Volume 6 Issue 5

June 2002

The NewsDesk

Thinking (cont)

 "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

Albert Einstein


The Newsdesk

Teachers attempting to use computer technology within their classrooms, are faced with a dilemma of having to teach two classes of students simultaneously, those on the computer and those remaining.  This situation can cause the teacher to minimise the use of information & communication technologies in the classroom.  Each of the activities outlined below provides an easy way to set up and administer a set of tasks that do not require teacher intervention, and also to allow students to become teachers of their peers.  Each of the tasks ranges in complexity, level of thinking and degree of information and communication technology competence required. 

The students report back to the rest of the class from the newsdesk, the results of their investigation.  Ideally students will have access to a multimedia projector so that all students can follow their presentation.  Each of these activities uses PowerPoint or similar presentation software.  Alternative presentation of software such as the use of web sites/pages or the use of other appropriate software familiar to students is encouraged.

1. Word of the day: (Times for this activity is 20-30 minutes)

Students use the website located at http://www.wordoftheday.com where they are presented with the word of the day. The task set the students is:

Deliver a three slide PowerPoint presentation to your peers with the following content on each of the slides

1.  Present the word of the day and the definition supplied by the website.

2.  Use the word of the day in three short sentences.  One sentence must be factual, one humorous and one must be a question.

3.  Draw a simple image/cartoon to demonstrate the meaning of the word of the day.

2. International News: (Times for this activity is 30-40 minutes)

Students use the website located at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/archives/studentcenter/ and select a story that they feel their peers will relate to.  The students then deliver a five slide PowerPoint presentation using only images, in each of the slides used to tell the story they have selected.  The students may access images from other sources as well as those used in the article that forms the basis, of their presentation.  The students will use the five images to tell the story behind the images, and hence summarise the original news story.

3.  Where in the world. (Time for this activity is 30-40 minutes)

Students use the website located at http://www.graphicmaps.com/aatlas/world.htm and report back to their fellow students on a particular city, town or geographical feature somewhere in the world.  The teacher nominates the place they will report back on and this should be linked to another area of study or a particular news item with which  students may be familiar.

Students present four slides to their peers using a “detective style” approach, encouraging the students to try and guess the location or the name of the geographical feature.  The first slide should show a picture of the city, town or geographical feature; the second should show a picture of the people/animals from the location or the actual feature; the third should show another well-known city, town or geographical feature from the same region or country; and the fourth should show on a world map the approximate location of the city, town or geographical feature.

4.  A musical note. (Times for this activity is 30-40 minutes)

Students use the website located at http://www.sfskids.org/ and produce a three slide presentation which introduces their peers to a musical instrument.  The presentation should show (i.) a picture of the instrument (ii) the sound instrument makes and (iii) some brief notes on the origin of the instrument.

5. Problem for the day. (Times for this activity is 20-30 minutes)

Students use the website located at http://www.mathsnet.net/dailypuzzle.html to investigate the puzzle of the day, solve it as a group and then present the puzzle to the class.  Having allowed the class 15 minutes to solve the puzzle in groups, the students ask for solutions and present their own solution and how they arrived at it.

6. Ingenuity and Invention. (Times for this activity is 30-40 minutes)

Students use the website located at http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/archive.html to investigate an invention that is well known to their peers.  The students present a four slide presentation including a picture of their invention and they then ask their peers four questions.

Students then present the class with the answers to these four questions.

7.  Unusual animals. (Times for this activity is 30-40 minutes)

Students use the website located at http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/kids/ to locate an unusual animal.  The students then present a picture of the animal and ask their peers the following four questions:

8. An Apple a day (Times for this activity is 20-30 minutes)

Students use the website located at http://www.healthfinder.gov/ to locate a health story that they feel is relevant to their peers.  Students will have 30 minutes to investigate the story by using other reference sites and they will then present a “60 minutes” style presentation to their peers.

