that using the thinking hats wiki for this activity was a great way to see everyone’s ideas and spread information. De Bono’s thinking hats are also a great way to force children to look at different perspectives when looking at an issue. It also forces the children to use different areas of their brain and therefore promotes higher order thinking.

Connectivism plays a role when it comes to the thinking hats. One thing that I have discovered is that connectivism plays a huge role for using technology to teach children. This is due to technology, the website in particular, being based around connectivism. The children can use de Blono’s hats as a way to connect.

This activity, through using de Bono’s Hats, uses Inductive Reasoning to allow students to infer unknown generalizations or principles from information or observations (Marzano, et al. 1997).

References

Arredondo, D. Blackburn, G. Brandt, R. Marzano, R. Moffet, C. Paynter, D. Pickering, D. Pollock, J. Whisler, J. (1997) Dimensions of Learning 2^nd Edition, McREL, Colarado.