Digital Thinking Pedagogies
Curated tips for teaching for thinking online. By teachers, for teachers.
Latest Tips
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The What and the Why of Digital Pedagogy
In this short series of posts, I want to explore what dialogic pedagogy is, why it might be valuable and how a classroom teacher or school might get started with it. I link: https://criticalthinking.org.au/incorporating-critical-thinking-into-stem-education/ -
Philosophy & Critical Thinking
This short course introduces principles of philosophical inquiry and critical thinking that will help us answer this question. Learn how we can use philosophical ideas to think about ourselves and the world around us. -
How students can collaborate online
The last thing teachers usually worry about is pedagogy: wondering how to navigate the learning environment, which includes engaging with what and how students are thinking. -
Daily routine and activity matrix for preschoolers
A suggested daily routine and activity matrix for preschoolers working from home -
Three Ways to Use Game-Based Learning
There are several strategies for gamifying your classwork, and they’re not mutually exclusive—you can combine them. -
Connecting your google classroom to a microsoft teams virtual meeting
Making a seamless link between Microsoft Teams and Google Classrooms for Meet Now VC Sessions. An unusual how-to, but necessary for some NSW Education schools -
Teaching for Dialogue in Digital Pedagogy
In this post we turn our attention to the role of the students in creating an environment in which Thinking Together becomes possible and can flourish, allowing them to make meaning of what they have been taught. -
Key principles of online education
This video outlines a number of essential principles of online education including engagement, less text more visuals, social learning, learning pathways, sign posting, and teacher presence. -
Understanding the four roles of an online teacher
There are many hats you need to wear as a teacher. Moving online means a few more. This video looks at the pedagogical, social, technological, and managerial aspects of online teaching -
How to Find Games for Classroom Learning
A game-based learning expert looks at why teachers should try using games, and shares a new book—available for free—that will help them identify worthwhile games for their students. -
Issues for students learning online
Some students have limited skills in self-regulation and decoding large amounts of text. This is exacerbated when moving to a largely unsupervised online learning from home environment. -
Getting Started with Digital Pedagogy
The broad term ‘dialogic pedagogy’ encompasses diverse approaches to its enactment in the classroom. My own classroom approach, outlined in this and subsequent posts, is in reality a synthesis of those listed above. I refer to it as Thinking Together. -
Facilitating Digital Pedagogy
In the previous post I suggested that Eduardo Mortimer and Philip Scott’s categorisation of classroom talk offers a useful tool for teachers as they reflect on the different ‘communicative approaches’ they use. In this post I will retain the focus on teacher talk and offer some suggestions as to how the transition from authoritative to dialogic interaction could be made. -
How To Teach Online - Providing Continuity for Students
Explore online teaching with this practical course for educators designed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even for experienced practitioners, this situation presents challenges. However, with the right knowledge, you can overcome the hurdles presented by teaching online and embrace its possibilities. -
How to spice up learning online
Here are a few tips to create variety in your onlne delivery includign quizzes and gamification -
Video conference like a pro
Are you new to video conferencing? Here are some useful tips from CSER's @ccoffa & @tjfalusi to get you started. -
Incorporating Critical Thinking into STEM Education
As essential as STEM in eduction might be, it is far from sufficient. Today's student's need to develop much more from their education than the ability to pipette peroxide, code software, build machines and solve equations. They also need to think critically about what they are doing and why. -
Using Digital Tools to Promote Social and Emotional Learning
Educators can take advantage of digital tools that students want to use to enhance social and emotional learning efforts. -
How to run a live discussions for your online class
A few simple tips and principles for running real time chat sessions with your students. -
Some tips for video based classes for small children
Teaching young children online has different requirements to teaching older children. Online specialist Maaike Ysebaert shares some of her tips. In Dutch/Flemmish with English subs. -
What does a critical thinking activity look like?
