Higher Order Thinking

How can technology help develop higher order thinking and problem solving skills?

Technology has extraordinary potential to influence higher order thinking and development of problem solving skills. Three areas which immediately come to mind are speed, interaction, and feedback. There may be more technical names for these areas but this is a blog so I’m going to take advantage of that and call them speed, interaction, and feedback.

Technology allows rapid access to virtually any topic one is looking for. In Bloom’s Taxonomy, knowledge is the first category. For students attempting to compile knowledge, quick access to the “answers” is a valuable tool. Technology shortens the search time for whatever knowledge one is seeking. Shorter search times increase repetition. Repetition is clearly a significant factor in being able to remember or recall knowledge.

Additionally, technology allows rapid access to information to build knowledge in different settings than traditionally available. For example, my sister-in-law takes the train into the city for her graduate program. A cell phone with internet access would allow her the opportunity to refresh her knowledge base or expand it quickly and easily, probably while still listening to music.

Thinking about this subject reminded me of the Ipad commercial I saw again the other day. Ipad Commercial I personally am not a big fan of the Ipad but the commercial is a good example of the speed and access technology can provide.
Interaction- As illustrated in the videos found on Edutopia video 1
video 2 Technology provides students the opportunity to interact with the computer programs on their own. A technology filled classroom could certainly facilitate the comprehension and synthesis categories of Bloom’s Taxonomy. If each student could work on a project while the teacher supervised, then each student would be increasing in comprehension and synthesis at a rate a traditional lecture format could not match or come close to matching. There may be more traditional projects which allow students to improve comprehension and synthesis. However, the interaction technology provides opportunities for much quicker development in these areas because of the final aspect of feedback.

Technology provides near instant feedback. There are many different facets of feedback one may receive with proper application of technology. Technology can provide instant information as we saw in the speed portion earlier. Also feedback can come in the form of interaction by a computer program. But probably more importantly, technology allows for feedback from literally all over the world. Simply post or tweet something and it is possible to receive feedback from others who live nowhere near you geographically. But they may be experts in that particular area. Feedback is especially helpful in developing evaluation skills. The opportunity to be evaluated and to evaluate others more quickly allows one to develop evaluation skills more rapidly.

Obviously, technology has other applications to facilitate higher order thinking but these three areas of speed, interaction, and feedback are important. Proper use of technology can empower students to progress more rapidly towards higher order thinking. There are concerns with technology. Students could and often do use the technology without developing their own skills and that is certainly an area where the educator would come into play. The educator must be very involved to ensure students are applying technology toward developing their own skills and not just using tech to short circuit the process.