Unknown

Some Australian schools have embraced a technology-free day. Students research using books. OMG! They also write first drafts of essays using paper and pens. What a great idea.

There’s innovation right there. Books don’t have all the answers, nor does your favourite search engine. Books have been vetted, edited, re-written, and updated. Internet information hasn’t. Wikipedia went through a period when information was uploaded without proper edits or fact-checking.

Of course, the last place to search for facts is social media. That’s not to say there aren’t any, but you must search. Social media was designed to be social, not factual.

We don’t know what we don’t know, though. Learning is all about going from the known to the unknown. Critical thinking is vital in the knowing and learning processes. Discerning known and unknown and accepting facts over nonsense have become the new standards.

Of course, there will always be opinions. However, opinions are not facts, and recognising one or the other is the essence of critical thinking. Opinions spike emotions, while facts are facts. Factual information can elicit emotions, while opinions are meant to draw out emotions.

Once our emotions are engaged, opinions can pass themselves off as facts. If our emotions are strong, such as anger, our brains don’t access their higher-level functions.

Remember, we don’t know what we don’t know.