ED 5201 Assignment:
How can technology help develop higher order thinking and problem solving skills?

Sometimes technology could be a distraction to people, especially students. Video games could be a huge preference over homework any day for many children. On the flipside, technology could tremendously increase engagement and excitement for learning. Textbooks are obviously unattractive to students in kindergarten. It's hard for them to stay focused. The tension span for younger children makes it even more important for students to have a variety of interesting and interactive ways to learn. This is also important for junior high and high school students as well.
Also, many times students will research the web and find something so that they can get their homework assignments over with. Whether it's seeing in a textbook or looking at a website, sometimes kids will write down the first thing they see. Sometimes because of this, what they write would have nothing to do with the question.
A lot of the responsibility relies on teachers to be facilitators. If students aren't understanding how to research, or are abusing their computer usage, teachers must be involved and engaged in student leraning as wel.

After looking at the two articles, and looking at the web for other articles, I realized how important technology is for students developing skills in critical thinking. Though some of these points can be done using books, they are very limited compared to what can be done with computers. The first point in the article on techtorials that stuck out to me was how "educators want to move students beyond mere memorization of information and simple understanding of concepts covered." It's a shame sometimes to hear teachers say that one day students will use what they learned. Why not put it into practice now? I love math teachers who bring in fake money to teach students how to understand why decimals are important. Let's take it a step further. When a teacher wants to talk about distance, and the difference between feet and miles, rather than pulling out a ruler and having students to imagine how far 30 miles stretch, why not take a step further and show them on google maps? Why not allow them to particpate by putting in their adress and seeing how far their home is from the school they attend? This will engage them, interest them, excite them, as well as help them see the importance in what they are learning.
After going of tangen I'd like to bring this back to the techtorial article. The six points pointed out by Bloom's Taxonomy are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. These cannot always be done using textbooks, papers and colored pencils. Technology is limitless in capabilities, and is only getting better. So much can be done using technology. Now students can research the web on their own, gain knowledge on what they're reading, apply it to the topic they're researching, comprehend what they read, apply it, analyze pros and cons of certain information gathered, synthesize, then evaluate. When researching websites on the web, students can decide whether or not what they're reading relates to the topic they're learning about.
Technology and the demand of it now allows students to create their own presentations, make their own data tables and charts to better understand how they work, develop organization skills by organizing file folders on their own log-in accounts, etc. Interactive websites for different subjects using video game-like software can definitely enhance one's learning experience.

Other technology can be a great benefit for students. E-mailing, blogging (like this website) and wikis enable students to from home interact with each other and with their teachers. These can be used for feedback and information sharing. From home children can now research rather than always having to drive to the nearest library. Because of technology, the world is now at our fingertips.

Children are growing up with so much technology that it must be embedded in education. Education and technology should not be seperate.