• newsmap
• What happened in my Birth Year?
• Amateur – Lasse Gjertsen,
• A great way to people up and talking to one another

Andrew managed to keep us engaged and busy for four hours as we made our way through the mirad of information surrounding his own classroom teaching, Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy and how it all fits with Project Based Learning.

Rather than try to recall all of the information Andrew passed our way – here’s a list of links to his wiki Educational Origami that stood out for me:

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy – loved the activity we had to do – match the task to the Bloom’s level! Very informative – and sparked really deep conversations about the complexities of tasks

Bloom’s and ICT Tools – check out the really clear diagram!

The following are quick resources for Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. Each sheet has keywords, activities and technologies that correspond to each taxonomic level.The activities that are represented at each level are not an indication that the student is creating or evaluating, rather tools that can lead to this. As always its the quality of the work rather than the tool or technique that is key.
1 – Remembering.pdf
2 – Understanding.pdf
3 – Applying.pdf
4 – Analysing.pdf
5 – Evaluating.pdf
6 – Creating.pdf

4D’s project based learning presentation the 4 D’s.pdf – this was really helpful!
Activity Mapping Tool A3.pdf – this tool is useful in the planning of project based learning and maps the Bloom’s taxonomic level against a modified Daggett’s application model

But don’t stop there – bookmark this wiki and be prepared to loose a couple of hours or five as you navigate your way around the resources!!

Reading #1:  [New] Bloom’s Taxonomy Digitally by Andrew Churches (Tech & Learning)

Bloom’s Taxonomy is nothing new.  What I particularly like about the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and it’s direct impact upon my own teaching practise is the way learning can be scaffolded depending on the learning taking place.  Bloom’s taxonomy encourages us to take students thinking steps further by beginning with lower order thinking skills (LOTS) and naturally progressing to higher order thinking skills (HOTS).  When planning tasks, I try to include more HOTS than LOTS to encourage students to go beyond the recall and regurgitate phase and into the internalise and construct new meaning/knowledge phase.  The simple suggestion of verbs in the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy helps me to include learning tasks that will help develop a variety of levels of thinking from my students.

What is of particular interest to me in Andrew Churches’ article New Bloom’s Taxonomy Digitally is the authentic incorporation of digital tools on offer – how to do it or how to use them in in such a way that is rigorous, challenging and of sound pedagogical foundation.  Andrew has given the 21st Century Educator ways to incorporate skills in for today’s learners in a digital world.  New web 2.0 tools are changing the way we receive, process, and produce information.  As educators we need to authentically and realistically include those tools/skills in our toolbox for learning if we are to fully embrace the direction that 21st Century Digital Literacies are progressing.  Andrew Churches has produced a wiki, Educational Origami jam-packed with resources, explanations, sound justifications and information on Bloom’s Taxonomy.  He further details the 21st Century Educator and the skills needed to be that kind of educator in a world where our students jobs in the future don’t even exist yet.  Having just content-driven curricula is no longer good enough for our learners of today for employment of the future.

Reading #2  Connectivism:  A Learning Theory for the Digital Age by George Siemens

My favourite quotes from this article:

Over the last twenty years, technology has reorganized how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn.

Wondering …… why is it so difficult to encourage a change in the way we teach?

Within social networks, hubs are well-connected people who are able to foster and maintain knowledge flow.

Wondering ……. are we teaching our students to be well-connected?  Remember Clarence’s skype call?  Does our own pedagogy support this foundation idea of connectivism?

The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today.

Wondering ……. plus the ability to unlearn and relearn …….. it is no longer necessary for the teacher to be the font of all knowledge.  Does my teaching practise reflect this?  Is our learning environment set up in such a way that fosters the development of learning for tomorrow?  Could our students flourish in a digital era?

Reading #3  Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth ProjectMacArthur Foundation Report)

Wow, this was pretty slow reading …… and then she realised only pgs 20-28 (the “Messing Around” bit) needed to be read.  Darn it!  Note to self – read instructions carefully!

The most important factors are the availability of technical resources and a context that allows for a degree of freedom and autonomy for self-directed learning and exploration. In contrast to learning that is oriented toward a set, predefined goal, messing around is largely self-directed, and the outcomes of the activity emerge through exploration.

