Comments on: The Destruction of Critical Thinking http://www.timchilders.com/the-destruction-of-critical-thinking Changing Education One Post At A Time Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:19:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: R. Zepp http://www.timchilders.com/the-destruction-of-critical-thinking/comment-page-1#comment-81 R. Zepp Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:34:39 +0000 http://www.timchilders.com/?p=149#comment-81 I really believe that technology is destroying our critical thinking. It's happening more and more lately, like you said, at a very rapid pace. Not too long ago, I recall sitting in classrooms listening to the sound of a teacher writing on a chalkboard while lecturing. They were passing on their knowledge to us in the form of writing and the spoken word. The notes you took, if any, were a combination of what you were gathering from having this conversation, and the skeleton of this session being drawn out on the board. Today, I hear of videos being shown, and Power Point projects galore. While it sounds so neat and interactive, I feel a bit is lost in translation. There are those who obviously will use this technology to an advantage and produce some very nice projects, and use those to make an impression on the minds they are attempting to impact. There are always those that shine above others, and use everything at their disposal to provoke thought to those they teach. The story has two sides though - to some instructors, it doesn't seem farfetched for a streak of laziness to hit. What's stopping them from making these great projects at home, or downloading them and having them projected to the class - lecturing none, and tapping "Enter" once the students have copied down everything on the frame, just to move on to the next. I guess this is just a new method to the old story of three chalkboards worth of notes written early morning, and all 3-4 periods of the day copy it all down, and do textbook work in silence. I guess there are those that teach and those that just administer the materials they are given, no matter the time period or amount of technology. It just seems that lately, with technology abound, it's easier to be an administrator, and not a teacher. The students will remember which teachers actually taught, and hold their lessons dear, but the lessons they had to teach themselves from having an administrator instead of a teacher will only be thought of again out of necessity, not out of fondness. There are subjects that are not fun to learn to some, and there's no amount of Power Point, video, or any other kind of media that will make it interesting if the pupil just doesn't have any desire to learn it. Nothing beats learning from a real person with real thoughts, creativity, and enthusiasm. Anybody can commit something to memory, and it's much easier to do this using all of the technology available in this world, but personally I cannot feel a passion to dig deeper and "learn" something, unless the person I am learning it from has a desire to teach it, and a real enthusiasm for whatever it is they are trying to pass on. A computer can't do that - strings of binary will never have the capability to emulate any sort of real passion for a subject, or for teaching in general. A computer can help you commit something to memory just fine, so grades stay fine and that keeps governmental agencies are happy, but on graduation day are those walking across the stage rich minded, free thinking individuals, or hollow robotic shells with lots of hard drive space? I really believe that technology is destroying our critical thinking. It’s happening more and more lately, like you said, at a very rapid pace. Not too long ago, I recall sitting in classrooms listening to the sound of a teacher writing on a chalkboard while lecturing. They were passing on their knowledge to us in the form of writing and the spoken word. The notes you took, if any, were a combination of what you were gathering from having this conversation, and the skeleton of this session being drawn out on the board.

Today, I hear of videos being shown, and Power Point projects galore. While it sounds so neat and interactive, I feel a bit is lost in translation. There are those who obviously will use this technology to an advantage and produce some very nice projects, and use those to make an impression on the minds they are attempting to impact. There are always those that shine above others, and use everything at their disposal to provoke thought to those they teach. The story has two sides though – to some instructors, it doesn’t seem farfetched for a streak of laziness to hit. What’s stopping them from making these great projects at home, or downloading them and having them projected to the class – lecturing none, and tapping “Enter” once the students have copied down everything on the frame, just to move on to the next. I guess this is just a new method to the old story of three chalkboards worth of notes written early morning, and all 3-4 periods of the day copy it all down, and do textbook work in silence.

I guess there are those that teach and those that just administer the materials they are given, no matter the time period or amount of technology. It just seems that lately, with technology abound, it’s easier to be an administrator, and not a teacher. The students will remember which teachers actually taught, and hold their lessons dear, but the lessons they had to teach themselves from having an administrator instead of a teacher will only be thought of again out of necessity, not out of fondness.

There are subjects that are not fun to learn to some, and there’s no amount of Power Point, video, or any other kind of media that will make it interesting if the pupil just doesn’t have any desire to learn it. Nothing beats learning from a real person with real thoughts, creativity, and enthusiasm. Anybody can commit something to memory, and it’s much easier to do this using all of the technology available in this world, but personally I cannot feel a passion to dig deeper and “learn” something, unless the person I am learning it from has a desire to teach it, and a real enthusiasm for whatever it is they are trying to pass on. A computer can’t do that – strings of binary will never have the capability to emulate any sort of real passion for a subject, or for teaching in general. A computer can help you commit something to memory just fine, so grades stay fine and that keeps governmental agencies are happy, but on graduation day are those walking across the stage rich minded, free thinking individuals, or hollow robotic shells with lots of hard drive space?

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