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Comment by kim hales on October 27, 2010 at 6:30pm

Hi everyone. I am a pre-service teacher and, while I am not sure how much I have to contribute to this topic, I am really excited to glean some insight from all of you. I am preparing to do my student teaching in the spring. In November I will be teaching 10 days of American Literature to 11th graders. We will be doing a unit on 18th century letters and speeches. I am eager to go after the critical thinking piece as the students navigate through the historical context of some primary source document. I would be grateful for any suggestions you might be willing to make. Thanks!

Comment by Tommy R. Chambers on June 20, 2010 at 9:16pm

This is a very cool thread, and I'm sure all of you have been to the interesting website, "The Critical Thinking Community":

http://www.criticalthinking.org/index.cfm

I like what they are attempting to do at the above site.

I've been teaching three long ... in terms of moving the 7th and 8th grade youngsters to viable points of reference ... years at Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [Houston, Texas], and I'm looking forward to returning next school year to continue the process.

Karen, you mention computer science concepts and programming as a conduit for critical thinking. As it relates to TEKS/TAKS Grade 8 Science, I believe I began to move the students in this direction ... or at least in a "Cosmic" sense ... by challenging them to make the Science learning process more interesting, exciting and perhaps, fun by taking control of the teaching process by developing their own Science concepts presentations via Internet research and the utilization of PowerPoint.

A sampling of this student-centered approach can be viewed/read at:

http://www.tomrchambers.com/8_ppt_science_10.html

I had heard so many times from the students that Science classes ... other core subject classes, too ... were so boring and difficult to understand, probably because of the boredom factor, so in my mind, having them take charge ... empowering the student population ... certainly moved within that realm of "critical thinking" to take a concept, research it with the best understanding possible, then construct it as an "upbeat" teaching tool for greater interest on the part of the learner and consequently, greater understanding.

One important thing I have noticed in my Technology Applications classes these past three years is that youngsters/students do not want/like "static" approaches to education. They are "moving" at a rapid rate with The Digital Revolution that is so pervasive in today's society. In one of my student's opinion, "If we are going to have to study and learn, make it cool!" I agree, and we have to be careful that the utilization of technology in the classroom is not the same "hum drum."

Another example of moving within the realm of "critical thinking" and in my opinion, was a children's stories web project that I asked my seventh grade students to get involved with via the acquisition of basic HTML skills by having them research morals for young people ... anyone for that matter ... "right from wrong" ... on the Internet, then take their respective moral, and tell a children's story targeting Pre-K. Their knowledge via research, creativity in attempting to put/sequence a children's story together and Web page building skills evolved as having a compounded effect on them as well as the very young viewer/reader [with the help of a Pre-K teacher and/or the student author] since all of us are in need or even dire need of practicing our morals. This project can be seen at:

http://www.tomrchambers.com/web_stories.html

Liz, your "The American Revolution" project is indeed cool with the project-based approach, hands-on software/hardware, etc. I had my seventh grade students research a personality ... Paul Revere ... from The American Revolution via the Internet, then visualize what they had read/learned to create Digital Art in GIMP [Photoshop freeware equivalent]. Another element to this projject that had an "empowering" quality to it was the very real connection to the Paul Revere House Museum where the Director listed the student project on their website ... transcendence of the classroom and system, and very cool. The connection can be seen at:

http://www.paulreverehouse.org/teachers/spotlight.shtml

and the Digital Art can be seen at:

http://www.tomrchambers.com/pr/index.html

And if I may, a quick mention of another project by eighth grade students involving the research of social issues via the Internet, which certainly moved them very near this "critical thinking" potential we all try to have ... and in the form of documentaries via MovieMaker:

http://www.tomrchambers.com/social_issues.html

Rob, not too good with quotes, but how about two words together that I think are right on ... "Digital, critical!"

I would like to meet you, Howard. See you in Denver?

My student projects:

http://www.tomrchambers.com/RYSS_TCCC.html

My ISTE 2010 web page:

http://www.iste2010.org/profile/TommyRChambers

Comment by Karen J. North on June 20, 2010 at 12:58pm

Is any using computer science concepts and programming to teach critical thinking? I am working on K-8 computer science standards for the state of Texas. For students to be successful in high school computer science, they need critical thinking skills. I am looking for ideas on standards that can be included that build computational thinking skills for each grade level. In high school a standard might be to design an algorithm. What would a PK, 1st, 2nd,... student need to do to build the domain knowledge? Thanks for any ideas you have to build critical thinking skills through computing tools.

