Kevin Creutz

Prof. Cantrell
EDUC 506
September 1, 2010

INTRODUCTION

The amount of technology that is available to our teachers and students is constantly

increasing. A list of just some of the technology tools available includes blogs, podcasts,

laptops, iPods, iPads, netbooks, twitter, facebook, myspace, voicethread, prezi, backchanneling,

wikis, google, text messaging, search engines, iPhones, Androids, animoto, podcasting, RSS,

mind mapping, flickr, Skype, UStream, diigo, delicious, Google Earth, mixbook, screencasts,

moodle, photoshop, and Google reader. Teachers must help students keep order of all this

technology. Administrators must help teachers keep order of all this technology. The list just

scratches the surface of all the tools that are available in education. There are definitely more

items that can be added to this list that are used in the classroom.

When all of this technology is available to us, what is the first step to implementing the

tools in the classroom? It is important to remember how this might be overwhelming for

teachers, and maybe for our students as well. It might be similar to cleaning a house. If a person

has an extremely disorganized house, that individual may be hesitant to clean up simply because

they do not know where to start. A teacher or student who is overwhelmed by the amount of

technology, may not use technology tools that are available simply because they do not know

where to begin.

Bloom’s Taxonomy can be a tool to help students, teachers, administrators, and schools

keep track and successfully implement technology into the classrooms. It can be a tool “that can

help teachers keep a broad view of what students should learn and be able to do” (Ormrod, 2008,

pg. 455). It can provide a step-by-step plan that can help a teacher use technology in instruction
no matter what kind of comfort level they have with technology or what kind of experience they

have with technology. Bloom’s Taxonomy can allow administrators and schools to justify why

they are using and implementing technology into the classroom. Bloom’s Taxonomy can help

students reach higher level thinking skills that are significant aspects of 21st Century Learning.

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a structure that orders learning skills and objectives and has been

helping educators understand the learning process for over 50 years. Benjamin Bloom was a

professor at the University of Chicago in 1956 when he developed his taxonomy of Educational

Objectives (Churches, 2009). His taxonomy follows the thinking process. “Simply; you can not

understand a concept if you do not first remember it, similarly you can not apply knowledge and

concepts if you do not understand them. It is a continuum from Lower Order Thinking Skills to

Higher Order Thinking Skills. Bloom describes each category as a noun” (Churches, 2009, pg.

4). The levels in Bloom’s Taxonomy are as follows, starting with the lower level thinking skills:

Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. A brief

summary of each level in the taxonomy is included in the list below ("Dammcqs: appendix.

c:”). “This taxonomy is hardly an exhaustive list of what students should be

able to do while learning classroom subject matter and it certainly reminds us

that there is much more to school learning and academic achievement than

recalling discrete facts” (Ormrod, 2008, pg. 456).

 Knowledge – The knowledge level is where a student is able to remember previously

learned material. This is the lowest level in Bloom’s Taxonomy.

 Comprehension – The comprehension level is where a student is able to grasp the

meaning of the material.

  Application – When a student reaches the application level, they are able to use

previously learned material in new and concrete situations.

 Analysis – The fourth level, the analysis level, is reached when a student can break down

material into its component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood.

 Synthesis – The synthesis level is a higher order thinking skill where the student uses

communications or relationships to put parts together to form a new whole.

 Evaluation – The last level is evaluation and is the highest order thinking skill. Students

are able to judge the value of the material for a given purpose.

BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY

Recently, within the last 10 years, there has been a change to Bloom’s Taxonomy. In

2001, Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl, revised the taxonomy and published Bloom’s

Revised Taxonomy (Churches, 2009). Andrew Churches, 2008, explains, “Key to this is the use

of verbs rather than nouns for each of the categories and a rearrangement of the sequence within

the taxonomy.” They are arranged in increasing order, from lower order to higher order. The

order is Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating.

Churches, 2009, discusses the main difference in Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, “These verbs

describe many of the activities, actions, processes and objectives we undertake in our daily

classroom practice.” The verbs are listed with each level of the taxonomy below (Churches,

2009)

 Remembering - Recognizing, listing, describing, identifying,

Retrieving, naming, locating, finding

 Understanding - Interpreting, Summarizing, inferring,

Paraphrasing, classifying, comparing, explaining, exemplifying

 Applying - Implementing, carrying out, using, executing

 Analyzing - Comparing, organizing, deconstructing, Attributing,

Outlining, finding, structuring, integrating

 Evaluating - Checking, hypothesizing, critiquing, Experimenting,

Judging, testing, Detecting, Monitoring

 Creating - designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing,

Devising, making

Andrew Churches, a teacher from New Zealand, has done some extensive study on

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and how technology can be applied to the taxonomy. Hansen, 2008,

explains, “Thanks to some great work by Andrew Churches, educators have a basis by which to

compare digital techniques to the more traditional standard that Bloom created.” If we

understand Churches’ update on Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and how technology can be used to

bring students to higher Order Thinking Skills then we can provide many of our teachers with a

step-by-step plan for effectively incorporating technology into their instruction.

BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY AS A MODEL FOR INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY

Every school has teachers who excel in integrating technology into instruction and every

school has teachers who struggle with it or just don’t try. Teachers often say that they just need

more training. How can they be expected to use this technology if no one shows them how?

And if you think about the list of technology tools listed at the beginning of this paper, do you

blame them? Where do they begin when trying to implement technology into their classroom

and into instruction?

 Nowadays, it does not take a long time to set up a new computer. As soon as the new

computer is received, you can take an Ethernet cable, plug it into both laptops so that all of your

documents, files, and settings can be migrated to the new laptop. It probably ends up taking 30

minutes or less, and you are ready to begin using the new computer with every folder,

application, and preference exactly the way you had it set up on the old computer. Now imagine

a new laptop is given to you, and the old is taken away. However, there is no migration.

Everything from the old computer is taken away and NOT transferred over to the new computer.

There is a fresh start. There is a clean slate. What are the first things that someone would do

with that new computer? Would they bookmark favorite websites or blogs? Would they become

better organized with bookmarks? Would they reinstall some of their favorite or necessary

applications?

These same ideas might be useful suggestions for helping teachers who are starting to

incorporate technology into their classrooms. Bookmarking, social bookmarking google

searches, etc. are all activities that can help student achieve the lower level skills of

Remembering and Understanding. Churches, 2009, would describe the Remembering level as

the level where there is a focus on retrieval of information. When you take your new laptop and

completely start over, all the bookmarks and the diigo bookmarks allow you to retrieve your

information, both quickly and effectively. This can work in a classroom setting by teaching

student how to use social bookmarking tools as a part of their research for a project. As each

student researches and searches the Internet for websites, articles, and videos, they can bookmark

the information they find in a diigo account. As they bookmark, they can use diigo to tag,

summarize, and comment on the resources they have found. This would help the students to
move from the remembering level to the understanding skills. The understanding level is the

level where students would interpret, summarize, infer, paraphrase, compare, and explain.

The bookmarking is the remembering level and the tagging is one way to reach the

understanding level.

The main thing to remember with the first level is that we want to students be able to

retrieve the information that is relevant to their learning. Some more activities according to

Churches, 2008, that fit under the remembering level are bullet pointing, highlighting, favoriting,

social networking, and searching or googling.

Churches, 2009, gives a great example to help explain the understanding level. A very

young child can learn things very quickly. For example, a 2-year-old child can learn how to

count to 10 just through memorization and repetition. Although they can count to ten, they

probably do not know how to count items. They may not be able to count fingers, chairs, or

toys. The child remembers how to count to ten, but they do not really know how to count to ten.

They do not understand exactly what it means to count to ten. We want our students to

remember information and we want them to be able to retrieve information that is relevant to

their learning, but then the next step is to understand the information. Activities for the

understanding taxonomy level include advanced searching, blog journaling, categorizing,

tagging, and commenting (Churches, 2008).

Let’s go back to the question that was posed earlier regarding the new computer. The new

owner has a clean slate with the new computer, so what do they do? Bookmarking and installing

applications were some of the first steps. Essentially, that would correspond to the remembering

and understanding thinking levels in Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. The third step in the

taxonomy is Applying which Churches, 2008 would say is the level where students implement,
use information, and execute tasks. A big aspect of this would be the verb “doing”. With the

new computer, after finishing all of the bookmarks and installation of applications, they would

begin using the applications. They might start rewriting documents, using the email program, or

using an application like Tweetdeck or Firebox. The next step for a class, the “Applying”

taxonomy level, could be to show the students an array of applications that they have the option

to complete a project with. The great thing for teachers about the applying taxonomy level is the

amount of options that we have available, and this level fits in with the idea of Web 2.0 tools in

the classroom. All six taxonomy levels have been significantly affected by Web 2.0

applications, but it is in this level that the students truly begin to investigate how each tool can be

used. The creation of the project on the application, and making connections within that project

will help students reach levels 3 and 4, applying and analyzing.