9. Art-Works (Times for this activity is 20-30 minutes)

Students make use of the website http://www.atchive.com/  to identify a particular piece of art and copy an image of the art work onto a PowerPoint slide. They then present this to the class asking the following questions:

10. Excusez moi? (Times for this activity is 30-45 minutes)

Students make use of the website http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/  to identify a particular phrase, in a language other than English.  The students will investigate the origin of the phrase, how to pronounce it, and some background information on the country where the phrase originated.  The students will then teach their peers this phrase along with the background information that they have discovered.

Thinking (cont.)

Over the past year we have been researching issues associated with the process of thinking, in the context of using information on communication technologies, to enhance the thinking process in classrooms around the world.  Two years ago we reported, in a series of issues, on the changing skill set requirements in the workplace, social place, community place and the play place.  These changes indicated a paradigm shift in the skill sets required by students in order to be successful in these different areas of their lives.  It seemed to us that the skill sets that schools were outputting were mostly out of tune with the skill sets actually required by students in order to be successful within their communities in the 21st century.

The main outcome of this research was that students more likely required the following sets of skills:

So we need to have a thinking and adaptive population but just what do we mean by thinking?

Marzano et al in their text "Dimensions of Thinking: A Framework for Curriculum and Instruction" http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/books/marzano88book.html, stated that thinking can be considered to be an integration of:

§         metacognition

§         creative thinking

§         critical thinking

. . . . and that there is an endless list of thinking processes that draw on core thinking skills. These processes include

With the core skill categories being:

The brain is 1.5kg of superparallel electrochemical processing grey squishy stuff that contains 10 billion neurones and 60 trillion synapses running on elaborate chemical and electrical stimulation and response. . . . . .

UCLA’s Human Brain Mapping Centre

 As educators we want to know and understand what thinking is, but it is such a vague, and at the same time complex notion, that it seems almost fanciful to aspire to a total understanding of it.

Thinking is what transforms our present worldview into a new (but not necessarily improved) worldview.

There are six thinking elements that contribute to this continually changing worldview. These thinking elements were identified as a result of discussions by a wide range of cognitive researchers including Marzano, Vygotsky, Swartz, Browne, Papert, Dunlop, Grabinger, Dugoid, Collin, Campione, Brandt, Hughes, Jones, Presseisen Rankin, Suhor, Bloom and Jonassen.,

 From their conclusions we have created a simplified flowchart which contains the six elements and demonstrates their interrelationships. In order to simplify the expression of these ideas it is inevitable that some details are not included but it does make the concepts much more easy to grasp.

 

1. Initiators of thinking

Needs/Wants/Desires; Imperatives; Discourse; Reflection (Metacognition); Mystery/Intrigue; Observation(S); Communication; (Oral/Written/Visual); Opportunity; Inspiration; High Order Thinking Questions; Competition; Inflammatory/Radical Statements; Purposeful Research; Serendipity*; Interaction(S) . . . . .

The construction of new knowledge is not as highly valued as the ability to demonstrate knowledge of conventionally accepted understandings.

David Chan
Director, School of Information & Communications Technology
Ngee Ann Polytechnic; Singapore

2.Thinking Processors

Creative Thinking; Critical Thinking; Metacognition; Values/Culture/Spirituality; Problem Solving; High Order Thinking Questions

3. Facilitatory Environments

Context; Construction; Collaboration; Conversation/Communication; Information

4. Thinking Skills Processes

Information Gathering Skills; Generating Skills; Focusing Skills; Remembering Skills; Analysing Skills; Integrating Skills; Evaluating Skills; Organising Skills

5. Facilitatory Tools

Goal Setting; Brain Storming; Peer Tutoring; Conferencing; Concept Maps; Mind Mapping, Webquests; Study Groups; Concept Scaffolds . . . .

6. Human Nature

Selective/Irrational Passionate Filter Action(s) taken based on Worldview Previous Experiences, Risk, Capability, Pride, Security, Modelling . .

 

 

 

Suggestions and comments are always appreciated.

teachers@work.co.nz

 

 

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