During my first education courses, I remember memorizing the original levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. I struggled to find a way to help me memorize the levels of Bloom’s while staring at the pyramid structure. Now, as I reflect on the Digital Bloom’s, I wonder about its usefulness. Does it have too much information? Does not include enough information?
The Original
Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy is based on six levels of the cognitive domain arranged from lower to higher order thinking skills. I found a video on YouTube that used The Pirate’s of the Caribbean movie to demonstrate each level of the original Bloom’s taxonomy. If I had this video during my early courses, I might have spent less time staring at the pyramid trying to memorize.
The Revision
Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl revised Bloom’s taxonomy by re-sequencing the levels with verbs instead of nouns. In the image above, you can see evaluating is no longer at the top of the pyramid in the new version. One of the elements of Bloom’s taxonomy which did not change with the new version is the key terms for each level (Bloom’s Taxonomy “Revised” , 2002).
The Digital
Digital Bloom’s taxonomy was developed by Andrew Churches with the primary focus on the competence and the products from the technological tool usage (Churches, 2008). It has deviated from the past by redefining key terms. Educational-origami provides a visual example of Digital Bloom’s taxonomy with key terms.
After reviewing the key terms, I began to consider the technology tools used within the levels. When considering the growing popularity of tweeting or microbloging, should twitter be within the understanding level or should it be divided like blogging has been within separate levels. Holotescu and Grosseck (2008) discuss how to define twitter or microblogging and use it in the classroom by breaking it down into separate levels using Digital Bloom’s.
How would you define technology tools for the classroom using Digital Bloom’s? As an example, watch the YouTube video demonstrating Digital Bloom’s, where would you organize it in the Digital Bloom’s taxonomy? I consider it creating because the learner has elements of planning, designing, constructing, and programming.
What’s Next?
I do not completely disagree with Digital Bloom’s. I understand it is a work in progress because it is based on technology. With technology always changing, it needs to be understood Digital Bloom’s will not remain the same.
If you would like to learn more about Digital Bloom’s, Michael Fisher provides a pyramid of tools on his post with link to his Delicious or Diigo tags. Also, Phillipa Cleaves has a presentation of Web 2.0 tools based on Digital Bloom’s.
References
Bloom’s Taxonomy “Revised” . (2002, December). Retrieved March 14, 2011, from IUPUI Center for Teaching & Learning: http://www.uni.edu/stdteach/TWS/BloomRevisedTaxonomy_KeyWords-1-1.pdf
Churches, A. (2008, April). Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. Retrieved March 1, 2011, from http://www.techlearning.com/techlearning/archives/2008/04/AndrewChurches.pdf
Grosseck, G., & Holotescu, C. (2008). Can we use Twitter for educational purposes? The 4th International Scientific Conference eLearning Software for Education, (pp. 1-11). Bucharest.
Guhlin, M., Nussbaum-Beach, S., Knightbridge, A., Cattell, S., Casey, R., McLeod, M., et al. (2011). Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. Retrieved March 12 2011, from Education Orogonmi: http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Digital+Taxonomy
Guest Blogger
Jamae Allred is a doctoral student at the University of Memphis. While attending courses, she is a graduate assistant for the early childhood department who teaches an undergraduate course. She is also employed part-time by International Paper as a content developer for the Environmental, Health, Safety, and Sustainability Group. She plans to continue working in the corporate environment before teaching at the university level.
Hi Jamae,
I like your review of the different versions of Bloom’s. It is helpful for someone like me who does not come from a background in Education. I would like to add to your view on the Digital Bloom’s, that not only it will keep on changing with the advancement of the tools as you mention, but also the use if these tools can vary between instructors with respect to Bloom’s. It is the creativity of the teachers and their comfort level with the tools that allow them to use the same tools at different levels. For example, blog journaling can be used to show understanding but also to show analyzing and evaluating.
Hello Suha,
I agree with you about our comfort level with tools available. If I consider the skills I gained in Word and PowerPoint in a previous course, the levels of Blooms would be different from the beginning and end of the semester.