6° Task. Outline (Essay)

Should English teachers implement the use of ICTs in their classes? Why?

Thesis: The use of ICTs in classrooms help teachers and students to get involved in a second language.

Argument 1: Leaving traditional education
Counter-argument: Difficult access to technological devices in classrooms
Argument 2: Expand the access to learn a second language 
Counter-argument: Difficult access to the internet in order to achieve new insights in a second language
Argument 3: Improving the quality of learning
Counter-argument: Internet has many inappropriate and dangerous sites for students

Conclusion: Teachers should implement ICTs under some conditions to get students involve with a second language, taking into account that we should use internet for educational purposes and in order to improve all the major skills in a language. 

7° Task. Frankfurt School

How do you think Frankfurt School thoughts can be applied to today in our own culture?

Nowadays, we don't have the culture of think critically because since primary school teachers don't involve their students in this process of thinking. The majority of students are good in many educational aspects but they lack in think critically. Although we are not familiar with critical thinking, it is an opportunity to begin spreading this important notion. As teachers, we have to begin developing critical thinking since early ages in our students.  If we begin with this notion we will apply the thought of Frankfurt schools.

5° Task. Michael Sandel: What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets

     

Michael Sandel: What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvDpYHyBlgc&t=735s 

1. How does Michael Sandel support the thesis that "over the past three decades we have drifted from having a market economy to becoming a market society?"
   A market economy is a tool for organizing a productive activity, the market economy has brought prosperity and affluence countries around the world. A market society is a place where almost everything is up for sale.
2. What sorts of arguments are offered for and against the assumed proposal of paying young children two dollars for every book they read?
   Arguments in favor:
   - Financial incentives for educational goals
   - The love for books can be remedied by money
   - Get paid for something that you love
   - Money as a jump start to get children love reading
   Against: 
   - With the payment teachers or parents are using the wrong behavior, the wrong incentive
   - The incentive is not measuring the right thing
   - Passion and love are things that money cannot buy
   - Expect a reward for everything children do
   - Children get addicted to the cash anytime they read a book
3.  Now, what is your standpoint about cash incentives at school or at home to encourage students to read more books?
   My standpoint about cash incentives at school could be at the beginning but once they have the habit of reading I would stop the incentive because they have learned the lesson, they have love reading.
4. When Michael Sandel contends that "this tendency of markets and cash incentives of crowding out nonmarket goods, higher goods, can be seen in many spheres of social life, what sort of "higher goods" do you think he is referring to?
   I think he is referring to the thought that people have today about that everything can be bought. Nowadays, people think that everything can be possible through money. For example, people pay for the integrity of a person, pay for votes, pay for say lies, for everything. Many people do not have enough dignity. 
5. What kind of nonmaterial goods do you think have been crowded out by market transactions in Colombia?
   As I said before it is common in Colombia that political aspirants pay for votes in order to win the votings.
6. What should be the role of money and markets in our Colombian society?
   The role of money and markets in Colombia should be focus only on their interest and have a clear idea that the ethical values never will never be bought. 

2° Task. Stephen Brookfield on Creative & Critical Thinking

Stephen Brookfield on Creative & Critical Thinking

Doctor Stephen Brookfield
A professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota, leading scholar on critical and creative thinking and adult learning. He has published 15 books on teaching adult learning, critical thinking, discussion methods and critical theory. His most recent book “Teaching for critical thinking”; tools and techniques to help students question their assumptions.

Dr. Stephen defined critical thinking as a process by which we become aware of the assumptions that frame the ways we think, like scholarship, life decisions, etc.

Creative thinker
- A creative thinker is able to view ideas and practices from multiple viewpoints. - A creative thinker can generate interpretations and perspectives and responses that are different from the mainstream.
-A creative thinker is able to communicate a thought through a variety of different ways visual, graphics, kinetic.
- A creative thinker has the ability to look at things from multiple viewpoints and have multiple responses.  

Kind of assumptions

·         Causal: Cause and effect

·         Prescriptive: Assumptions about how things should happen, we should behave

·         Paradigmatic: Framing, structuring assumptions viewed as obvious, common sense, taken for granted.

4 key intellectual traditions

v  Analytic Philosophy: A student who thinks critically is good at constructing and deconstructing arguments, knows

v  Natural Science: Critical thinking is basically the application of the scientific method

v  Critical Theory: Critical thinker is someone who has heightened political consciousness who is very alert to the way that power moves within this society

v  Pragmatism: Knowledge as something that’s constantly reinvented were open to new ways of thinking.

What most help students to think critically &/or creatively?

- Circle of voices (Group Activity): Group of five people. Individuals reflect on the discussion topic (1 minute). In the first round of this activity each person of the group has their turn to give their response to the question that they have thought about in the opening minute. In the second group you can only talk about what somebody else said which can be disagreements, questions, elaborations, illustrations.
- Chalk Talks: Instructor writes a question in the middle of the board, from 5 to 10 minutes of silence is declared, students write responses to the question on the board whenever they feel ready, those who are not writing you say your jobs is to look for connections between the post that are going up to draw lines when you see connections or to draw lines connecting comments that seem opposed to each other.

- Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ): Brief evaluation tool, it takes the last 5 minutes of class.
 1. Moment most engaged as learner
 2. Moment most distanced
 3. Action most helpful
 4. Action most confusing
 5. What surprised you most?

In conclusion, Dr. Brookfield give us a speech about the main concepts, kinds and techniques about creative and critical thinking in which plains how university instructors can challenge students' assumptions and model the exploration of alternative perspectives. He also presents several practical activities that encourage creative and critical thinking in the classroom.

Barriers

5. Barriers

The barrier that has an effect on me is the reluctance to criticise those with more expertise. Sometimes I only keep with me the arguments that others people have but it is important to ask and try to go through active questioning.  

Reflection

4. Reflection

No, I don't recognize anything about myself in Bodner's description because as a student is important also what we learn inside the classroom because at some point we will need that knowledge that we acquired years ago. However, what Bodner mentioned about that evidence from projects is true because we also have to go beyond the words and experiment the reality.

Challenging opinions

3.  Reflection: Challenging opinions

The thing I find most difficult about challenging the opinions of a person is to make the other person understand what I think and my point of view without ambiguities. I deal with this by making my self-understood since my first opinion and also to consider the other person point of view.