Flexible Mind-Melding with Mind Tools

Photo from morguefile.com

Over the years, technology has slowly crept into many of the courses I teach. Just a few years ago, a Journalism 120 educator could sleep soundly if he/she covered the basics of newspaper writing, the development of interview questions, some basics on layout/design and photography and throw in a few discussions on ethics and responsibilities for good measure. But that has all changed, and it has changed in an incredibly small amount of time. Today most journalists are expected to not only write copy and take a few photos, but they are required to produce video and create audio for a society that is consuming more and more of their news in a digital format. The required toolkit is a whole lot bigger, and it is still changing.


Computer technology in my Journalism 120 class has gone from computers used for typing news stories to computers used for creating podcasts, videos and editing photos while the students create online platforms where their work will be viewed. MS Word has been mainly replaced with Google Docs(Drive). Programs like iMovie, Picasa, iPhoto, GarageBand, Audacity are used on a regular basis. Instead of churning sheets out of a photocopier to make a student newspaper, students with knowledge and an interest in HTML are customizing templates in sites like Blogger where they can present an online school newspaper not only to the school but to the community and the world. Additional products such as the school yearbook and school calendar are also being tackled all with the help of online software and digital photography.

I would argue that in this class the students are working with computer technologies as discussed in the article "Computers as Mindtools for Engaging Learners in Critical Thinking." The use of technology does enhance their thinking and learning as they make decisions on which medium is the best for which story, and considering what approach they should take when interviewing students with a camera or a digital recorder. The article states that "learners function as designers, and the computers function as Mindtools for interpreting and organizing their personal knowledge." This statement echoes a strong view, within the critical study of media and the world of journalism, that students have to take an active role and not be passive consumers but active creators. Citing Carver, Lehrer, Connell, & Ericksen (1992), the article mentions major thinking skills that learners need to use when they design, such as project management skills, research skills, organization and representation skills, etc.

Is there a place for direct instruction when using these software applications? I think there is always a place for direct instruction when students are first becoming familiar with unknown software. Certainly much of the software we use today is a lot simpler in design with very powerful features, but understanding how these features work and getting the basics covered will usually require some direct instruction on the part of the educator (or some knowledgeable students). Using direct instruction at the beginning when introducing new software can avoid a lot of frustration and disengagement later on.

The Cognitive Flexibility Learning Theory is essentially, I think, when students have the ability to take the knowledge they have learned and reshape it so they can apply it to different situations or use it for different purposes. Simply put, it is the ability to take classroom theory and put it into real world practice - many different practices depending one each unique situation.

I would argue that Cognitive Flexibility does relate to the idea of Mindtools because both subscribe to constructivism. The article "Cognitive Flexibility, Constructivism, and Hypertext: Random Access Instruction for Advanced Knowledge Acquisition in Ill-Structured Domains," states that Cognitive Flexibility adds a new element "primarily with the flexible use of preexisting knowledge." This entails that "understandings are constructed by using prior knowledge to go beyond the information given and the prior knowledge that is brought to bear is itself constructed, rather than retrieved intact from memory, on a case-by-case basis." The skills and knowledge, as already discussed, that students attain when using Mindtools will make up their "toolkit" which they will be able to apply to many different situations down the road, and this is knowledge that they can adapt to each situation.