20 April 2010

Lost: Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking is a hot topic in academia.  As the world moves into a culture of immediacy, where information is readily available, people seem to be losing the ability to deeply think about a topic, and instead are taking other people's words for it, where people are so concerned about being approved of, they don't take intellectual risks.  So here are the thoughts of others on this topic.



Video called Typography by Ronnie Bruce on how the world is no longer using declarative sentences and having definitive opinions.


Video called Broken Escalator portraying the inability of today's world to deal with the unexpected.

And my favorite one ever...


The infamous Did You Know video that reminds us all we have a lot to learn.

This is my collation post for the Blog Improvement Project, asking for a post that draws together some different views on a subject and then forms a conclusion.

Well, if I could come to any conclusion about intellectual growth in the 21st century, it would be that we need to start thinking critically about the world we live in, we need to elevate ourselves to positions of our own authority, and we need to start learning how to learn so we are able to adapt to the ever-changing environment.

but that's kind of a long conclusion, so how about this for a conclusion...



That's right, Read a Book!

5 comments:

  1. Touche! Excellent post, and I couldn't agree more.

    In lieu of the blogger plagiarizing posts that have been going around, a return to critical thinking would in deed assist in these matters.

    Your escalator video reminded me of a fun video that I saw the other day that I think you might enjoy. It's on YouTube here .

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  2. That whole plagiarism issue going around shocked me. Well, not really shocked, but AMAZED me that book bloggers in particular would copy other people's reviews. Have they asked themselves why they are blogging in the first place?

    I enjoyed the videos, especially that first one!

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  3. I don't have time to watch all the videos now, but I'm starring this post and coming back - this is a topic I care deeply about! Yes, the world definitely needs more critical thinking and more intellectual risk-taking.

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  4. At risk of asking a REALLY dumb question, I assume this escalator scenario didn't really happen?? -- it looks like it's part of a commercial.

    It's almost 2:00 a.m., and I have no business still being online. I'll be back tomorrow to read the whole post and leave a proper comment. This is a topic that's of particular interest to me as a home educating mom, and I have lots of opinions on the subject.

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  5. I like your favorite too. All great videos and yes, people today, or more accurately, Americans, are becoming dumb. No one has an original thought, or critical thinking skills. People don't challenge themselves anymore.

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Talk to me baby!