Uso de las tecnologías de información y comunicación en la escritura periodística y desarrollo del pensamiento crítico¹

School journalism with Information and Communication Technologies was implemented to improve critical thinking in secondary school students; the critical thinking was measured using a pretest-posttest and control group quasi-experimental design. ICTs were used, since writing and rewriting work and also consulting reliable sources, a basic element of critical thinking, is more viable when using technology. Digital databases and computer programs were used for the edition and layout of the newspaper, as well as social media for interactions. The experimental group made school newspapers collaboratively and the control group did not; when comparing their scores, it was found that those who produced newspapers using ICTs increased their critical thinking score by six times compared with the control group. These differences are statistically significant, so there is empirical evidence to affirm that the use of ICT favors the development of critical thinking since they generate collaborative environments that motivate writing.