Digital Bloom's

Video Transcription

Welcome to a tutorial on Digital Bloom's. As an educator myself, I was really able to relate to these ideas in this tutorial, and I hope you do as well. So let's begin with a glimpse of the ideas we'll be covering.

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to answer the following three questions. First, what is Bloom's Taxonomy? Second, how is it different than Digital Bloom's? And lastly, how will I use these ideas in my very own teaching? Remember Bloom's Taxonomy? Depending on when you first learned about this model, you may or may not have seen the revised model.

And here is a picture of the revised model of Bloom's Taxonomy of thinking skills. The original model was similar, and started from the bottom and move towards the top in six levels, as well. But the words were different, as far as the level names go. The original model started with knowledge, then comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation at the top.

Here, we have the revised model, which we'll talk about today. At the bottom, we have remember, and then understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and at the very top, we have create. And remember that the very top is the most difficult and complex of the thinking skills. The very bottom is the most simple. So we're moving up a hierarchy.

At each level, remember, students should be challenged to accomplish specific tasks and jobs, based on which level of thinking that you, as a teacher, are trying to get across. For example, at the remember level, we do things like teach our students to identify, label, define, memorize, list, and examine. At understand, we can teach our students to describe, ask, contrast, summarize, classify, and infer.

In apply, we might use things like apply, use, solve, relate, practice, and transfer. In analyze, we might use things like organize, outline, analyze, and connect, order, and question in our activities. Moving up in the evaluate level, as a teacher, we'd use things like having our students critique, support, assess, defend, measure, and predict. And finally, at the highest level, we would use things like arranging, design, producing, experimenting, validating, and adapting with our students.

So Bloom's Taxonomy has been such a useful tool for us as teachers. But as a society, things do continue to change. And technology really has become so much more integrated into all areas of our lives that it really is important for us to adapt as teachers and bring that into our classroom, both to engage our students, and also because that is what society-- that's where it's going nowadays. So we want our students to be prepared for that, for their future.

Here's a visual of Digital Bloom's, which is, as you can see here, it's a pyramid as well. In this diagram, going from the top to the bottom, it is the same steps from the bottom-- most simple-- to the top-- most complex, at that create level. So same exact levels, but you can see all these different pictures and icons in here of all these digital tools and web tools.

So we've gone over just a few examples of what students might do at each level of Bloom's. But how does that look in Digital Bloom's? So starting from the very simple level, which is remember in Digital Bloom's, we have activities that teachers my integrate using web 2.0 tools, such as Googling, bookmarking, searching, social networking. And using Google or other search engines, students can read about ideas.

You could have your students bookmark relevant ideas for resources promoting organization of these ideas. Or you could use basic networking, which would create relationships and links between people. All of these activities, and more, of course, promote growth of knowledge, and they also promote retrieval of this knowledge, which is really important.

So moving up the pyramid, it's important for students to understand information. And as it applies in Digital Bloom's, there are a lot of activities we could use Web 2.0 tools for. And these are just a few of those. Commenting, tagging, subscribing, Twittering, or doing some advanced searching. So things like commenting on a web page really encourages students to make connections, relate to, and share those connections.

They also might tag or subscribe to refer back to information later. And it's in this process that we read and then subscribe and then revisit it. And that really shows understanding. More activities at this level might be using Twitter, which if used right, promotes collaboration or advanced searching, which we refine, modify, and search to more advanced terms.

At the third level, application, students could upload and share information via sites like Flickr, which permits collaboration. They could also edit information, which also shows application of knowledge, as do operating, or playing. Students who successfully operate systems or play games show a greater understanding of process task and also application of skills.

So moving up the hierarchy, students can use digital tools to analyze content. Things like mashing, linking, tagging, or validating information and content. Mash-ups are an integration of several data sources into one resource, which is a great web 2.0 tool. Linking, establishing, and building links with outside documents requires students to analyze material. When student understand and analyze this content, they really are able to validate and make judgments, and even tag information for reference later, and making those connections between different reference points.

As we move up the hierarchy, we ask students to evaluate information. And activities at this level might include blog commenting or posting structured evaluations of material to blogs or discussion boards, maybe. This shows the complex ability to evaluate information.

Students might also moderate or evaluate others' postings or information. And here, they would be forced to assess the value or appropriateness of information-- things like testing applications, where process is really a key element, and that really requires the ability to evaluate. Networking is also a great form of evaluation at this level.

So here we are at the highest level thinking skills in Digital Bloom's, and that's create. And it's here that students can use Web 2.0 tools, such as podcasting, or video casting, or other multimedia editing tools. And they can create presentations using this knowledge they've constructed, or publish a blog, or edit and produce text, media, or maybe other digitally formatted material. All kinds of possibilities here.

We've covered some really important ideas in this tutorial today. First, we reviewed Bloom's Taxonomy, which is a really important model for us, as teachers, to know. We also compared and contrasted it to Digital Bloom's. And last, and most important, we discussed some really specific activities and tools that you can bring into your classroom to help students become more engaged and learn at each level of thinking, using web 2.0 tools. I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial, and good luck in your classroom.

How can we apply these ideas? Can you think of Web 2.0 tools to use for levels of Digital Bloom's? What will the challenges be when implementing Digital Bloom's? As you reflect on how this information can be applied, you may want to explore the additional resources section that accompanies this video presentation. This is where you'll find links to resources chosen to help you deepen your learning, and explore ways to apply your newly acquired skillset.