I am teaching a class on using technology to enhance learning and we have been having a discussion about the importance of teaching higher order thinking skills. When I read Rovy’s post: Internet, Information Flow, and Implications for Education it occurred ot me that the importance of higher-order thinking skills has grown because of the changes brought on by emerging technologies such as the internet. We have talked in class about teaching these skills with technology versus teaching these skills without technology, but I just realized that part of the reason that the skills are so essential today is because of technology.
More Need for Higher-Order Thinking
I am teaching a class on using technology to enhance learning and we have been having a discussion about the importance of teaching higher order thinking skills. When I read Rovy’s post: Internet, Information Flow, and Implications for Education it occurred ot me that the importance of higher-order thinking skills has grown because of the changes brought on by emerging technologies such as the internet. We have talked in class about teaching these skills with technology versus teaching these skills without technology, but I just realized that part of the reason that the skills are so essential today is because of technology.
I’m in EFL, but am also coming to a similar conclusion, perhaps for different reasons. Hence the interest in autonomous language learning (i.e. learning how to learn, or the ability to self-direct one’s own learning). At dinner the other day, I blurted out that I didn’t know why kids went to school anyway: everything’s on the Internet. This relates also to the idea of teachers no longer being the gatekeepers, or the sole keepers of the keys of knowledge (certainly knowledge as information). Very interesting post, thank you.