I’m a big believer in the multimedia classroom experience, and teaching off a tablet gives me the opportunity to mix audio and video with texts as my students explore skeptical tools and critical thinking concepts. As you might imagine, I’ve accumulated quite a collection of classic and current material, most of it readily available online somewhere. It’s an ongoing project, and every so often I like to cast around for some gems I’ve overlooked or some old favorites I’ve forgotten.
So I’m putting it out to the crowd: What article, video or graphic would you consider indispensable in a course on skepticism or critical thinking? (Bonus points for providing a link and a brief explanation of the concept or skill demonstrated.)
Richard Wiseman’s color changing card trick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voAntzB7EwE&sns=em
Really good illustration of inattention blindness.
I like “Critical Thinking: What Is It Good For?” by Howard Gabennesch
(http://www.csicop.org/si/show/critical_thinking_what_is_it_good_for_in_fact_what_is_it/). It dispels some common misunderstandings about what critical thinking is and calls on skeptics to accept the responsibility of teaching it because educational institutions aren’t, at least not in depth.