The Moble Phones Debate Using de Bono's Six Thinking Hats

There is nothing funnier than watching a student sit in a classroom calmly staring at the ground for several minutes on end. Personally I have never noticed anything that makes looking in that direction as much of an emotional rollercoaster as some students experience.
This raises the question:

Should mobile phones be used/allowed in the classroom?

I was asked to participate in a group activity using de Bono's Six thinking hats. These six hats are:

• Judgement
• Process
• Creativity
• Feelings
• Benefits
• Information

Using this style of scaffolding, it was easy to quickly consolidate information from a range of perspectives on this topic. I believe that it is so important to make sure the information that we gather and use, is not based on a biased towards phones. Mobile phones are continually been upgraded and made more powerful, making them a valuable tool that can used to enhance the teaching of students.

The Wiki page we used was set up in a such a useful and effective way for easy collection of information. Personally, I am still unsure wether or not I like the website as an education tool, but it definitely has the potential to offer more access to more students., but can also limit the personal aspect of a group discussion on topics as mobiles phones. While participating seeing the names of students I know, made wanting to be involved something exciting due to the fact we could have a friendly discussion where we expressed our opinions without getting hot headed at one another.

Using a scaffolding system like this can be highly effective for the teaching of students because it offers a safe place to put forward an opinion. This needs to be backed with a classroom discussion to delve deeper into the topic and provide the a high level of retention so students can remember what was discussed down the track, creating greater learning outcomes.