Critical Thinking

bing and google search at the same time

How to Disagree The web is turning writing into a conversation. Twenty years ago, writers wrote and readers read. The web lets readers respond, and increasingly they do-in comment threads, on forums, and in their own blog posts. Many who respond to something disagree with it. That's to be expected. Agreeing tends to motivate people less than disagreeing. And when you agree there's less to say. You could expand on something the author said, but he has probably already explored the most interesting implications. When you disagree you're entering territory he may not have explored. The result is there's a lot more disagreeing going on, especially measured by the word. That doesn't mean people are getting angrier. The structural change in the way we communicate is enough to account for it. But though it's not anger that's driving the increase in disagreement, there's a danger that the increase in disagreement will make people angrier. Particularly online, where it's easy to say things you'd never say face to face.

"These inventive presentations promise to strengthen our human abilities. And, perhaps, to rationally evolve our shared human culture and teach us to wisely manage our world."

"How to Analyze Information A Step-by-Step Guide to Life's Most Vital Skill We are living now through the early decades of the Information Revolution, and it's a miracle of human energy and ingenuity. Never before has so much information been available, so easily and inexpensively, about so many subjects. And the most important thing we've learned is that information is like water. It's vital to our lives; we cannot survive without it. But if too much pours over us - we drown. To keep from drowning in information we must learn to use it properly, which means figuring out what the information is telling us. After all, it isn't the information itself we use to make decisions; it's the knowledge within the information that we use. This is why we must learn how to analyze information - how to determine just what information we need to make the decisions we face, how to get that information, and then - this is the most crucial step of all -- how to reach inside this information to grasp the knowledge it contains."

"Videatives come to you in five ways Streaming Video, Instant Downloads, CDs, eCourses, Bi-weekly Blog The word videative [vid´-é-ã-tive] refers to the combination of text and video segments to create an integrated viewing experience (video + narrative = videative). The text explains the video and the video exemplifies the text. Use videatives to see how children think, to see how to support their learning, and to see how to prepare environments that engage children in rich problem solving. Use videatives to add authenticity to your lectures or clarity to your training sessions. Share videatives with parents to help them understand the value of play and the subtle ways a teacher can help children reflect on their own experiences."

Offers definitions of critical thinking and links to quality resources on topics such as argument mapping, assessment, cognitive biases, critical reading and writing, experts and expertise. (this resource was identified in Microsoft's "Developing Critical Thinking Through Web Research skills") Top Ten 1. Argument Mapping Tutorials. Six online tutorials in argument mapping, a core requirement for advanced critical thinking. 2. The Skeptic's Dictionary - over 400 definitions and essays. 3. The Fallacy Files by Gary Curtis. Best website on fallacies. 4. Butterflies and Wheels. Excellent reading - news, articles, and much more. 5. Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts by Peter Facione. Good overview of the nature of critical thinking. (pdf file) 6. Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion by John Stuart Mill. Classic chapter, densely packed with wisdom about thinking. 7. Chance - best resource for helping students think critically about issues involving probability and statistics 8. Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, by Richards Heuer. A good overview of how to improve thinking in the light of insights from cognitive psychology. 9. A Handbook on Writing Argumentative and Interpretative Essays by Ian Johnston 10. Baloney Detection Part 1 and Part 2 - by Michael Shermer. 10 step guide.

"Writing and Creative Projects - Visualize Characters, Events and Ideas. Create a digital thinking space for where all your ideas come to life. Whether it's your next company whitepaper or epic novel, aggregating all your inspirations in a way that captures your vision will take any writing project to new heights."

"Rebecca MacKinnon: Let's take back the Internet!" So what we need to recognize is that if we want to have a citizen-centric Internet in the future, we need a broader and more sustained Internet freedom movement.

3rd World Farmer is a new kind of game. An experiment in the genre of Serious Games, it simulates some of the real-world mechanisms that cause and sustain poverty in 3rd World countries. In the game, the player gets to manage an African farm and is soon confronted with the difficult choices that poverty and conflict can cause. As a farm and family management game it has an emotional impact on many players because usually these types of games play out in much easier settings, where it's always possible to prosper by playing cleverly and making the right game choices. It's not always like that in 3rd World Farmer. Just like real people are dying from starvation in desperate situations that they never asked to be put in, all it takes for things to go wrong in this game is one bad harvest, an unfortunate encounter with corrupt officials, a raid by guerillas, a civil war, a sudden fluctuation in market prices, or any of the many other game events, that might never happen to families in industrialized countries. By letting players experience this - albeit in a harmless, fictional setting - we hope to open their eyes to the problems and to motivate them to make positive social change. Our aim is to have everybody play the game, reflect, discuss and act on it. The game is a great starting point for discussions of 3rd World issues, so we encourage teachers to use it in class.

