Increasing

Critical Thinking
Through Content
Creation
J. Greg McVerry
W. Ian O’Byrne

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 Identifying the Technologically Gifted
Student

The Skills
Siegel, D. (2004). Identifying students with gifts and talents in technology. Gifted child today, 27.
 Identifying the Technologically Gifted
Student

The Student

Siegel, D. (2004). Identifying students with gifts and talents in technology. Gifted child today, 27.
Tierney, R. (2008). The agency and artistry of meaning makers within and across digital spaces. In S. Israel and G. Duffy (eds.)
Handbook of Research on Reading Comprehension. Newark, DE: LEA.
Our students

Technologically savvy

Informationally savvy
 Not just a technology
issue

Need to look past the technical issues and realize new literary and
social practices are emerging (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006;
Street,2003)

• Technology standards become integrated into

every subject.

• Internet instruction is included in every subject

area.

• Every teacher is responsible for teaching online

and communication tools.

• Online information tools are included in

Leu, D. J., O’Byrne, W. I., Zawilinski, L., McVerry, J. G., & Everett-Cacopardo, H. (2008). Expanding the new literacies
conversation. Educational Researcher.
 New literacies research

§ New Literacies require new skills, strategies,

dispositions and social practices.

§ New Literacies are central to full global and

civic participation.

§ New Literacies continuously change as

technology changes.

§ New Literacies are multifaceted and should

be investigated from multiple perspectives.

Coiro, J., Knobel, M., Lankshear, C., & Leu, D.J. (Eds). (2008). Handbook of research on new
literacies. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
 Online reading
comprehension

§ Questioning

§ Locating

§ Evaluating

§ Synthesize

§ Communication

Leu, D. J., Coiro, J., Castek, J., Hartman, D., Henry, L.A., & Reinking, D. (in press). Research on instruction and
assessment in the new literacies of online reading comprehension. In Cathy Collins Block, Sherri Parris, & Peter
Afflerbach (Eds.). Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices. New York: Guilford Press.
 Evaluating online
information

§ Navigate to the Confratute Ning…search for

“critical evaluation” and complete the
following activity within groups.
 Critical Evaluation of Online
Information
Students face numerous challenges when evaluating websites
(Coiro, 2003; Reih & Belkin, 2008; Tate & Alexander, 1996)

There is no empirical evidence that checklists improve student

evaluation of websites (Metzger, 2007).

When students are taught to look for common markers of

reliability they often make errors of over simplification (McVerry,
2008).
 Critical Evaluation of
Online Information

A contextual process of examining, adopting, and changing

perspectives in order to judge the relevancy and reliability
of a website.

McVerry, J.G. (2008). Critical evaluation of Websites: A review of the literature. Keynote address at the
American Reading Foundation. San Isabel, FL.
 Facilitation of Critical
Thinking through Online

§ Investigate if critical evaluation skills could be improved by first

analyzing the techniques authors use to make websites more
credible (Britt & Gabrys, 2002; Fogg, Marshall, Laraki,
Osipovich, Varma, Fang, et al., 2001) and then having students
build their own spoof websites by using these techniques.
 Facilitation of Critical
Thinking through Online

§ Intervention included initial overview of

critical evaluation strategies and hoax
website activity.

§ Students were allowed to pick their own

topics and groups.

§ Facilitated by classroom teacher, student

teacher and researcher in a one-to-one
laptop classroom.
Facilitation of Critical Thinking
through Online Content

§ Classroom management, strategy

exchange between students influential in
the model, and agency of students.

§ Just-in-time teaching moments most

important to workflow of groups.

§ Filters, online tools, upfront work with tools

used in online content creation.
 Facilitation of Critical Thinking
through Online Content

§ Navigate to the Confratute Ning…search for

“hoaxwebsites”.
 Increasing
Critical Thinking
Through Content
Creation
J. Greg McVerry
W. Ian O’Byrne