Using technology in Developing Students' Creativity and Critical Thinking Skills A Presentation by Jennifer Kinsley

A quote to ponder: “Trying to get people to reason in a way that is not natural for them is like trying to teach a pig to sing. You don't accomplish anything and you annoy the pig.” E. Jeffrey Conklin & William Weil

What is creativity? “You cannot use up creativity. The more you use the more you have.”   Maya Angelou         Creativity is marked by the ability or power to create, to bring into existence, to invest with a new form, to produce through imaginative skill, or to make something new. 

Let’s put that into perspective. . . Creativity can be defined in many ways. Lets look at it metaphorically. Through doing so, we can develop a better understanding of what it means and how to teach our students to use it. Creativity is like a cat chasing its tail.  An activity and sample from http://www.uwsp.edu/Education/lwilson/creativ/define.htm

Your turn! Please take 30 seconds to try and come up with a metaphor that helps you better understand creativity and how to use it and/or a metaphor that will help your students better understand it. When you come up with one, please raise your hand to share!

What is critical thinking? The Foundation for Critical Thinking defines it as follows: “Critical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.”

Why is this so important? The ability to think creatively and critically is crucial to both making good decisions and solving problems effectively.

What skills need to be developed?

How can we use technology to develop creativity and critical thinking skills? There are many ways to do this. The most commonly used methods are Web Inquiry Lessons/Projects. This includes: Treasure Hunts & Webquests

Quick Survey Please select “yes” or “no” from the toolbar. Are you currently using, or have you used, web inquiry lessons/projects such as treasure hunts or webquests, in your classroom or fieldwork?

Web Inquiry Lessons/Projects Web Inquiry Projects (WIPs) are open inquiry learning activities that leverage the use of uninterpreted online data and information. “All too often students learn about English/Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies rather than acting as authors, mathematicians, scientists, or historians.” (http://webinquiry.org/overview.htm) There are 6 stages: Hook Questions Procedures Data Investigation Analysis Findings

Webquests A type of WIP developed in 1995 by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University. Wequest.org was created as a place for teachers to find, create, and share their webquests. “Since those beginning days, tens of thousands of teachers have embraced WebQuests as a way to make good use of the internet while engaging their students in the kinds of thinking that the 21st century requires.” Webquests: can be created for any subject and any topic have no set format. . .however. . .an effective webquest contains all 6 stages of WIP’s generally contained under the categories of introduction, task, process, evaluation, and conclusion. Most webquests also include a credits and teacher page. have tasks that are only limited by the teachers creativity - the possibilities are endless.

Let’s Explore! Elementary http://questgarden.com/56/41/5/071021101328/ Secondary http://krist4.googlepages.com/birdsofanotherfeather

Treasure Hunts A more simplistic form of a WIP. Similar to a scavenger hunt in that students are given clues, usually in the form of questions, and are provided the link that contains the answer to the questions. Students need to read through and come up with the appropriate response. Treasure Hunts are: easy to create can be created for any subject/topic can be as simple or as involved as the teacher feels is necessary have tasks that are only limited by the teachers creativity - the possibilities are endless.

Let’s Hunt! Elementary http://www.cyberbee.com/hunt_sites.html Secondary http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson079.shtml

Tools To Create Your Own WIP’s: Tools To Find WIP’s:

Questions or Comments? Thank you!

Resources Websites: http://www.criticalthinking.org/aboutCT/define_critical_thinking.cfm http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/awc-thkg.htm#critical http://www.cabrillo.edu/academics/english/Facione%20P%201998.pdf http://zaidlearn.blogspot.com/2008/03/coaching-critical-thinking-to-think.html http://webinquiry.org/overview.htm http://tommarch.com/writings/wq_power.php http://webquest.org/index.php http://questgarden.com/ http://www.mtwp.net/~jane_glass/minds.html http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr113.shtml http://www.cyberbee.com/hunts.html Pictures: http://vishvanidam.org/images/Donation/Creativity.jpg http://www.ronmilon.com/images/puzzle-logo.gif http://dimurroa.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/critical-thinker.gif http://quyen.hungq.de/Website/singing_pig.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_337GUHQH0FY/R9iZlGtoS5I/AAAAAAAAA5I/oT-v1Jn4se8/s400/critical+thinking+skills.jpg http://www.slideshare.net/zaid/problem-solving-85723 http://www.catnabbit.com/buttons/catchasingtail2.gif http://sharynheili.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/creativity.jpg http://www.weblo.com/asset_images/large/creativity.com_479f8882bf3f1.jpg http://www.ict4us.com/r.kuijt/images/en_blooms.gif http://www.fotosearch.com/ART181/mms023/ http://www.oasispetro.com/Images/Inquiry.jpg http://www.easternct.edu/career/images/magnifying-glass.gif http://www.geocities.com/tcas_club/treasure20chest.gif http://www.cloudninehome.com/gallery/Treasure%20Hunt(2).jpg