Using Blogs to Develop Critical
Thinking Skills
Brick & Click
Northwest Missouri
State University
Ericka A. Raber
University of Iowa
Inspirations
• “I Need Three Peer Reviewed Articles…”
Farkas
• Beyond Peer-Reviewed Articles: Using Blogs to
Enrich Students’ Understanding of Scholarly
Work (Deitering and Gronemyer)
• Inquiry-based learning (Stripling)
• Miniature Guide to CT (Paul and Elder)
http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical-thinking-in-every-domain-ofknowledge-and-belief/698
Why Blogs?
•
•
•
•
•
No peer-reviewed stamp of approval
Short, often fun
Arguments
Rich selection
Provide context
Critical
Library
Thinking Instruction
for activities
but not serious
Engaging blogs
Guiding Ideas
• Critical thinking
– is a habit of the mind (attitudes, dispositions)
– is supported by community
– involves questioning
• Less is more
• Context is key
• Students should be
working harder than you
are.
Globalization and Social Change
In-Class Worksheet
• While reading your text think about:
– What claims are being made? How are the claims
supported? What do you want to learn? How can
you learn more? Where might the conversations
be taking place?
• Related to your text/topic, identify:
– Keywords and concepts, Contacts,
Sources/Studies
Instruction Sessions
• One-shots
– Model thinking/search strategies
– Have students pose questions for a text related to
their topic
– Discuss next steps (where to look)
• One-shots+
– Coordinate longer activity with instructor (use
blog from class)
Finding Blogs
• http://www.google.com/blogsearch
• http://researchblogging.org
• http://academicblogs.org
Future Directions
• Semester-long course: Personal Learning
Network Assignment, Howard Rheingold
(@hrheingold); managing info tasks
• Work with Grad Students—blogs,
#conference, network creation and curation
Your thoughts?
Materials at: http://tinyurl.com/9vztplg
Contact me: ericka-raber@uiowa.edu