Website Critique

Lauren Tsugawa:

The website is very visually appealing a filled with great writing. The website is well constructed and the flow of the writing is easy to follow. She makes great use of the sources and did not fall into the “present the information” trap. In particular, I liked the site titled “A Grayish Medium.” I felt like it did a good job of summarizing what remixes were and the controversy surrounding them. It also flowed nicely into her section on “Democracy at Work” where she presented various examples of how the internet provides a medium for democracy to reign.

Randy Holaday:

The simple layout really let the writing be at the forefront. The writing was clear in its direction and it was not obscured by attempts to make an extravagant website. The introduction did an excellent job at laying the framework of the hypertext. Each page flowed into the other, creating a sense than no single one was more important than the other, which allowed me as a reader to explore each one and not overlooked pages that might have otherwise appeared “unimportant.” I was particularly fond of the “Sound of Silenced Voices” because it provided two excellent examples of how the internet was used as a powerful driver for political and social change. Overall, the writing was clear and easy to digest, making it a pleasant site to visit. What made it a good website was that the response to the issue took precedent over the actual sources, so it didn’t feel like I was reading a response to various individual websites.

Nicolas Feigenbaum:

The simplicity of the site made it very easy to read and to digest all of the information. The hypertext aspect was used very effectively and provided nice context throughout the discussion. The section on the “Role of the Remix” was very good and the analysis was thought provoking. He was able to effectively tie together many examples and highlight the controversy surrounding remixes in a very clear and revealing manner. His section on “fixing the problem” did a good job of highlighting the analysis of many major scholars of the field. It also did a good job of addressing the one possible solution that is currently being explored in the video game industry. The ease of reading the material made it very pleasing to go through and I didn’t feel like I was struggling to understand the point of it all.

Critical Thinking in Hypertextual Writing

“Critical thinking skills: understanding the meaning of a statement, judging ambiguity, judging whether an inductive conclusion is warranted, and judging whether statements made by authorities are acceptable.”
Smith, 1990.

The purpose of critical thinking is, therefore, to achieve understanding, evaluate view points, and solve problems. Since all three areas involve the asking of questions, we can say that critical thinking is the questioning or inquiry we engage in when we seek to understand, evaluate, or resolve."
Maiorana, Victor P. Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum: Building the Analytical Classroom. 1992.

Critical thinking is "a process which stresses an attitude of suspended judgment, incorporates logical inquiry and problem solving, and leads to an evaluative decision or action."
NCTE Committee on Critical Thinking and the Language Arts.

These three quotes illustrate my course of thinking while creating a hypertext. Like a child that does not understand the meaning of words or concepts, when one searches for answers in any aspect of life, questions must first be asked. However, at a higher research level, a writer must not only ask questions, but ponder about the meaning of these questions and how they play into the greater whole. A hypertext research paper that involves thinking critically must contain inferences and judgments. When evaluating a statement or comment made by an authority, one must look at who that person is, the context in which they made that statement, and what patterns or values can be determined from them. Within critical thinking and writing, an individual must also seek to sustain a scientific approach while reviewing the information they find. One must be without judgment, without bias, taking in the reports and information as is, to justify their meaning, as a whole, rather than one by one. In studying the literature, a person must then inquire and attempt to solve problems associated with what was found, thus, making personal additions to what is already known.

Critical Thinking and Hypertexts

“Critical thinking is the development of cohesive and logical reasoning patterns.” Stahl and Stahl, 1991
“Critical thinking is ‘the examination and testing of suggested solutions to see whether they will work.’”
Lindzey, Hall, and Thompson, 1978.
“Critical thinking is ‘the art of thinking about your thinking while you are thinking in order to make your thinking better: more clear, more accurate, or more defensible.’"
Paul, Binker, Adamson, and Martin (1989)

For me, theses three definitions describe my process of creating a hypertextual webpage. In order for the webpage to work, the links have to make sense and connect to one another. They need to be logical and work together. When I create my webpage and am choosing what I want to link to, I don’t always know right away. I go through a series of trials and errors to figure out what works best—which words to make links and what the importance of those links are. Lastly, revision is always key in the creation process. Even after I am “complete,” I usually feel like there is something more I can do. This is why the last definition makes sense. I am constantly thinking about what I did, changing my thinking, and then re-publishing. It is a constant work in progress.

