Critical Voter – The Book

 

I’ve always preferred blogging about a project as its happening, vs. blogging for blogging sake. Which is why new postings dried up early last year when I had pretty much said my piece on what could be learned from the One Year BA MOOC experience.

But a new project looms (or, to be more specific, an old project reborn) that I’m hoping Degree of Freedom readers will be interested in hearing more about.

Back in 2012, I created a curriculum that used that year’s presidential election as the basis for teaching critical thinking skills. That effort included a series of podcast lectures that fit into a curriculum for teachers which included lesson plans, quizzes and other resources.

The hope was that Critical Voter (my name for the web site that tied everything together) could turn a shared experience (the US election) into a shared learning experience that would provide people a case study to learn those vital critical thinking skills everyone seems to say are important, but few people are taking the time to teach and learn.

But once that election was over, and campaigning for the next one kicked in almost immediately (gaining much more momentum last year), it’s become clear that reason still struggled to go mainstream. So I decided to revisit Critical Voter, this time turning ideas of what constitutes a critical thinker in the 21^st century into a book, one which will be published in a couple of weeks.

I’ll be writing more about the book release between now and publication day (February 1), both here and at the newly revived (and significantly revised) Critical Voter site, and over time those blogs might merge with other opportunities to reflect on how the teaching and learning of critical thinking fits with the do-it-yourself ethos of Degree of Freedom.

But before then, I wanted to reach out to all of you and ask a favor of anyone reading this who either reviews books or knows someone who does. This can include professional reviewers, book bloggers, or just someone who likes to post reviews on Amazon (where Critical Voter will be first released).

Between now and the Feb. 1 release date, I’m offering free copies of Critical Voter to anyone who falls into these categories. And because my Amazon relationship will limit free ebook delivery after the first of February, I’m hoping to generate as much interest in this free offer during the next two weeks as possible.

If you know anyone who might be interested in obtaining and reviewing a free book, please have them stop by this page to request a copy.

Thanks, and stay tuned for more!