Vanessa's First Impressions and Ideas

My first thought about this article is that the student didn't seem to have very good critical thinking skills, and she wasn't following good teaching practices. I thought it was common sense that you should try an assignment before giving it to your students. I always do that so I know what the answers are before working it out with my class-I hate looking like I don't know what's going on. In this lady's case, I would think she would want to be extra prepared, since she was presenting infront of her classmates and faculty. I can understand that sometimes in your own classroom things get a little crazy in life and I might pull something off the internet and hope that it works out but that is definitely NOT the right way to use resources from the internet.

This article points out the importance of practicing what you teach. We are constantly being told in the Ed faculty that critical thinking skills are the most important thing we can give our students. I would assume that the woman in this article had received similar prompts from her professors, yet she didn't use any critical thinking skills when she received the lesson. This would be a good case to use as an example in a class where you are teaching your students about critical thinking in relation to the internet. The fact that this lesson was taken from a very respected and credible website and yet still had these huge errors helps illustrate the point that just because it is on the internet does NOT mean you can believe it.

I want to play the devil's advocate for just a moment. As much as we critique resources from the internet and say that they contain inaccurate information, the same can be true for written sources. I have had many textbooks and exercise books throughout my time as a student that contained errors. So basically, I'm saying that critical thinking skills need to be utilized with all information sources-it's not a new phenomenon that can be linked specifically to the internet.

I would also question this specific student's math abilities if she didn't question the answers since my basic math brain is shouting out..."THIS DOESN"T MAKE SENSE!"...but the answers to the math problem are really besides the point of this article.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and other opinions about this article...lets keep the discussion going!