Information Accessibility and the Relevance of Critical Thinking by Danielle

Information Accessibility and the Relevance of Critical Thinking by Danielle - January 2015 Scholarship Essay

As technology advances and becomes more widely accessible, so does information as a whole. Within my lifespan the Internet has become less of a niche and more an assumed norm. For example, since primary school I have borne witness to the evolution of computer integration in public education. In my earlier youth having a well-equipped computer lab was a luxury. Now, an absence of such technology is often a hallmark of impoverished education. The stereotype that younger generations evolve and outgrow older generations through the adoption of technology is not far off the mark, and to overlook this is a mistake especially dangerous when preparing for our society’s future. Consider the role social media has in shaping the narrative of today’s culture. While its use is often centered around the mundane and even frivolous, social media is one example of the impact technology has on how individuals access, share, and integrate information. Shifts in these processes occur at an exponential rate, evidenced plainly in the example of presidential elections since 2000. During the 2008 election, for instance, grassroots campaigns which embraced the power of social media as a means of spreading information were critical to the success of Presidential Obama’s victory. Within not even ten years, greater accessibility to information and its dispersal had evolved to the point of actually changing major events in American history.

With this in mind, it is critical for educators to understand the importance of remaining aware of shifts in information accessibility and dispersal. To expect students to handle information using paradigms centered around outdated means of learning is setting students up for failure in a rapidly-evolving, fluid world. While the Internet is by no means a substitute for traditional education, it is an important tool for information accessibility that does change the value of teaching students to place greater importance on information retention versus information processing. What I mean to say is that in our modern era, for most students it is unrealistic to expect individuals to feel satisfied with an education that revolves solely around the accrual of information without also teaching students how to sift and understand information.

While I’m certainly not suggesting that teachers completely eschew emphasis on committing to memory importance concepts and ideas, I do believe that it would behoove any teacher to consider shifting focus towards how to teach students to work with information. Previously educators faced the challenge of making lessons accessible; now, they also face the challenge of teaching students which lessons are worth keeping, and how to use these lessons to shape thinking as a whole in light of a vastly greater breadth of available knowledge literally available at fingertips’ reach.

My advice, then, is this: teach students how to think critically in the face of an ever-expanding pool of information. Teach them how to identify what information is reliable and how to sort such information within a framework that takes advantage of exposure to different perspectives. Teach students more than rote memorization – teach them how to assess information committed to memory, how to share such information through careful analysis and thoughtful communication skills. Teach students to break down information into its parts, and then understand the value of the sum of different parts. Take advantage of exposure to world views and an array of voices by teaching students not to take information at face value, as well as how to better judge and understand the contextual value of knowledge and opinions. Ideas do not exist in a vacuum, and students must understand the origins and implications of ideas to fully comprehend their significance and potential. Teach students how to place information within a context of thoughtful cognition, spanning across disciplines. In an ever-globalizing world, educations must embrace the empowerment of students’ own resourcefulness lest their thinking be dulled by almost archaic, even insular neglect of how to apply information after it is initially presented.

In my educational experience I have gained the most from teaching which challenged me not only to present what information was included in my curriculum, but how I integrated that information into a greater understanding of its importance to both specific disciplines and its meaning to the world around me as a whole. Such teaching that emphasized the value of critical thinking as much as the value of information in and of itself is crucial, especially in the face of growing and already nearly overwhelming, instantaneous, and at-will exposure to information. Teach students to wield this enormous power responsibly and effectively, and learning will almost certainly become a more enjoyable and palpably relevant experience to students.