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  • 7/31/2019 Is Technology Killing Thinking Skills

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    6 Lag & Ladg wth Thlgy | Agst 2010

    Yes

    echnology is one o the most pow-erul tools in our schools today or developingcritical-thinking skills.

    Stop to think or a minute what critical thinkingactually reers to. Critical thinking is the ability tocareully evaluate and think about the inormationpresented to us. echnologyspecically the Inter-netallows students to look beyond the our wallso the classroom. Tis means that they no longersee the teacher as the sole source o inormation.Students are learning to be highly critical o theinormation they consume, and they even analyze,act-check, and challenge the inormation the class-room teacher provides, which is a signicant shi

    toward critical thinking.In addition to becoming

    better consumers o inorma-tion, students are now ableto use new technologies tobecome the producers andeditors o inormation aswell. Just letting them knowthat their work will be postedon the Internet can producesignicantly dierent results

    No

    echnology has tremendous poten-tial to make students smarter, but in most schoolswe are crippling the technology in ways that holdstudents back. Is moving rom blackboard towhiteboard to interactive whiteboard really prog-

    ress i nothing changes but the writing surace?Probably not. Is a word processor dierent romwriting by hand, or just easier? echnology is atool, not a solution.

    In many schools, we avoid the teachable mo-ment in technology. We institute lters and walledgardens around the Internet and pretend to keepstudents sae, although all we are protecting them

    rom is thinking and learninghow to evaluate sources. Welock out Nings, wikis, blogs,and discussion orums, and

    end up preventing studentsrom being presented withnew ideas and taking partin wider discussions in theprocess. And no instant mes-saging or e-mail in schools,because they might get dis-Alred Thompson

    Helen Crompton

    Is TechnologyKilling Critical-Thinking Skills?

    Copyright 2010, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 1.800.336.5191 (U.S. & Canada) or 1.541.302.3777 (Intl), [email protected], www.iste.org. All rights reserved.

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    Agst 2010 | Lag & Ladg wth Thlgy 7

    evaluate inormation as active con-sumers o knowledge.

    echnology provides the tools andthe power to actively enhance critical-thinking skills. But or this to be e-ective, we educators must not justsit back and expect the technology todo it all or us. We must integrate thetechnologies into the curriculum ap-propriately and teach our students tobe critical thinkers through their use.

    Helen Crompton is pursuing her PhD in educa-

    tion at the University o North Carolina at Cha-

    pel Hill. For 17 years, she has been involved in

    education while working in schools in her home

    country o England and in the United States.

    than i they are just developing thatwork or the teacher. Tey suddenlysee their work as much more impor-

    tant and will analyze it to a ar higherlevel as they prepare or a highly criti-cal global audience. Teir work hasmeaning because they are contribut-ing to the large community o inor-mation on the Web.

    echnology also provides oppor-tunities or students to critique theirown work and that o others usingvarious orms o wikis. Tey can re-fect on their own learning throughblogging and connect globally to gainnew perspectives and learn more thana textbook could ever oer.

    Te problem is that technology isnot always used this way in schools.echnology itsel will not developcritical-thinking skills in our students.Tat is the teachers role, and although21st-century technologies are powerultools, it is the way the teacher choosesto use those technologies that will

    determine whether they help orhinder the development o studentscritical thinking skills. Tereore,teachers must plan well to ensure thatstudents use these tools to their ullpotential.

    eachers who empower studentsto take an active part in a wiki, blog,or other Web 2.0 tools are on theright track, as these toolsencourage24/7 critical thinking. In act, someo these tools demand that level othought, because editing, revising,critiquing, and commenting are anintegral part o their use. As studentsdo not have to wait until they comeback into the classroom to use thesethinking skills, they become ullyimmersed in their learning and even-tually become lielong learners who

    tracted! Never mind the opportunitiesor collaboration that we are quashing.And so we close the doors to discus-sions with each other and beyondthe walls o the school. Better to risk

    inbreeding o thought than to teachstudents how to think or themselves.

    What do we allow them to do withtechnology? We let them cut and pastein new and aster ways. We let themcopy inormation rom sae and ap-proved places on the Internet or cap-tive databases. Tey can type muchlonger papers without having to thinkas much about editing, as the com-puter will catch the spelling and mosto the grammar mistakes or them.

    We could use the built-in review toolsand let them do peer editing, but thatsa lot o work, and its not on the stan-dardized tests anyway.

    We teach them how to use spread-sheets but not how to use them aspowerul evaluative tools. It would

    take a single class to show ourth

    graders how to look at the same datain dierent graph ormats using aspreadsheet, but we dont do it. Wetreat the data in social studies or sci-ence classes as i it had no relevanceto the tools we (sort o) teach themto use in computer class. We teachthem just enough o PowerPoint tocreate exactly the same thing that theyused to create on poster board, butnot how to use it as part o a power-ul centerpiece or discussion or real

    interactivity. At least they can makethings pretty without having artisticability. Its not the same as a criticallythought-out presentation, but it tswith the curriculum.

    We could teach computer science!Tats all about critical thinking. But

    most schools dont teach real com-

    puter science at all, and ewer thanone in eight high schools have an APComputer Science course. O course,its not on the SA, is it?

    For most schools and students,technology has become all aboutmaking work easier and aster, whichincludes avoiding thinking as muchas possible. o realize the potential otechnology in education, we need tomake some systemic changes to howwe teach rather than regard technol-

    ogy as a magic bullet.

    Alred Tompson is the K12 computer

    science academic relations manager or

    Microsof. Prior to joining Microsof, he was

    a K12 computer teacher and a schoolwide

    technology coordinator.

    Students are learning to be highly critical o the inormation they consume,

    and they even analyze, act-check, and challenge the inormation the

    classroom teacher provides, which is a signifcant

    shit toward critical thinking skills.

    We institute flters and walled gardens around the Internet andpretend to

    keep students sae, although all we are protecting them rom is thinking

    and learning how to evaluate sources.

    PoinT/counTerPoinT |

    To contribute to uture discussions, go to

    L&Ls group page on the ISTE Community Ning

    at www.iste-community.org/groups/landl.

    Copyright 2010, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 1.800.336.5191 (U.S. & Canada) or 1.541.302.3777 (Intl), [email protected], www.iste.org. All rights reserved.