Reading Response 2

How do quality telecollaborative projects develop students’ critical thinking skills (the highest levels on the Bloom’s Taxonomy pyramid)?

I feel like the obvious answer to this question comes from the title of the top-most level of Bloom's Taxonomy. Evaluating is exactly what students are going to be doing when they work telecollaboratively. They'll be evaluating the work of their peers because they will have a collective grade to worry about. If they choose not to evaluate, they will suffer. Along that same vein, they will self-evaluate in order to make sure that their work is up to the par of the rest of the group members.

If there is some question as to which of the top levels of Bloom's Taxonomy is the highest, I suppose I should also address Synthesis. Synthesis is also necessary in a group telecollaboration because if you simply try to regurgitate things you've found, one of your group members (hopefully all of them) will call you on it.

Both of these things are examples of advanced use of critical thinking skills. If you don't *really* think about what someone is writing how can you evaluate it? And, if you don't really think about what you are reading, how can you synthesize it? In both cases, you cannot. Print Page in IE