#EDCMOOC Technological Determinism. Web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/kindergarten-learning-approach.pdf. The MOOC movement is not an indicator of educational evolution. Somehow, recently, a lot of people have taken an interest in the broadcast of canned educational materials, and this practice — under a term that proponents and detractors have settled on, massive open online course (MOOC) — is getting a publicity surge. I know that the series of online classes offered by Stanford proved to be extraordinarily popular, leading to the foundation of Udacity and a number of other companies.
But I wish people would stop getting so excited over this transitional technology. The attention drowns out two truly significant trends in progressive education: do-it-yourself labs and peer-to-peer exchanges. In the current opinion torrent, Clay Shirky treats MOOCs in a recent article, and Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern University, writes (in a Boston Globe subscription-only article) that traditional colleges will have to deal with the MOOC challenge. Two more appealing trends are already big. “I believe in everything never yet said.”
What Is Critical Reading? Note: These remarks are primarily directed at non-fictional texts. Facts v. Interpretation To non -critical readers, texts provide facts. Readers gain knowledge by memorizing the statements within a text. To the critical reader, any single text provides but one portrayal of the facts, one individual’s “take” on the subject matter. Critical readers thus recognize not only what a text says, but also how that text portrays the subject matter. They recognize the various ways in which each and every text is the unique creation of a unique author. A non-critical reader might read a history book to learn the facts of the situation or to discover an accepted interpretation of those events. What a Text Says, Does, and Means: Reaching for an Interpretation Non-critical reading is satisfied with recognizing what a text says and restating the key remarks. Critical reading goes two steps further. These three steps or modes of analysis are reflected in three types of reading and discussion:
Defining Critical Thinking. It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue; assumptions; concepts; empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions; implications and consequences; objections from alternative viewpoints; and frame of reference. Critical thinking — in being responsive to variable subject matter, issues, and purposes — is incorporated in a family of interwoven modes of thinking, among them: scientific thinking, mathematical thinking, historical thinking, anthropological thinking, economic thinking, moral thinking, and philosophical thinking.
Critical thinking can be seen as having two components: 1) a set of information and belief generating and processing skills, and 2) the habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to guide behavior. Critical thinking varies according to the motivation underlying it. Another Brief Conceptualization of Critical Thinking ~ Linda Elder, September, 2007. Www.winthrop.edu/uploadedFiles/cas/english/ReadingCritically.pdf. Critical Thinking: Where to Begin.