"INFORMATION SKILLS RATING SCALE This document was developed as part of a consulting assignment with the library media staff of the Oak Harbor (WA) Schools, who wished to create a rating scale which would help them assess how well students are performing on the tasks associated with the Research Cycle . The document is copyrighted by the Oak Harbor Schools and by Jamie McKenzie, but copies may be made by schools for distribution to staff. Any other duplication or transmittal in any form is prohibited unless permission is granted expressly."

David, This looks extremely useful. How might we get "permission granted" for school-wide use? Jean

"The ability to think critically is one skill separating innovators from followers. Critical thinking reduces the power of advertisers, the unscrupulous and the pretentious, and can neutralize the sway of an unsupported argument. This is a skill most students enjoy learning because they see immediately that it gives them more control."

In an effort to help schools become more reflective learning environments, I've developed this "Taxonomy of Reflection." - modeled on Bloom's approach. It's posted in four installments: 1. A Taxonomy of Reflection 2. The Reflective Student 3. The Reflective Teacher 4. The Reflective Principal I also have developed a Prezi version of the Taxonomy

Digital Introspection and the Importance of Self-Knowledge MAR 18 2011, 11:00 AM ET By Shelley Hayduk As the world changes, for better or worse, we continue to assimilate new experiences and ideas that define who we are. With the advent of new social networking tools, we can join the web of digitized relationships to connect with people and share these views. But in addition to connecting outward we also need to turn inward to reflect on our ideas and the relationships that we hold implicitly in our own minds. The connections we make in our head are unique to every individual. It's a fascinating journey to try and understand what they are. So how do we examine ourselves -- our thoughts and experiences? One method is introspection, and it's going digital. SELF-ANALYSIS THROUGH LANGUAGE Language and writing are key vehicles for introspection. Many people keep diaries of their thoughts and experiences to get to know themselves. Some people even write autobiographies. In fact, a key premise of psychotherapy (in the Freudian sense) is to become explicitly conscious of your feelings and subconscious beliefs by talking through them, i.e capturing your understanding in language. In expressing underlying forces of your life through words you can identify relevant psychological angst and formulate a better way to live. In each case, we capture our feelings and implicit views with words, articulating their meaning through language. Now technology gives us the ability to take this a step further, but before we get to that, a word about mental models. YOUR MENTAL MODEL We are the aggregation of how all our thoughts, feelings and experiences connect. This gestalt forms a perspective of the world as we see it. It's kind of like a miniature version of the world in our heads -- a "mental model" if you will. We use our mental models to store, analyze and decide everything. When we make a decision we check our mental models and use them to try to predict what will happen in the

"I used to believe that if you write with passion and clarity about a topic you know well (or want to know more about), you will find and build an audience. I believed that maybe, if you're smart about it, you could find a way for some part of that audience to pay you money to sustain whatever obsession drove you to self-publishing (and to do it without selling your soul in the process). "

The contemporary movement towards peeragogy has roots in the work of these Western education scholars, who have contributed to what is known as the field of "critical pedagogy." This is an approach to teaching that encourages students to think critically and creatively about what they read as opposed to passively accepting it.

" * A differing opinion, by itself, is no evidence of asshattery. That is basically what the principle of reciprocity says. * But, a violation of the principle of reciprocity is evidence of asshattery. * Therefore, when I call someone an asshat for violating the principle of reciprocity, I am not violating the principle of reciprocity myself, since my opinion is evidence-based. It's reassuring to know I can be a good critical thinker and still be allowed to call someone an asshat on occasion."

A few weeks ago, I wrote that your organization should have a social media policy, and one of the things I heard among all the great comments was: "Okay, but what should it say?" There are generally two approaches to social media policy making. Some organizations handle social media in an evolutionary way. Chad Houghton, the director of e-media and business development at the Society for Human Resource Management, told me that he thinks, "it might be beneficial not to create some arbitrary rules without first seeing where the opportunities and risks really are." Other organizations, meanwhile, feel more comfortable establishing a clear policy from the outset. IBM, for example, has published their social media guidelines publicly for anyone to read. It's a great policy, though rather long. Whether you're writing your social media policy from the get-go, or letting it develop organically in reaction to situations as they arise, here are 10 things you should definitely consider. These 10 tips will help you steer clear of pitfalls and allow you to focus on what's important: engaging the customer.

"Students have more information at their fingertips than ever before, yet the challenge remains for them to find, evaluate, and apply the information they discover in the classroom and beyond. Applying critical thinking skills through web research can help students: * Improve search skills. * Evaluate the information they find. * Incorporate them in their work. Explore the ready-to-use curriculum below, including detailed lesson plans, student worksheets, and class demonstrations on: * Mechanics of searching * Validity and reliability * Plagiarism * Citing web sources * Civil discourse"