Palo Alto College
Critical Thinking Resource Home Page
Michael S. Seiferth
Associate Professor of English
As we begin to combine the best of the Internet and the best of our traditional instruction into our Distance Learning offerings, Palo Alto College will also have to review the many, valuable resources available to the community of educators who will be teaching our students either in the traditional classroom or via the internet or through the use of other technologies such as the World Wide Web and Interactive CD ROMs.
Our pages will contain a number of general areas which should serve as a resource as well as a center for discussion. It will be open to all members of the community who wish to learn, chat, post messages, ask questions, or contribute to the fund of knowledge so that the PAC community can take its place among the many other fine contributors throughout the world who have given freely the information contained in these resource pages.
Before we begin to explore the many, fine resources gathered on these pages, I would like you to join our discussion group which will be administered through this site. If you would like to join the group and RECEIVE and PRESENT information, just send me your e-mail address. I shall then place your name and address in our List Serve. As a result, you will receive information concerning current announcements, updates, and interesting places to visit. If YOU wish to broadcast your information to the List, simply send me a copy via e-mail and I shall distribute it to current subscribers.
I might suggest that we all read "Critical Thinking by Design" by Joanne Gain Kurtiss, who in 1989 hit us on the side of the head with the proverbial two by four!
Before we settle on a general structure for the contents, however, let us review a working definition offered by Michael Scriven and Richard Paul for the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking.
Here is a term which we all understand: Socratic Teaching.
The links which follow offer a general intoduction to the field. A Primer: Critical Thinking
The page which follow offers a general, critical intoduction to Learning on the Net (Updated to include results of Critical Thinking Seminar held on September 12, 1997, Great Links
The links which follow offer a general intoduction specific teaching areas and the applications of critical thinking to the fields. Links for All Teaching Occasions
And, just when we thought we could rest on the laurels of technology, David Rothberg writes an article, "How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students' Research Papers." Study the paragraph (in red) beginning, "But it's also my fault."
The page which follow offers a general intoduction to Multiple Intelligences Resources on the Net Great Links
Joel Gold Deconstructs Faculty Evaluations by Students The Chronicle of Higher Education ON-LINE, 11/12/97
