Using Computers as Tools Which Help Learners to Think Critically

The people who learn the most from designing instruction are those that designed the instruction not the learners for which the instruction is created(Jonassen, Retrieved October 31, 2008, from http://frank.itlab.us/forgetting/learning_mindtools.pdf). When is the last time you designed a project, rubric, etc. in your own and were not taught how to perform these tasks. It made you think more because you had to have a better understanding of the content in which you were designing the project, rather then having someone teach you the information. For example, grading rubrics. Students can be given a rubric and asked to complete a task using the rubric as a grading key or students could design their own rubric. They would need to explore and have a deeper understanding of the content before being able to create a rubric. The learner would have to think of the content from multiple perspectives, teacher, learner, outside audience. Let's explore critical thinking with the use of an expert system.

An expert system is a mindtool that can be useful for engaging students in higher order thinking.
An expert systems was created from research in the field of artificial intelligence. It is a computer program that simulates the way human experts solve problems, also known as an artificial decision maker (Jonassen, Retrieved October 31, 2008, from http://frank.itlab.us/forgetting/learning_mindtools.pdf). An example of an expert system is the 911 emergency system. The caller has an emergency that the 911 operator must find ways to help the injured person until the ambulance arrives. In most cases the operator has not been through medical school and does not know how to help a person in every situation, nor is it possible to have doctors fill the 911 operator positions, which is why we must rely on the expert system. The operator asks a question, receives a response from the caller, which she or he enters into the computer system for guidance to the next question. The question response process continues until, hopefully, the operator is able to give directions on how to treat the injured person.

In order to build an expert system the learn must have a great understanding of causal knowledge.
Usually an expert system is planned out using a decision tree.

Here is a youtube video showing you how an expert system guides someone to a decision or answer. :)

Computers as Critical Thinking Tools

Hello All! After frustrating technology issues I have finally been able to sign into my blog. I emailed my group members to inform you of my new topic, but can share my idea with others now that I am able to access my blog again. I will be exploring ways to use computers to learn with through the use of different technologies. This first week I will be looking at expert systems and how they can be used to learn with and engage learners in thinking critically.

Two websites on Tweeting in Education and How Twitter Can Be Used in a Website

Take a look at this blog on how an educator named Christopher Dawson is going to use Twitter in his classroom. http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1605 Make sure to read the TalkBacks at the bottom of the page. It shares other educators experiences of using Twitter in the classroom.


This is another website called NixTheNews: Daily News and Views for Twitter. See how twitter is integrated in the this news website.

How would you use Twitter in your website & why or why not?

Brainstorm

If you have been reading my posts you have read several articles of what Twitter/ Microblogging is and how it can be used. Can you give me some ways you might integrate twitter into instruction?



(http://www.medem.com/MedLB/article_detaillb.cfm?article_ID=ZZZ0ZFP46JC&sub_cat=75)

Take a look at this short Youtube video. This gives multiple examples of how Twitter can be used and briefly focuses how it can be used in instruction. Help me brainstorm a list of ideas on how to use twitter in instruction.

Tweeting in Education

The following website is a quick read about using twitter in education. The one valuable piece of information I took away from this article is the way twitter could be a technology support system in classrooms. How many teachers have been in the middle of a lesson and had some type of technical issue. The computer may freeze or the internet disconnected and you are left with a room full of 20 students waiting for you to fix it. Using twitter as a support tool may be something school districts want to look into. http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/187

Save Now

In the next article see how Professor David Parry engages his students. He found that the twitter assignment lead to students becoming interested in the content they were learning. The students started finding information on the content outside of the class and tweeting their classmates to share the information. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080319-twitter-breaks-down-barriers-in-the-classroom.html

Please take a look at the articles Yin provided in the comments section of my previous blog. They are extremely helpful and give wonderful examples of how Twitter can be used in education. THANKS Yin!