My very first reaction to the reading was “I agree” but when I took a moment to think about what it would take to make critical thinking through online discussion successful I realized that a lot of teachers are not at that point yet. Teachers need the time to be comfortable with the tools that technology can offer before they can help their students achieve that critical thinking. Just because you can email doesn’t guarentee success. I like to feel that if someone can email they have the potential to handle online discussions.
When I think back to my experiences as a student to online discussion and critical thinking it usually goes to listservs. In those cases the emails start fast and furious but after a while they die off and grow stagnant. Now I have a better idea why, the lack of the moderator to keep discussions focused and stimulated. Using blogs or wikis might have changed that failure because the emails get lost in the shuffle where a dynamic web pages like wikis and blogs are a little more in your face.
It would be interesting to ask (regardless of the technology) how much discussion goes on in the classroom for students to achieve those critical thinking moments. I hope it would be high…
I like the thought of starting the necessary skills offline and building up student confidence so when they do go online they are more likely to be successful. This is one environment where jumping in with both feet might be a precursor to failure than success. With the Read/Write/Think web in place the audience is potentially bigger than the classroom so taking the time in order to be success is smart.
I was impressed with the number of different ways discussion formats could be structured. Technology lends itself as a tool to help organize and promote the necessary thinking in order to address the essential questions the teacher may pose.
The biggest thing I took away from the article was preparation is the key to success. Success is not necessarily going to happen over night but with patience and dilligence (using technology or not) your students can think more critically. It is our job as teachers to promote critical thinking skills so we don’t end up with a generation of “zombies” accepting the status quo.