I particularly enjoyed Cindy’s post about her thoughts on this article.  She summed her whole mind-shift with an apology to her kids for continually giving them a hard time about “wasting time on the computer”.  When I ask my students to self-reflect on their learning, the best part is often the ten or so minutes given to “mess around” with a new tool/programme.

I can think of no other more powerful learning time when students “mess around” and then share with each other what they have discovered.  I’ve seen students who don’t normally “shine”, smile from ear to ear when their peers say to them – “wow, that’s cool – I didn’t know that!”

Does it boil down to control?  How much control can you give over to your students?
Can you say – I’m not the expert – and that’s ok – let’s learn from one another.  Are you ready to teach that way?  Are you prepared to give that degree of freedom and autonomy for self-directed learning and exploration?

That’s not to say, that we as educators can take a back seat and let the students do ALL the driving.  A warrant of fitness or a registration is still our responsibility as educators as is the responsibility to provide the real, rich and authentic learning environment for the “messing around” to take place in.

Image Attributions:
Flow and process of learning. – A Churches – Edorigami
Computer Screen Image: ‘untitled‘ http://www.flickr.com/photos/21257461@N05/2994169884 altered by TeachingSagittarian under Creative Commons – flickrCC

I found myself thinking about each characteristic and where I sat in the midst of it all.  Do I have all those characteristics?  Are there some that are a strength?  Some a weakness area?  Do my own personal goals reflect those areas of strength or weakness?  Are there some characteristics that I don’t possess?  Will this awareness or knowledge of the characteristics help improve my teaching/learning in the 21st Century?

The Adaptor
To be an adaptor you need to be able to adapt the curriculum and the requirements to teach to the curriculum in imaginative ways, adapt the software, adapt to the different learning styles and of course adapt the lesson when the technology doesn’t work or it all goes wrong.  This is probably an area of strength for me.  I’m always looking for ways to help my students learn and trying to find the right “tool” for the job out of my technology toolbox.  When the technology doesn’t work or it all turns to custard – I’m usually the one with the smile still on my face saying – ok guys – what other ways can we get this task accomplished because the technology’s not cooperating today, or well that didn’t work – why don’t we try this instead and we’ll come back to this another day?

The Communicator
I’d like to think that I’m a life-long learner (in fact that’s what it says on my resume!) I love the freedom of anywhere, anytime learning.  And my favourite thing to do online is learn new tools and technologies that enable communication and collaboration.  I’m still honing those skills that enable me to go beyond learning just how to do it and to stand back even more, to facilitate it and manage it.  Area of improvement identification #1

The Learner
I’m definitely not using Units and Lesson Plans that I was using 5 years ago!  If you really are committed to being a 21st Century Educator, then this is impossible!  The tools and technology available today and what will be invented tomorrow just won’t allow it.

The Visionary
Area of improvement indentification #2.  Even after reading the description Andrew Churches gives for characteristic The Visionary I don’t immediately think of myself as one.  I need to ponder this thinking a little longer before addressing why I feel that way.  I do love to see other people’s ideas and often walk away thinking that’s such a great idea and I could do it with this tool, or this technology.  There’s a few colleagues that I really enjoy talking to that just seem to spark ideas and grow new ways of doing things – that’s especially rewarding.

The Leader
Sometimes it’s really hard being the leader – especially when a lot of people don’t really understand what you do with the tools and technology.  Sometimes colleagues believe that the tools and technology are just “one more thing” to do.  I don’t see it that way – I think “it’s just what we do”.  In order to be a leader in the 21st Century you need to be able to help your colleagues change that way of thinking – and I don’t know how to do that yet.  Area of improvement identification #3.

The Model
I’m a firm believer in modelling the behaviour that I expect from my students.  How on earth can I expect them to behave in a way that I don’t behave myself- be it online or off?

The Collaborator
My most favourite part of what the online world has done with the tools and the technology.  How else could we possibly open up our classrooms to the world, if we don’t collaborate.  It’s not good enough to work in isolation any more.  It’s not good enough to shut ourselves away and not share what we do and it’s not good enough not to connect our students with other students across great continents.  There are no excuses anymore.  (I just wish that sometimes I could come up with a great collaboration project!!)

The Risk Taker
Well if moving countries with only 3 weeks notice doesn’t indicate that I’m a risk taker, then I don’t know what does!

Where do you see yourself in the 21st Century Educator model?

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