There is no 'one right way' to teach critical and creative thinking in the classroom but rather, there are a rich diversity of effective pedagogies. So it might be useful to explore what a critical thinking activity in the class room actually looks like. Here's an example from a Brisbane school. -
How to manage real time engagement when teaching online
Classroom management is considerably different when teaching online. This video looks at what to do before and during an online class chat. -
Critical thinking 'Values of Inquiry' poster
The values of inquiry are those things applied during the process of inquiry, such as precision, clarity, plausibility, coherence and the like. Understanding what this means in a critical thinking pedagogy is vital for teachers, who will not be able to develop critical thinking in their students unless they are themselves critical thinkers. -
How to prepare your students to go online before you leave the classroom
It's really important to communication expectations and logistics before you transition to online delivery. -
What's the role of argumentation in critical thinking?
To understand why argumentation is so essential to critical thinking, we need to consider why we value critical thinking in the first place. A key objective in the application of critical thinking is to help ensure that our beliefs are warranted or justified. In other words, to ensure that our beliefs match reality or, in the absence of any way to confirm what the truth is, to stand confidently based on the quality of our reasoning. -
Basic guidelines for making online videos
Some simple guidelines for producing your own online videos from recommended lengths to voice intonation. -
Basic do's and don'ts of online education
7 quick do's and 4 don'ts when transitioning to online education. This might seem simple but you'd be suprised how often they are missed. -
The how and why of collaboration in the classroom
Collaboration is critical in developing thinking for the reason that learning to think well is a bit like learning to speak a language. Just like learning a language, you cannot learn to think well in isolation. You must do it with others to learn how to do it well. Reasoning is far better understood, in fact, as a social competence rather than an individual faculty. -
Worksheet alternatives to engage students
There's a number of alternatives to standard paper worksheets that an help engage your students. Here alternatives a few examples. -
How to create video of hand drawing at home
Sometime is can be very useful to share hand drawn rather than computer generated text and figures online. Here's a very simple set up for hands free filming while you write or draw. -
What is argument mapping and how can it help critical thinking?
Argument mapping is a great way to make your student's thinking visible. In this blog post, I explore what argument mapping it and how you can use it online to improve critical thinking. -
Rubber band cannons - At home science - ExpeRimental #1
Build a rubber band powered cannon from a crisp tin and a drinks bottle and use it to explore projectile motion and conservation of energy...or just knock down any target you can think of. -
Homemade lava lamp - At home science - ExpeRimental #2
Build a home-made lava lamp and use a surprising property of citrus fruits to explore the science of floating and sinking. -
Giant bubbles - At home science - ExpeRimental #3
Make a really good mixture for blowing soap bubbles, learn why bubbles are always round and find out how to make giant bubbles with a couple of wooden spoons and some string. -
Singing wine glasses - At home science - ExpeRimental #4
Create a wine glass orchestra in your kitchen and explore how sound is caused by vibrations. -
Static magic - At home science - ExpeRimental #5
Explore the magical world of static electricity by making charged objects move without touching them. -
Balloon car racers - ExpeRimental #6
See who can make the fastest balloon powered car in this fun science activity to do with kids. -
Spaghetti towers - ExpeRimental #7
Get children thinking and building like engineers by challenging them to build the tallest tower out of spaghetti and marshmallows -
Real-time live discussions
How to run an online chat session -
The four roles of an online teacher
Pedagogical, social, technological; managerial -
How to consciously humanise yourself online
Teacher is important; rapport -
The basics of discussion forums
Strategies to maintain posts, Text based discussion forums -
How to use visual signposts
Sign posting learning pathways is important to help students link concepts together online -
Six steps to designing your topic online
How to design for learning in six steps -
Why ice breakers matter online
Inspiring, connecting, and reactivating interactions help humanise our online teaching. -
Tips for parents and carers: Remote online schooling
A look at the roles, workspaces, scheduling, as well as what to do if your child has a difficulty
