This
is sometimes called the Information Age, and it is true that we are
almost constantly surrounded by an ocean of information. With the
internet as close to hand as a telephone, up-to-the-minute
information on the weather, world news, our friend's thoughts and
activities, and even our own location (help! I'm lost!) is easy to
access.
People
of the past would be bewildered about how easy it is to sit
comfortably in one's p.j.s and find out, say, how to make a basket out of pine needles
or what the most popular names are from year to year. (Wait, in 2010,
more girl babies were named Isabella than any other name? I don't
know ANY Isabellas!)
Anyway,
what I'm getting at is that we all have a LOT of information at our
fingertips. Literally.
But
what good does this information do? We know that there is also a lot
of MISinformation on the internet; how do we know what to believe?
How can we best use information in our decision making or goal
setting?
We
have to use reason—critical thinking skills like synthesizing and
analyzing—in order to use information well.
And
today is the day to celebrate reason!
Here
are some activities to practice critical thinking skills:
- Brain Metrix has a variety of brain-training games.
- Cyberchase does, too!
- Critical Thinking Web has lessons and exercises, puzzles and even philosophical questions to think about.
- Learn4Good has some shooting games that help develop problem solving!
- TeachNet features some folding-paper problems to figure out.
Also
on this date:
No comments:
Post a Comment