Developing Higher-Order Skills with ICT Mediated Instruction

Think it- Do it- See the Results. This I believe is the theme of high order thinking skills (HOTS). Acquiring information is good, for it allows learning to take place. When one receive information it can be processed, stored for future use and be retrieved to use when the situation calls for it. Therefore these are the characteristics of ICT, however there must be deeper purpose for the learner when using the ICT tools, and that means that the learner must gain high order thinking skills using the web 2.0 ICT tools. So what then is HOTS and why is it important to students learning? I would say that it is about ones way of thinking and using that way of thinking to find solutions to problems and even asking questions. Hence I believe that this is the principle of critical and creative thinking. According to Wheeler, Waite and Bromfield, (2002, p. 367) young children need to develop creativity in their thinking because without having creative thinking ability, it would be difficult for children to gain the knowledge and skills needed to function in their environment. Thus children in ICT classrooms need to be creative as well as to think critically.
 Kizliz, (2012 as cited in unit 5, p. 128), ones thinking ranges from the lower to the highest as depicted in Bloom’s Taxonomy of learning: Knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Therefore HOTS would require that the learner take the information received and arrange in in such a way that  one is able to understand, apply,  form new ideas, or models of it or even make judgements, (EDTK 2030, unit 5, p. 130-134). Hence, HOTS leads to action, Wheeler, Waite and Bromfield, (2002).
As I looked at the ‘Online Collaborative Tools’, (Intel Teach Program 2010), I see that they all help with the development of HOTs, however I specifically took note of Wordpress, pbworks (please check out the wiki I built here:http://shonellaearlylearcentre.pbworks.com/w/page/101848141/FrontPage)  and Thinkfree, and I have realised that all of these calls for the use of both critical and creative thinking, thus thought and action must go hand in hand  because in critical thinking new knowledge is gained and with creativity something surprising can be seen, (Bruner, 1960, as cited in Wheeler, Waite and Bromfield, 2002). In like manner, children in ICT mediated instruction can develop their HOTS through appropriately designed authentic learning task in the upper end of Blooms Taxonomy of analysis, synthesis and evaluation in this example:
The teacher is teaching about vertebrates and invertebrates; the information is presented to the children. In analysing this information the children can firstly collect the information by the teacher narrating it to them, after they can use internet to get additional information and they can then analyse the views to see if what they hear and now researching is correct. Using the thinking skills of synthesis, students can use the search engine find pictures of the two categories and and do a Power Point Presentation to show the information they have received. Therefore at this stage it can be seen that students are merging the information they have gathered and putting it in a creative way that can be seen. Here the students will be able to collect the information they want to use and leave out what they do not want and in terms of evaluation they can reflect on what they have done, get feedback from their peers and teacher and importantly  too they check the relevance of the information they have provided.
Finally, to develop learners HOTS with the ICT tools the teacher has to plan the lesson in such a way that it brings out critical and creative thinking, all subject areas must have objectives that that will develop HOTS and importantly, aim for children to be “adaptable, creative and innovative”, (Young 2008, as cited in EDTK 2030, Unit 5, p. 137).
 

 

 

 

 

 

References
 
EDTK 2030 Information and Communication Technologies in Education (2015). Developing higher order Skills with ICT Mediated InstructionUnit 5, pp. 128, 130-135
 
Intel Teach Program. (2010). Collaboration in the digital classroom. Online collaborative tools. Intel Corporation, pp. 1-67. Retrieved from: file:///C:/Users/sampler/Downloads/Online%20Collaborative%20tools(2).pdf
 
Wheeler, S., Waite, S. J., & Bromfield, C. (2002). Promoting creative thinking through the use of ICT. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. 18, pp. 367-378. Retrieved from:
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.library.open.uwi.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=43d2b348-26b4-4e60-aed5-c4d378ce6a22%40sessionmgr115&vid=1&hid=123