23 May 2007

Critical thinking is the "art of thinking about your thinking while you are thinking in order to make you thinking better: more clear, more accurate or more defensible"

I like this definition because of its cyclical nature. There is definitetly a trial and error slant to this statement and I find that thus far my attempt at hyper text i re-do more than i do. That is to say that ideas presented without a linear digression are realer to the thought process. This organic methodology is a challenge to a mind constantly coersed into linear explinations since the incept of thought molding by education institutions. For me the most difficult aspect of hyper text is thinking about how the document itself thinks, as I believe the document has a mind of its own. It definetley holds an agenda, but the nature of how that agenda is communicated is idiosyncratic to the individual user. Revising a hypertext isnt a matter of communicating clarity, but rather improving fluidity. My first hypertext was an immense failure, coming off as more of a slide show one makes in 2nd grade computer classes. For the second hypertext i aim to spend a significant amount of time using my story to frame corporate policy as a means to understand how the low wage life is formed at the policy level as well as how it feels at the level of people working in sorting facilities or trucks. While sorting facilities are a little worse, i feel ast though truck hands are also faced with unpleasent jobs for low wages. To think critically on this i must consider how the environment is formed and what can be done to improve it.

2 comments:

Betsy said...

I have the same problem with my hypertext, making it more like a slideshow than a freely flowing paper.

Fertelmeister said...

Great response, very good defense for the cyclical quote. It seems as though this hypertext will turn out significantly better than the first. You sound confident, & Truck hands and sorting facilitators are more commonly neglected, so great topic choice as well.