Promoting critical thinking with computer mediated communication technology

The paper explores how computer mediated communication can be used to effectively promote critical thinking skills among online learners in higher education. Critical thinking is a process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing and constructing information to become one's own knowledge. The effective use of a new technology needs to be related to how learners learn. This paper attempts to examine the learning theory underlying computer mediated communication and discusses cognitivism, collaborative learning, constructivism and situated learning. The latest technologies in computer mediated communication are investigated further by identifying the potential as learning tools. The definition of internalization may throw light on the key question of this study. Finally, we conceptualize the idea that computer mediated communication could promote critical thinking among learners through internalization within a community of learners.

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