Article Assessment 3

Tools for the Mind

Mary Burns

Tools for the Mind by Mary burns reviews past predictions of computer usage in education with current trends. In the 1990's, computers were expected to "build a student's higher-order thinking skills." Instead, computers and technology have been used in ways that inhibit the most important aspects of learning-cognition, instruction, assissment, and curriculum. Burns looks at four behavior patterns that "handicap the potential of computers to poromote higher-order thinkng."

• Teachers are trained how to use technology, rather than how technology can enhance learning
  
• Many Districts have not made necessary accommodations required to fully capitalize the use of new technology
  
• Schools have mistakenly equated the use of technology with learning and higher-order thinking
  
• All software applications are often seen as equal

Powerpoint applications do not particularly help students think or sort out complex information. Rather, we see a picture and a little information.
The internet is used to look up infromation without questioning or validating the source. Instead, cutting and pasting the data is practiced, again removing the process of critical thinking and evaluation.

Applications that do require critical thinking include:

• Data base design
  
• spreadsheet applications


• Geographic information systems

These however, are either used seldomly or in ways that mimic the "show and tell" cognition of slide show applications. They are focused more on visual display rather than allowing students to draw conclusions based on data evaluation.

Two strategies Burns proposes are to:

1. Teach critical thinking first and technology later, and


2. Focus on curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Burns concludes by emphasizing that educational focus should be on content knowledge, curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Once these educational skills have built, technology be incorporated to support these skills, not replace them.

Personal Thoughts:
As a teacher, I find this article very relevant and eye-opening. Sometimes students use the computer in my classroom to do research. Unfortunately, I see the same behavior that Burns describes: copying and pasting of information without verifying the source, and without the need for any type of critical thinking. I teach math, so what I watch out for is how students work out certain types of problems. I still see the copy and paste mentality in some concepts, mostly in knowledge(Bloom) level type of problems. Thus, I limit those types and try to use higher-order thinking assessment questions. I recently had a student comment, "Your test questions aren't easy. You really have to think about them and know what you're doing." Score.