DEAL. Digital Entrepreneurship for Adult Learners

Critical Thinking in a Digital Era

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How do we think critically?

Critical thinking skillsClick to read

“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts. ”

Eleanor Roosevelt

Someone with critical thinking skills can: • understand the links between different ideas • identify, judge and build arguments • determine the importance and relevance of ideas and arguments • identify errors and inconsistencies in reasoning • approach problems in a consistent and orderly manner • reflect on their own assumptions, beliefs and values
https://www.skillsyouneed.com

When we use critical thinking we:

• use a number different advanced thinking skills

• put focus on the thought itself, we look at how the arguments and facts are formed

• reflect on and question our own thinking processes

• are open minded and consider alternatives and other points of view

• look deeper and farther

• ask questions on: sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, fairness

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Useful questionsClick to read

We can train our critical thinking as any other muscle and doing so resilience and curiosity are key.

Here are some useful questions:

What are the issue and the conclusion?
• How can we define the problem?
• What is happening?
• What are keywords?
• Why is it important? Who would be affected by this?
• Who is the implied audience?

What are the reasons?
• What are the main ideas?
• What is the relationship between this and that?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of this?
• What information am I missing?

What are the assumptions?
• What are the underlying assumptions and values?
• How do you know what you think you know?
• How would your perspective be different if you were on the opposing side?
• What's another way to look at this?

How good is the quality of the argument:
• Is opinion or bias present in the information?
• What is the author’s purpose for sharing this?
• Is the author a credible and with experience with this subject?
• Is it fact or is it opinion?

Are there any fallacies in the reasoning?
• What exactly is the logical flaw in this reasoning?
• What is irrelevant or unnecessary, and can be ignored or discarded?
• What am I missing?

How good is the evidence?
• Who is saying it?
• Is it accurate?
• Is it fact-based?

Drawing Conclusions
• Do you agree or disagree — and why?
• What else? What if?
• What solutions can we create to this problem?

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Critical Thinking in a digital era

Critical thinking, images and mediaClick to read

“Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.”

Allen Ginsberg

In our culture today a huge proportion of the information

we are exposed to is:

◆ image-based not word-based

◆ screen-based not paper-based

We have to be aware on how the images affect us and use our critical thinking and take a second look.

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Online false informationClick to read

True or False (Fake News)

◆ “The internet is a wonderful repository of human knowledge, but it is also a vast and daunting sea of information. Being able to navigate it and making critical judgements on the quality of information you come across and whether to trust it are essential skills in the digital environment” - Dr Alison Pickard

◆ False information is news, stories or hoaxes created to deliberately misinform or deceive readers

Type of false information

How to spot false information

• Take a closer look

• Look beyond the headline

• Check other sources

• Check facts

• Check your biases

• Is it a joke?

Media Literacy

• Media Literacy is the ability to identify different types of media and understand the messages they are sending and understand the reason why it was created.

• Media is not only newspapers, webpages, television and movies. It is also things like text messages, memes, viral videos, social media, video games, advertising and more.

Digital Media Literacy

Digital media literacy addresses three types of online content:

• Misinformation, is false, but not created or shared with the intention of causing harm

•Malinformation, is based on a fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm or manipulate

• Disinformation, is deliberately created to mislead, harm or manipulate a person, social group, organization or country

Key steps for digital media literacy

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Test Yourself!

Description:

This module, Critial thinking in a digital era, will enable you to think more critically and provide you with key questions to facilitate that process. Furthermore we look into critical thinking skills in a digital era, where information is more often screen and image based.

Keywords

Critical thinking skills, False information, Media literacy

Objectives:

This course is an introductions to the practice of critical thinking skills. It gives examples to examples of critical questions to be used when exercising critical thinking. It is an introduction to media literacy, critical thinking, images, media and online false information.
At the end of this course you will have learnt skills to exercise your critical thinking. You will have a series of questions that will enable you to reflect on your thinking. You will be more aware of false information online and know key steps for digital media literacy.

Practical Tips

When we use critical thinking we reflect and question our own thought processes
When we use critical thinking we are open minded and consider alternatives and other points of view
Useful questions can help, such as: How can we define the problem? What are the reasons? What are the assumptions? How good is the quality of the argument?
We should be aware on how images affect us and use our critical thinking and take a second look.
How to spot false information: Take a closer look. Look beyond the headline. Check other sources. Check facts. Check your biases. Is it a joke?