A Blooms Digital

Taxonomy For
Evaluating Digital
Tasks
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by DNSUnlocker
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A Blooms Digital Taxonomy For Evaluating Digital Tasks

by TeachThought Staff
What makes Blooms Taxonomy such a power tool is its flexibility in framing almost anything
which is why youve been seeing a lot of it around lately, and will likely continue to.

Whether youre creating a checklist for instructional design, evaluating an assessment,

skimming a favorite unit of yours, or using it as a walk-through instrument to get a feel
for the level of student thinking in a classroom, Blooms Taxonomy is a powerful tool for
any educator at any level.

So the following Blooms Digital Taxonomy was was especially interesting in how it
mashes digital taskspodcasting, blogging, networking, hacking, bookmarking, social
media sharing, and so on, with the stalwart learning tool so graciously delivered by
Benjamin Bloom.

The result is Blooms Digital Taxonomy, from edorigamis excellent wikispaces site.

One Takeaway

Thematically, this is a chart version promoting technology in learningor rather

technology-infused learning. It clearly suggests the cognitive burden so many common
internet activities require, helping to visualize what these activities are asking our
brains to do when we do them.

The Communication Spectrum to the right lists the most common digital
communication channels, though its either a tad vague or outdated considering the
limited discussion of specific social media platforms. Each platformfrom facebook to
pinterest, twitter to Google+ and everything in between has subtle differences
between them that bear analysis when looking at exactly how we communicate.

While some of the activities could be placed in other categorieshacking, for example,
could be in evaluating and creatingthe end result is a well-laid out chart that helps
demonstrate the potential of properly-designed technology-based learning activities.

A Blooms Digital Taxonomy For Evaluating Digital Tasks

by TeachThought Staff
What makes Blooms Taxonomy such a power tool is its flexibility in framing almost anything
which is why youve been seeing a lot of it around lately, and will likely continue to.

Whether youre creating a checklist for instructional design, evaluating an assessment,

skimming a favorite unit of yours, or using it as a walk-through instrument to get a feel
for the level of student thinking in a classroom, Blooms Taxonomy is a powerful tool for
any educator at any level.

So the following Blooms Digital Taxonomy was was especially interesting in how it
mashes digital taskspodcasting, blogging, networking, hacking, bookmarking, social
media sharing, and so on, with the stalwart learning tool so graciously delivered by
Benjamin Bloom.

The result is Blooms Digital Taxonomy, from edorigamis excellent wikispaces site.

One Takeaway

Thematically, this is a chart version promoting technology in learningor rather

technology-infused learning. It clearly suggests the cognitive burden so many common
internet activities require, helping to visualize what these activities are asking our
brains to do when we do them.

The Communication Spectrum to the right lists the most common digital
communication channels, though its either a tad vague or outdated considering the
limited discussion of specific social media platforms. Each platformfrom facebook to
pinterest, twitter to Google+ and everything in between has subtle differences
between them that bear analysis when looking at exactly how we communicate.

While some of the activities could be placed in other categorieshacking, for example,
could be in evaluating and creatingthe end result is a well-laid out chart that helps
demonstrate the potential of properly-designed technology-based learning activities.

5 Teaching
Strategies To Keep
Students From
 Turning Off Their
Brains
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5 Teaching Strategies To Keep Students From Turning Off Their Brains

by DNSUnlocker
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by Judy Willis M.D., M.Ed., radteach.com
Dr. Judy Willisresident brain investigator at Edutopia and TeachThoughtis a
neurologist turned educator whose work (much of which can be found on her own
blog, radteach.com) focuses on the brainhow it works, and how teachers can respond.

Her video below, produced by our friends at Edutopia, sees Dr. Willis talking about how
boredom and fear cause students to literally switch their brains off. We extracted a few
takeaways below, but the video is only about 10 minutes long, and is worth a watch.

Have questions or feedback? You can find her on twitter. Yay for social media!

5 Teaching Strategies To Keep Students From Turning Off Their Brains

1. Use indirect signals rather than telling

As an example, you might use different color font, ink, or highlighter to indicate
content priority rather than saying This is super important and will be on the test.

2. Make sure all students respond in some way

They can attempt an answer, ask a question of their own, or make some related
prediction or evaluation. They can also respond to a non-content related question from
the teacher (e.g., Where would you start answering this question? What information
would you need to form an intelligible response?)

Predictions and responses force the brain to engage at least on some level. That, or
they make it clear there is zero engagement to begin with.

3. Protect students from fear of mistakes or failure

This can happen in a number of ways, including making student practice responses
(rather than just test answers) private. To accomplish this, you can use individual
whiteboards, or even twitter, texts, etc.

Fear is a powerful demotivator. Put students in situations where they believe they can
be successful.
4. Resist placing students on the spot unless responding on the spot is what youre
assessing

You might fee like youre preparing students for the real world by asking them to
stand and articulate a complex responseand you might be right. But what youre also
assessing is simply their ability to resist fight or flight response.

5. Promote curiosity not as a thing, but the thing

Strategies that make students curioussuch as breaking routinesis important to not

only keep students engaged, but to allow them to activate their brains. Research
about the relationship between curiosity and learning isnt entirely clear, but
connection is. Curiosity activates background knowledge, promotes comfort and
activity, engages the brain, helps students persist in the face of failure, and countless
other desirable academic behaviors.

For further reading on curiosity, you can find our post on learning strategies that make
students curious.