E-Learning enable Students With Critical Thinking Capability

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Learning becomes interesting if it enables the learners to explore the critical aspect of their psychology and ensures them to be a critical thinker rather than a dull memoriser. It supports the candidate in the professional field as it generates the decision-making power. The ability to think critically is a must for the corporate standards and the industries and e-learning successfully enables a learner with such powers of impartial judgement.

E-learning and critical approach

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Research was done; ways were sought to get critical thinking included as a dominant element in the e-learning methodology. In the past, the critical approach to e-learning was limited but the present e-learning systems have already started incorporating the critical appreciatory mode in e-learning. Wide research about it is also discussed.

There are various efficient ways by which critical approach can be implemented in e-learning and Hisham Al-Mubaid from the University Of Houston talks on it in his paper named A New Method for Promoting Critical Thinking in Online Education.

The view

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E-learning facility is available in classrooms as well as in the mode of online education. The critical approach can be implemented in both the cases. The methods are of two types: the individual component and the team-based component. The individual component delivers a more personalised environment and the team-best component generates an interactive method in the classrooms.

The individual component

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There are three initial steps in this stage: listing; evaluation and re-structure.

Listing

includes the systematic arrangement of the course materials and the online content that a learner himself or herself has to develop. It enables the learner to continue learning in his/ her own pace.

Evaluation

is the second step that fosters the critical thinking capability of the learners. It is more intrinsic than the first step as the learners themselves estimate education. It develops the learners’ sense of understanding.

Re-structure

is the third step that effectively helps to increase the intellectual power of the learners as they execute their ideas in their personal ways and reshape their base of learning.

The team-based component

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There are also three initial steps to this process. They are: listing; discussion and evaluation.

Listing

is same as the first step of the individual component, the only difference is it encourages listing in groups. The classmates are grouped and each group performs the task of making the list on the contents which e-learning offers them. It produces a collective realisation of education to them.

Discussion

is the second step which is one of the integral parts of interactive education. It helps the formation of critical appreciation as well as estimation through students’ discussion and debates.

Evaluation

is the third step that enables the judgement and meaningful estimation of the content. The difference of this step with the step of the individual component is that it is completely based on the second step that is the students’ discussion.

Think critically: Solve problems

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The critical thinking strengthens the meaning of the e-learning. In both the ways the learner is provided with the power of evaluation by himself/ herself. It allows the learners to take a look on the different aspects of education leading them to newer possibilities of flourishing critical thinking. What they learn in e-learning is to be implemented by them in the professional field. Critical thinking not only strengthens a learner from his/ her depth of understanding in his/ her own manner, but also enables them to critically estimate and solve the ‘critical’ problems in their profession.

The Verdict

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Online learning is never an easy task as it appears to a few. It requires contineous deligent effort and perseverance to achieve your goals as an online learner.

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How Can We Improve Education With Technology Enhancement ?

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Can EdTech tools actually help students to learn better? Can they prove effective without investing excessive time and money? If yes, then the Request for Proposal (RFP), which consists of a total 36 pages, issued by the Office of Educational Technology under the US Department of Education sounds logical.

The RFP aims “to find support services to evaluate educational software applications purchased with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) program funds.”

EdTech for better education

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The mission of the initiative is to develop a set of tools to carry out “rapid-cycle technology evaluations” that comprise of building guidelines, evaluations strategies and methods, protocols for establishing the experiments & documenting results. The proposal is set to close on 3rd September, 2015.

@tonywan ,Managing Editor at educational technology information resource EdSurge, recently wrote “Eliminating tools that are unproductive is important. Given how the US has drilled into trying to evaluate and assess teacher performance over the past five years, it seems like more than poetic justice that edtech tools should be put under the same kind of scrutiny.”

He added “That said, products face a challenge similar to evaluations of teacher performance: What makes a tool or a process “work” in education - particularly in K-12—is subject to a host of factors, some of which are entirely outside the realm of the design of the tool.”

EdTech analyst Phil Hill believes that the RFP is “almost a good idea.” He thinks that every effective assessment of education tools needs to consider the importance of the support structures and the staff and within the institutes.

He said “Edtech apps by themselves do not ‘work’ in terms of improving academic performance.”

Value of motivation

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However, the analysis of educators and technology tools somehow ignore the need for motivation. When a teacher is motivated, he can teach and inspire students in a way that goes beyond the chalkboard and the classroom. Still there are some teachers and parents who are satisfied simply by putting the kids before a computer or even a tablet and allow software programmes do all the work.

Director of the Office of Educational Technology, Richard Culatta, says that the conventional way to EdTech effectiveness “does not work well in the rapidly changing world of educational technology.”

He believes that conducting research is a time consuming practice, while businesses, particularly, startups, are keen on moving at a rapid pace.

Wan wrote “The idea of doing short-cycle efficacy studies is by no means new. The iZone, a unit within the New York City Department of Education, hosts its own “Short-Cycle Evaluation Challenge” to bring teachers and developers together to pilot edtech tools for one semester. In California, two nonprofits- the Silicon Valley Education Foundation and New Schools Venture Fund- have teamed up to run three-month efficacy trials involving educators and entrepreneurs. And this summer, Chicago-based LEAP Innovations received a $5.1 million Gates Foundation grant for similar efforts.”

Need for alignment

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Wan concluded that research projects should keep pace with how businesses operate. Aligning these processes will surely be a major challenge for this project. Devising a feasible medium is critical not just for the industry, but also for the millions of students and teachers who shouldn’t have to wait years before finding out what works.

A recent report published , confirms a huge investment had been made for promoting education technology. This would surely be a boost for the research process to bring up new educational softwares.

Education Technology Deals Reach $1.6 Billion in First Half of 2015 https://t.co/RWhjzqNd8k pic.twitter.com/PAweEDa79i

— Tony Wan (@tonywan) August 12, 2015

What do you think? Feel free to add to the discussion by sharing your personal opinions and views with us. We would like to hear from you.

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