Bloom's Taxonomy and Digital Learning

Audience Level: 
All
Institutional Level: 
Higher Ed
Abstract: 

This session will engage all attendees in the exploration of the different versions of Bloom’s Taxonomy and how it applies to the digital learning environment as well as the blended classroom.  The attendees will participate in a discussion of the material and application to the everchanging eLearning environment as well as a hands-on activity to showcase the theory and its contribution to the educational setting.

Extended Abstract: 

This session will engage all attendees in the exploration of the different versions of Bloom’s Taxonomy and how it applies to the digital learning environment as well as the blended classroom.  The attendees will participate in a discussion of the material and application to the everchanging eLearning environment as well as a hands-on activity to showcase the theory and its contribution to the educational setting.

Since 1956, Bloom’s Taxonomy has been a staple in the teaching and learning field.  “The idea for this classification system was formed at an informal meeting of college examiners attending the 1948 American Psychological Association Convention in Boston.” (Bloom, et al, 1956)  The framework was a measurement tool and communication of learning behaviors in the three domains:  cognitive, affective and psychomotor. 

This taxonomy focused on the cognitive domain and lead to the development of six major categories:  Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation.  The cognitive domain focuses on competencies of “recall or recognition of knowledge and the development of intellectual abilities and skills”.  (Bloom, et al, 1956)

The visual representation most often seen for the taxonomy is a pyramid symbolizing the progression from concrete to abstract and mastery of one category to advance to the next.  In 2001, the taxonomy was revised by one of the original contributors, David R. Krathwohl, and a former student of Bloom, Lorin Anderson.  This revision used verbs for the categories instead of nouns and reordered Evaluation (Evaluating) in the hierarchy. 

In 2008, Andrew Churches updated Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy to include a detailing of new behaviors and emerging technologies utilized in learning.  Churches states, “As a classroom practitioner, these are useful but do not address the activities undertaken in the classroom.”  (Churches, 2008)  Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy or Churches’ Digital Taxonomy provides practical application to the classroom.

Using the three versions of the taxonomy, JoAnn Gonzalez-Major & Amanda Albright (2008), created a graphical representation for contrast and comparison in addition to a thorough listing of technology tools to add the practical classroom component to the digital taxonomy. 

Join us for a walk through Bloom’s Taxonomy evolution and a discussion of applying the knowledge to current classroom setting.

 

Conference Session: 
Concurrent Session 2
Conference Track: 
Teaching and Learning Practice
Session Type: 
Discovery Session
Intended Audience: 
All Attendees