Lesson 8: Higher Thinking Skills through IT-Based Projects

In this lesson, we shall discuss four types of IT-based projects which can effectively be used in order to engage students in activities of a higher plane of thinking.
It is to be understood that these projects do not address all of the thinking skills shown previously in the Thinking Skills Framework. But these projects represent constructivist project.

Now let us see four IT-based projects conducive to develop higher thinking skills and creativity among learners.


I. RESOURCE-BASED PROJECTS


The teacher steps out of the traditional role of being an context expert and information provider, and instead lets the students find their own facts and information.


TRADITIONAL AND RESOURCE-BASED LEARNING

Traditional learning model	Resource-based learning model
Teacher is expert and  information provides	Teacher is a guide and facilitator
Textbook is key source of information	Sources are varied(print,  video. Internet, etc.)
Focus on facts Information is packaged In neat parcels	Focus on learning inquiry, quest, or discovery
The product is the be-all and end-all of learning	Emphasis on process
Assessment is quantitative	Assessment is quantitative and qualitative.

II. SIMPLE CREATIONS


In developing software, creativity as an outcome should not be equated with ingenuity or high intelligence. Creating is more consonant with planning, making, assembling, designing or building.
Three kinds of skills/abilities:
· Analyzing- distinguishing similarities and differences/ seeing the project as a problem to be solved.
· Synthesizing- making spontaneous connections among ideas, does generating interesting or new ideas.
· Promoting- selling of a new ideas to allow the public to test the ideas themselves.

The five key task to develop creativity:

Define the task- clarify the goal of the completed project to the student.
Brainstorm- the students themselves will be allowed to generate their own ideas on the project. Rather than shoot down ideas, the teacher encourages ideas exchange.
Judge the ideas- the students themselves make an appraisal for or against any idea. Only when students are completely off check should the teacher intervene.
Act- the students do their work with the teacher a facilitator.
Adopt flexibility- the students should be allowed to shift gears and not follow an action path rigidly.

III. GUIDED HYPERMEDIA PROJECTS


The production of self-made multimedia projects can be approached into different ways:

• Instructive tools- such as in the production by students of a power point presentation of a selective topic.

• Constructive tools- such as when students do a multi-media presentation (with text, graphs, photos, audio narration, interviews, video clips, etc. to simulate a television news show.

IV. WEB-BASED PROJECTS


Students can be made to create and post web pages on a given topic. But creating new pages, even single page web pages, maybe tool sophisticated and time consuming fort the average student.

It should be said, however, that posting of web pages in the Internet allows the students (now the web page creator) a wider audience. They can also be linked with other related sites in the Internet. But as of now, this creativity project maybe to ambitious as a tool in the teaching-learning process.

Reflection:


In our modern world as a teacher we need to think of unique kinds of projects and this lesson had given us an idea to use these kinds of projects, to be able to make our students' creativity and skills increased. Our job is to make our students to come out on their boxes, so that they will experience a lot of things that would make them a creative and full of knowledge person.