using blogs to develop critical thinking skills brick & click northwest missouri state...

Using Blogs to Develop Critical Thinking Skills

Brick & ClickNorthwest Missouri

State UniversityEricka A. Raber

University of Iowa

Inspirations

• “I Need Three Peer Reviewed Articles…” Farkas

• Beyond Peer-Reviewed Articles: Using Blogs to Enrich Students’ Understanding of Scholarly Work (Deitering and Gronemyer)

• Inquiry-based learning (Stripling)• Miniature Guide to CT (Paul and Elder)

http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical-thinking-in-every-domain-of-knowledge-and-belief/698

Why Blogs?

• No peer-reviewed stamp of approval• Short, often fun • Arguments• Rich selection• Provide context

for activitiesCritical

ThinkingLibrary

Instruction

Engaging blogsbut not serious

Guiding Ideas• Critical thinking – is a habit of the mind (attitudes, dispositions)– is supported by community– involves questioning

• Less is more• Context is key

• Students should be working harder than you are.

Globalization and Social Change

In-Class Worksheet

• While reading your text think about: – What claims are being made? How are the claims

supported? What do you want to learn? How can you learn more? Where might the conversations be taking place?

• Related to your text/topic, identify:– Keywords and concepts, Contacts,

Sources/Studies

Instruction Sessions• One-shots– Model thinking/search strategies– Have students pose questions for a text related to

their topic– Discuss next steps (where to look)

• One-shots+– Coordinate longer activity with instructor (use

blog from class)

Finding Blogs

• http://www.google.com/blogsearch• http://researchblogging.org• http://academicblogs.org

Future Directions

• Semester-long course: Personal Learning Network Assignment, Howard Rheingold (@hrheingold); managing info tasks

• Work with Grad Students—blogs, #conference, network creation and curation

Your thoughts?

Materials at: http://tinyurl.com/9vztplg

Contact me: ericka-raber@uiowa.edu