20(3)pp55-86TeachingSupplement3.pdf TS 84 Critical Thinking On the Web TIM vANGELDER Department of Philosophy, University of Melbourne Parkville VIC 3052, Australia E-mail: tgetder@ariel.unimelb.edu.au Critical Thinking on the Web is a web site whose sa le function is to be a useful directory of quality resources for critical thinking available elsewhere on the web. The site can be found at http://www. unime lb.edu.auireason/critica l! Background These days, online resources are a component of, or supp lement to, almost every subject. There is a vast array of o nline resources available on the web, but they suffer from two problems: ( I) there is more j unk than va luable material, and (2) the material is spread across the web in a very haphazard way. To help deal with these problems, I included a links page on the web s ite for my own introductory critica l thinking classes. The page included brief annotations (usually just excerpts from the resou rce itself) to help the reader decide if the li nk was worth following. A fter a wl1ile the page became so extensive that it was more sensib le to divide the links into categories on different pages; hence the mini-site. In 2000, the site seemed sufficiently well-developed to be made available to wider audiences. What is on the site? At time of writing, the site contains a couple of hundred annotated links spread across 22 categories: Guides: Compact guides to various aspects of critical thinking. Topics include identifying the argument of a text, and critically evaluating web pages. Fallacies: Sites li sting and describing fallacies of argumentation, such as ad hom- inem and slippery slope. Online Tutorials: Sites us ing the interactivity of the web to provide tutorials in critical thinking. Grear Critical Thinkers: Thinkers who have tirelessly applied the tools of reason and an uncompromisingly critical attitude to the task of understanding the world, © Informal Logic, 20.3 (2000) Teaching Supplemefll#3: pp. TS 84-TS 86. Critical Thinking On the Web TS 85 and the parallel task of resisting guff, propaganda , pretension, deception , pse udoscience .... Skepticism: Critical thinking applied to pse udosc ience, religion, etc. A selection of the best s keptical sites. Cults & Quackery: Cults and quackery succeed panly because they exploit poor critical thinking capacities Miscellaneous & Fun: Sites that don 't fit anywhere else, but shouldn 't be missed. Definitions: What is crit ical thinking, anyway? And what does "syllogism " mean? Courses & Programs: Links to online courses in critical thinking, or to web sites accompanying regular courses, or critical thinking program s General Resources: Sites containing a wide range of critical thinking re sources and links Bibliographies: Pages containing lists of references to the critical thinking litera- ture. Textbooks: Links to online textbooks, or to pages describing traditional textbooks Software: Software for critical thinking, including educational packages for formal and informal reasoning. Teaching: Links to resource s useful for teachers of critical thinking. Assessing: Re sources for anyone interested in try ing to evaluate critical thinking Vendors: Companies specializing in selling products or services in the area of criti- cal thinking. TheOlY: Resources concerned with the theory of critical thinking and informal logic Experts: Home pages of boffins (0 Boffin, n: academic. Au str. colloq .) with inter- ests in critical thinking Institutes: Insti tutes, societies, centres, clubs , etc Conferences: Conferences, Meetings, Workshops, etc. Journals: Academic journals specializing in critical thinking Lists & Newsletters: Ways to fill your mailbox with critical thinking-related mes- sages. However, the site is continually under developmen t. I am still coming across ii-Her- esting or useful resources that have been out there for a while, and new reso urCes are becoming available all the time. What you can do As a teacher of critical thinking, you might consider the following: (a) Make use of the site in preparing yo ur own subjects, subject web sites, etc.; (b) Link to the site from your subject site, or make it available to your stud ents in other ways; (c) Send me any recommendations for additions or changes to the site. TS 86 A final word Critical Thinking on the Web is, to m y knowl edge, the most comprehensive and useful guide to critical thinking resources available on the web. As such, it is a valuable re source for the entire cri tical thinking community. However, JIm very much aware that it is incomplete in various res pects. The trouble is that there is a limit to the a mo unt of time I can spend trawling the web to maintain and extend the s ite. I appeal to everyone to help me out in this by emailing me any sugges tions for additions and changes. The site can then become the community's reso urce rather than j ust my own list of favored links. Pedagogical Ideas JOHN H. BRYANT Writer/speake r in internatiional social, business and educati onal philosophy jn .bryant@juno.co m Planned Student Participation I ) When the sy llabus is prese nted to the class, have a calendar of the course included with each sy llabi. Each student chooses at leas t one date on which helshe will present a 10 minute summary of the previous sess ion' s lecture and disc us- sion. The studen t will prepare this " protocol " in writing, present it to the class, and respond to quest ion s fro m the other students, the professor and any guests. At the end of the summary presentation, the student submits the written summary for co nstructi ve critique, us ing standard s and elements of c ritical thinking, of both the written and oral components of the work. A "Protocol " is given in each class sess io n throughout the semester, and the students may also be invited to share in the evaluative process. [From Dr. Masao Abe , Professor Emeritus, Phil oso ph y of Education, Nara University, Japan.] Expanding Truel False questions 2) Add a third column to all truel false and multiple g ues s tests. The additiona l option is, "I do not know". This additional option is graded as 1/2 the c redit of a correct response. The theory is that a st udent must have done something to know that the y do not remember accurately, or missed the point. The grading and analy- sis of tests of th is nature are not known to me, but they apparently yield quite meaningful data. [From Dr. John Miller, Professorof Th eo [ogy, Earlham School of Rcl igion. ] © ltiformal Logic, 20.3 (2000) Teaching Suppiemenl#3: p. TS 86.