To see if the students have reached the 4th taxonomy level, “Analyzing”, look very

closely at how they have created, structured, and organized their project. Churches, 2009, also

explains that “establishing and building links within and outside of documents and web pages”

can fall under the 4th level. With the large amount of information available, students must be

able to justify, verify, and cite all information that they use.

The following examples are specific examples of activities within the 3rd and 4th level of

the taxonomy. “Applying” would include running and operating programs, playing games,

uploading and sharing, and editing. Some of the “Analyzing” activities would include mash ups,

linking, comparing, organizing, and outlining. Google forms would be another application to use

in analyzing activities (Churches, 2008).

The final two steps of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy are very important because they give

students an audience. This process is an important part of developing the higher order thinking
skills and also provides the students with a more authentic learning experience. When someone

has to make a presentation, teach a lesson, to share ideas or research, they are forced to know the

material very well. It is very important for many people in the learning process to be forced to

have an audience. Many people learn much better when they know there is an audience, or when

something will be published, then if they just read about the topic or concept.

Evaluating and creating are the final two levels, the higher order thinking skills, in

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. A way for teachers to help student reach the evaluating level

would be to post student projects on a blog or voicethread and allow other students to comment

on the projects. There would need to be very close moderation by the teacher, especially with

students who are new to this type of activity. If you are very clear with the students and let them

know ahead of time that this will happen, it can be a very valuable experience for both the

student making the comment and for the student who is receiving the feedback. According to

Churches, 2009, the evaluating should be done based on criteria and standards. When students

are evaluating each other’s work, they should be given some objectives, criteria, and standards to

base their evaluation and critique off of. It is too much pressure for the students to have to come

up with their critiques on their own.

Finally, in the creating level, the students, or the class should have an opportunity to

create a final collaboration that will publish the student work. Churches, 2008 explains that

publishing can be a digital addition for the creating level. This could be a mixbook, slideshow,

voicethread, animoto, or a class wiki of all the projects. To create and to publish gives students

that audience that is so important in the authentic learning process

One of the main goals of 21st Century Learning is to help students become life long

learners. The same is true for teachers and administrators; we must all become life long learners.
In addition, students and teachers must be intentional about collaborating, connecting, and

creating. Examining the verbs and activities that Churches, 2009, has laid out for us when

incorporating technology into Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy to use in our classroom can help our

classrooms and schools become student-centered, 21st Century Learning environments.

In conclusion, we are preparing our students for jobs in the future that don’t even exist

right now. Schools must be preparing our students for technologies in the future that don’t even

exist now. Not one of these taxonomy levels is the most important level or the only necessary

level. That is because taxonomy is a grouping. Each level is not a stand-alone idea. Each level

relates to another level. The main goal is to move through all of the taxonomy levels. Teachers

should strive to bring their students to the higher order thinking skills. “Many teachers may not

realize they are creating instructional plans that only challenge students within the first two

levels” (Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter, 2010, pg. 376). Educators must not look at which level will

be most effective for students, but to look at the entire taxonomy and decide how it will be

beneficial to them in instruction. How can this taxonomy assist teachers with their instruction?

The ideas presented for incorporating technology into instruction will help prepare students and

encourage them to be lifelong learners. “Technology can certainly be used to provide immediate

feedback for drill and practice, but it can also be used as a tool for the analysis, synthesis, and

evaluation of information. Today, students use complex multimedia products and advanced

networking technologies to learn interactively and work collaboratively on projects; to gather,

organize, and analyze information; to solve problems; and to communicate information” (Pitler,

Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, pg. 4). Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy can be a guide for

teaching and integrating technology in the classroom.

 REFERENCES

Churches, A. (2008, April 1). Bloom's taxonomy blooms digitally . Retrieved

from http://www.techlearning.com/article/8670

Churches, A. (2009, January 4). Bloom's digital taxonomy . Retrieved from

http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/file/view/bloom
%27s+Digital+taxonomy+v3.01.pdf

Churches, A. (2011). Educational origami . Retrieved from

http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/

Dammcqs: appendix. c: mcqs and bloom's taxonomy . (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://web.uct.ac.za/projects/cbe/mcqman/mcqappc.html ("Dammcqs:
appendix. c:," )

Hanson, T.J. (2008, April 11). Bloom's taxonomy and the digital world .
Retrieved from http://www.openeducation.net/2008/04/11/blooms-
taxonomy-and-the-digital-world/

Ormrod, J. (2008). Educational psychology: Developing learners. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Education, Inc.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E.R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using
Technology with classroom instruction that works . Denver: McREL.

Shelly, G., Gunter, G., & Gunter, R. (2010). Integrating technology and
digital media in the classroom . Boston, MA: Course Technology.