Pinterest for Politics: Curated Collection Assignments to Spur Critical Thinking

• In Event: TLC at APSA Technology and Innovative Pedagogy Track Panel 2: Bridging Technology and Critical Engagement

Abstract

How can we spur critical thinking about social media and news as our students consume them today? Class assignments differ radically from the daily information flow. We risk segmenting student learning of critical thinking into what is understood to be academic, leaving the popular field of information unchanged by our lessons. In this paper I present the results of a new assignment in two political science classes, Comparative Politics of the Middle East, and Refugees and Forced Migrants, both in a graduate-level masters program for adults. In these diverse classes I assigned curated collections with the instruction that students must annotate their selections with an analysis of the author’s point and what evidence is used to support that point, distinguishing between fact, opinion, or projection/opinion based on some variable or knowledge. By an assignment similar to everyday media consumption, I hope to add an awareness that posts are constructed, as the assignment asks them to do, and encourage critical reading to seep into daily use. I present the findings of an evaluation questioning the degree to which this assignment affected students’ perspective of media consumption.

Author

• Anne Marie Baylouny, Naval Postgraduate School