MI--+A+Real+Eye+Opener

“Good creative and critical thinking take place in a context of questioning and open inquiry that requires a certain spirit of thought manifested in certain attitudes and dispositions like being open-minded and considering points of view other than one’s own. Creating a classroom or establishing the school library media center as an information laboratory, rather than teaching for specific skills, is the most difficult aspect of teaching to generate thinking” (Callison, 2006). Why is this so difficult, one might ask? Statistics show that traditional teachers lean toward instruction only in the areas of linguistic and logical-mathematical learners. This inability or refusal of classroom teachers “to adapt instruction to a broader concept of learning has been named ‘dysteachia.’ The only way to combat dysteachia is for educators to reconceptualize learning abilities to include the strengths of millions of kids who will otherwise languish in remedial programs” (Poplin, 1988).

Many teachers are reluctant to incorporate the multiple intelligences theory into their planning because “the teacher’s role transforms in this type of program, requiring different skills from those needed when lecturing in the front of the class” (Campbell, 1992). Teachers are often forced out of their comfort zones and most often must become an observer rather than a learder. The roles of observer and facilitator are often new to educators that have spent their careers as an upfront lecturer and/or ditto kings or queens. No longer are teachers allowed the luxury of teaching to only ten percent of their students, teachers must look for ways to teacher one hundred percent of their students. This can be done through the use of multiple intelligence planning that is an amazing dovetailing of creative and critical thinking.

It is clear that this interactive wikispace does just that, it allows students who are otherwised intelligenced the ability to use various techniques and learning styles to move through the virtual learning world without the stifling oppression of a lecture or book assignment.