Theories of Critical Thinking

After reading these articles and being a classroom teacher, I can see where we are headed in regard to technology in the classroom. I have seen over the last couple of years just how important and useful it has become to utilize a few of the different digital learning tools that are available, such as, the Google Apps (Classroom, Sheets, Docs and Slides), Kahoot, Quizlet and Quizziz to name a few. I have found these to be very beneficial to my students as well as to me as the teacher.

Since our very first teacher education class we have all had embedded in our thinking, as educators, how important Bloom’s Taxonomy is in trying to reach our students. I think it is important to be able to take Bloom’s Taxonomy, find a way to help our students learn based on the appropriate objectives, while meshing those objectives with technology. The one thing that has been so difficult for many teachers is getting out of the mindset of “I have always done it this way.” If we allow ourselves to get beyond out dated mindsets, we can begin to see just how helpful technology and digital learning are.

Gone are the days of simply standing in front of a classroom and giving lecture notes. We can now ask our students to take their devices, look up the information and have more information than could be given to them in a matter of seconds. We can then ask our students to take what they have found and apply it in many different ways. This gives us the opportunity to reach all different types of learners, PowerPoint, Google Slides, posters and reports can be used to give feedback on the assignment. It is also important to understand that with the majority of our students having some type of technology with them at all times, they are not bound to simply learning at school, students can also do so much with the technology when they are away from school, if we are able to find a way to make it interesting for them.

It will always be important for us, as educators, to understand not all of our students will have the same access to technology, nor will they all learn the same way. It is imperative that we work with each student to help them be the best that they can be, while also helping them understand just how important it is to be able to use technology in the world we live in today.