Comment by Rob Bayuk on May 17, 2010 at 1:57pm

Hello all-
A special request to the group :) anyone interested in providing a compelling quote around the importance of developing critical-thinking skills in "21st century students" as they search the web for academic and other uses?

We are putting the finishing touches on a new e-book entitled "From Search to Research: Developing Critical Thinking Through Web Research Skills" and we would love to have a few great quotes from educators to include in the book.

I would gladly provide a sneak preview of the book to provide additional context. Please contact me direct if you're interested.

thanks in advance!

Rob Bayuk, Microsoft Education Team

Comment by Liz Bremner on May 16, 2010 at 7:15am

I am just wrapping up my long term critical thinking project with my class. As this project developed I tossed out all but my primary objective.
I realized quickly that note-booking/web tool use was a superior method to collecting and organizing research. I explicitly teach note-booking for math, science and writing so this just made sense. A key piece of note-booking is letting go of some control while at the same time teaching organizational strategies. This project took me far beyond graphic organizers. I used them, but this was so much more.
What did happen with this project is that my end goal was reached quite successfully.
Our subject "The American Revolution", notoriously dry, became a whirlwind of great questions, researched answers and concluded with more questions.
My first conscious go at applying some Rheingold philosophy was a great beginning.
Some conclusions I came to:
Project based learning gives students time to question and research.
Providing opportunities for students to generate their own questions, leads directly to them valuing the search for the answers.
Given the chance students will ask questions no text can answer and no teacher could write. Bravo students!
Some of the tools I used: wallwisher.com, loc.gov, delicious, youtube, fur.ly. wikipedia
I will post my lesson plans some time during the summer.

Comment by Rob Bayuk on April 27, 2010 at 2:08pm

One more:
http://subjectguides.esc.edu/print_content.php?pid=22393&sid=16...

Comment by Rob Bayuk on April 27, 2010 at 1:52pm

A good resource from today's webinar on Critical thinking & Web Literacy for librarians and media specialists (but good for all educators)
http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/finds/

Comment by Rob Bayuk on April 20, 2010 at 1:29pm

ISTE & Microsoft free webinar: Critical-thinking & Web Search in the Classroom next Tuesday, 4/27 (1pm PST/4pm EST). Howard, your community host, with kick this session off! Come join us. Register here

Comment by Howard Rheingold on March 12, 2010 at 12:05pm

How to organize resources?

Howdy! If you were at the NCCE conference, you'll know that I'm still recovering my energies -- hence my absence from this forum in recent days. I'm expecting, planning, hoping, to return to something close to normal energy levels over the next two weeks, but will definitely check in here from time to time until then. Let me share my initial vision and solicit your advice.

As you know, from my videos and from our discussion, I've decided to concentrate, at least for the next few years, but probably for the rest of my life, on essential digital literacies. If you are interested, here is a 40 minute video and here is a 6 minute video in which I talk about the essential literacies of attention, participation, collaboration, crap detection, and network awareness. I still haven't worked out exactly how these literacies relate to each other, but I'd have to say that if I could give my children or my students one such skill before turning them loose on the Internet, it would have to be crap detection. If you can't distinguish accurate information, questionable information, misinformation, it's very difficult to make use of the other literacies.

My objectives are to write a book, produce videos, develop lesson plans, and compile useful resources. Ultimately, I plan to make it all available as publicly as possible, and plan to make it almost all available for free (hoping that the book will pay me something and furnish something tangible to give to concerned but uninformed parents and to graduates along with their first laptops).

So I was thrilled when Betsy reached out to be about working together on the crap detection (or, more formally, search and credibility) portion of this perhaps rather grand plan. I've begun to compile resources via Diigo but have yet to really organize them in a useful form. I was hoping to begin contributing those resources to our community wiki, and to enlist the rest of you in helping me. Right now, we have seven members. As I travel and speak more about this issue, I hope to recruit more -- and I bet y'all can do the same. And if six others were to contribute an item for each item I contribute, we'll get to level AWESOME rapidly.

I haven't checked out the wiki yet. I thought I'd come here first to get acquainted -- and to talk about how we ought to think about organizing the wiki.

Comment by Liz Bremner on March 6, 2010 at 6:31pm

NCCE was fantastic. It renewed my energy to continue to build best practice safe search lessons. I have a few research graphic organizers that I've been working on. Once I get some student feedback, I'll share them. My focus is 3rd-8th. I've got some new things to think about now -thank you Howard. I've gone back literally to the drawing board to work on organizing research using a well developed focus question.

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