The critical part of thinking

"Critical thinking includes the ability to respond to material by distinguishing between facts and opinions or personal feelings, judgments and inferences, inductive and deductive arguments, and the objective and subjective. It also includes the ability to generate questions, construct, and recognize the structure of arguments, and adequately support arguments; define, analyze, and devise solutions for problems and issues; sort, organize, classify, correlate, and analyze materials and data; integrate information and see relationships; evaluate information, materials, and data by drawing inferences, arriving at reasonable and informed conclusions, applying understanding and knowledge to new and different problems, developing rational and reasonable interpretations, suspending beliefs and remaining open to new information, methods, cultural systems, values and beliefs and by assimilating information."
MCC General Education Initiatives

This sums up what critical thinking is to me. It is analyzing all sides, perspectives and working to understand them. Then you see problems and solutions that can be explored with greater care and understanding. What is real to you is real, but some one else’s reality is important to look into and the information you gain by considering it is more valuable because of it. New strides can be taken if critical thinking is applied to every situation.

Critical Thinking and Hypertext

"Critical thinking is the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome. It is used to describe thinking that is purposeful, reasoned and goal directed - the kind of thinking involved in solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions when the thinker is using skills that are thoughtful and effective for the particular context and type of thinking task. - Halpern, Diane F

Critical thinking is "the art of thinking about your thinking while you are thinking in order to make your thinking better: more clear, more accurate, or more defensible."
Paul, Binker, Adamson, and Martin (1989)

Critical thinking is "a process which stresses an attitude of suspended judgment, incorporates logical inquiry and problem solving, and leads to an evaluative decision or action."
NCTE Committee on Critical Thinking and the Language Arts.

These three quotes each bring something unique and special to the dialogue of critical thinking in the context of creating a work of writing and specifically a personal hypertext. Creating a hypertext involves the use of creative thinking, because it requires decision making, clear and accurate thought-processes, and the use of cognitive strategies to increase the probability of a desirable outcome. In drawing from these three different definitions of creative thinking, it becomes easier to understand the intensive process of thinking and writing, and the networking of a personal hypertext.

Critical Thinking Response

Critical thinking is “the art of thinking about your thinking while you are thinking on order to make your thinking better: more clear, more accurate, or more defensible.” Paul, Binker, Adamson, and Martin (1989)


In creating a hypertext document, it is crucial to have the ability to think about something, process those thoughts and then organize them in a way that is beneficial or logical for another person to follow. Anyone can get a random idea or a thought, but it is the “dissection” of your thoughts or the ability to “think about your thinking” and produce them into an organized way for another person to understand your thoughts. Thoughts can be random, but the ability to think about them and organize them is a very important ability.

Critical thinking is "the examination and testing of suggested solutions to see whether they will work."

Lindzey, Hall, and Thompson, 1978.

This is essential to the creation of hypertext documents because not everything will work all the time. As discussed above, it is critical to the legibility and understandability of a hypertext document to have organization. Sometimes one orientation may not prove to be as organized or as effective as another. Maybe there is another approach to your thoughts and critical thinking that should be taken in order to accurately create an effective hypertext document.

Quotes

1. Critical thinking is the development of cohesive and logical reasoning patterns. Stahl and Stahl
2. Critical thinking skills: understanding the meaning of a statement, judging ambiguity, judging whether an inductive conclusion is warranted, and judging whether statements made by authorities are acceptable.
Smith, 1990.
3. Critical thinking is careful and deliberate determination of whether to accept, reject, or suspend judgment.
Moore and Parker, 1994.

One of the major issues when creating a hypertext is to decide what warrants the creation of a new page. It is this decision making that is very similar to what is discussed in a lot of these quotes on critical thinking. For example, when I was designing my first hypertext essay I wasn’t sure if I should create separate pages for certain words and ideas thus I had to, "careful and deliberate determination of whether to accept, reject, or suspend judgment." Overtime I came to develop strategy about whether or not I should make a page on a certain topic and thus I developed “cohesive and logical reasoning patterns.”