Technology and Critical Thinking Skills

Bloom's taxonomy of critical thinking breaks down the thought process into varying levels. Beginning with the base of knowledge and expanding upon it into areas of comprehension, application, analysis, sythesis and evaluation, Bloom's taxonomy describes the various levels of critical thought and the learning process. The incorporation of technology into the learning process can enhance the development of higher order thinking and problem solving skills.

While some teachers only allow the use of technology to enhance the knowledge and comprehension stages of learning without taking students deeper, the proper use of technology in the classroom can impact all stages of learning. Technology can address the varying levels of learning as follows.

Knowledge - the use of specific search engines can allow students to discover facts relevant to their area of study. Students should be instructed in how to conduct research on the internet and how to make it their own work, rather than simply printing the information verbatim from the web site.

Comprehension - some websites allow for the evaluation of student comprehension of material through games and more traditional assignments (i.e. questions on the subject, tests and quizzes, etc.)

Application - the knowledge that a student gains can be applied either through further research and development of a position on a topic, through the creation of various media describing their findings or through a more active use of the internet such as a Web Adventure.

Analysis - students can use web sites like Think Tank to divide their information into useful subcategories and help to organize their research.

Synthesis - students can use the web to help develop their projects and combine the information that they have found in new ways.

Evaluation - students can review their work or the work of others online or they can create surveys to gather feedback on their own work.

These examples are only a few ways in which technology can be incorporated to enhance the learning process. By incorporating technology into all stages of a lesson, a teacher can enhance the lesson and allow for more student interaction with the information.