How do we get students to think critically? How do we get them to take an interest in our disciplines, to move beyond a concern with “just making the grade” or merely preparing for some standardized test that guards the gates to graduate and professional schools? How do we arouse their curiosity? How can we make a sustained difference in the way they think and act? How can we help students to become active intellects, human beings who are able to understand important ideas, to analyze and evaluate the arguments and evidence that support those ideas, to collect and use evidence in reaching their own conclusions, and logically and consistently to examine conflicting claims?
In short, what can we do to help and encourage more students to become like the best ones, and how can technology help us accomplish that goal? Before we consider technology and its applications, however, we must, first, determine how and why people learn.