Chapter+10

The 21st-Century Learning Environment Please respond to the following questions:

1. How is Andrew Church's version of Bloom's Digital Taxonomy relevant to learners today?

Churches' Taxonomy is similar enough to Bloom's to make easy connections for most teachers, and the list of verbs for each level of the hierarchy with a focus on the new range of options available to students and teachers is especially helpful as we try to enagage and empower students to use the full range of options available to them. I believe there is value in showing students the hierarchy as well and have done so with Bloom's when trying to help students understand what makes a good research question (goes beyond reporting findings to require critical thinking and analysis). They usually get it quickly and find it helpful. (Susie Treat)

In the traditional classroom teachers tend to start lecturing students about facts. Students are expected to listen to the teacher, read about the facts, memorize the facts, and then regurgitate them on a test. We know students don't remember isolated facts when they are taught in this manner. Churches' digital taxonomy suggests students need more time thinking deeply about their topics of learning. It is up to the teachers of the 21st C to design instructional projects that simulate real life problems that incorporate the standards of learning so that students are interested and motivated to analyze, evaluate and create new learning that will stick. (Lisa Norris)

Andrew Churches point that students can start anywhere in Bloom's Digital Taxonomy mirrors the student population well. Students come in with a variety of skills, both in learning and with digital knowledge. Knowing that that one does not need to start "at the bottom and work his/her way up" helps to provide flexibility so some can move forward and others can get further support as needed.(Isabelle)

Church's verson takes the learner from where they are and extends the learning. As the students create understanding of a concept, they can then apply, analyze and evaluate it. The final step of creating does show that the learner has full understanding and knowledge and can share it.(Ruth)

Church's taxonomy Hots- focus on discovery/problem-solving/constructivist learning. The learning is more relevant and authentic when students are creating, evaluating, etc... Our students are using technology outside of school for their own personal learning. Schools must switch to this process approach. (Margaret)

Churches version of Bloom’s Taxonomy still shows the levels of thinking present with particular tasks as the original Bloom’s did, but it certainly configures those levels to include the technological advances that allows students to become fluent 21st century thinkers. Some of the key verbs surprised me, such as those related to types of searches (googling!), hacking, and uploading. (Amy Larsen)

Churches version is very similar to that of Bloom's; however, Bloom's seems to be more directed at the "traditional" classroom that so many of our students walk into each day (when they have powered down). Churches' digital taxonomy seems to be geared toward the "high tech. classrooms" that we want to see more of on a daily basis, and hopefully where we are headed there in the near future. (Kyra)

Churches' version is much like Bloom's but adapted to the more modern, technology-based approach. The use of a digital taxonomy is useful in finding out where your students are on the continuum and planning for helping them reach the next level - if they are developmentally able to do so. This continuum also helps us to understand how to use the digital fluency skills, from earlier chapters, to get the information our students are learning to 'stick'. This taxonomy also supports the idea of going deep versus wide in terms of covering content. (John)

The description in the book makes it clear that a learner can begin at at any point. This causes me to think back on my previous learning and understanding of Blooms, where I think we felt like we had to begin at the bottom, make sure they were solid, and then work up. I appreciate the "formal permission" to jump to a higher level with the understanding that the lower levels will be emcompassed within the learning task. I believe that we need to build tasks that begin at the higher level, making sure that we are building in opportunities to demonstate remembering and understanding as well as applying. Our new curriculum in elementary does a nice job of addressing the higher levels on the Digital Taxonomy. I see students creating and evaluating much more than in previous years. (Carrie)

2. How can you incoroporate process- and problem-based learning in your classroom? Actually, I think Media Specialists have it easier here than classroom based teachers because out "content" is completely process and problem based learning. The challenge is to help teachers seamlessly connect their content objectives and our mutual process objectives to create relevant and meaningful learning experiences for our students. The other challenge is to encourage teachers, who are held accoutable for so much already, to provide the extended time needed for true student based inquiry learning. When it can happen in the three week time frame shown in the sample lessons, it is a powerful thing. Since that is not consistently the case, some sort of scaffolded vertical plan of instruction that gradually takes students through the process building on prior experience would be wonderful. We all want our students to be capable of independent investigation infused with critical thinking, problem-solving and collaborative work. I am encouraged to hear that the new elementary curriculum is laying such a great foundation there. (Susie Treat) We have to spend time using our higher order thinking skills to find those relevant connections that motivate students to want to inquire. I have been working with a second grade class most of this year as they have been learning the new Curr2.0. We have researched cultures as a part of learning about folktales. Students applied what they learned about the culture they researched to write a new folktale. Then we moved on to learning about the economy and natural, human, and captial resources. Students have researched the resources in our community and have been communicating with a school in Russia to compare resources and cultures by creating short video clips and sharing them on YouTube. The students are so excited to share their knowledge with the Russian students and ask for time to come in at recess to make their videos. It all takes time, but you get so much more bang for your buck when you teach with project based learning. (Lisa Norris)

When students see that curriculum content is relevant to their knowledge base, they tend to be more vested in the learning and making connections. Throughout our 5th grade Social Studies curriculum I pose questions to connect what we are learning about Government and Revolutionary War and post-war history and how we are impacted by those topics/events and and vice versa. Today, in fact, while discussing the Bill of Rights with my students, lightbulbs were going off in my students' heads as they were making connections all the way back to September! What a fun and great learning time it was today. Althought the lesson veered off my proposed track, it was worth it! (Isabelle)

I work with teachers in the media center that want to make learning relevant the the students in their classes. The science 6 teachers recently had the students research ways for to make their homes greener and use less electricity, water, etc. The students needed to convince their parents and family to change in some way to save electricity, water, etc. and then report out that information to class and analyze if it did make their homes greener. The students were excited and focused about their learning and many had to share with us teachers as they found things out. I am very interested to see how this project turns out - it is due at the end of May and I am planning to visit the classes as the students share. (Ruth)

I work with teachers in several elementary schools, integrating technlogy into the instructional day. Curriculum 2.0 integrates around criticial thinking skills which make learning more relevant. I have found as more schools participate in the new ES curriculum, that the need for consultation in the planning process is greater. I would like to work more with grade level teams on planning for the use of apporpriate technologies to use with students in creating "new knowledge".(Margaret)

Framing a unit around an overall project or real-world task can truly hit the points of the curriculum home for the students. I was amazed the retention rate of those students in the Bertelsmann study after using a project-based approach. Thinking back to my own education, I remember only those projects and papers that truly forced me to think deeper about something or create or design a solution. I’m excited for one class in particular that I’m teaching next year which is a roll-out of a new project-based curriculum in the Science Technology and Engineering Department. Each unit will culminate in a project in which students design a solution (of which there may be many) to a problem with constraints. (Amy Larsen)

When I had classes in the media center I tried to make the process relevant to the student. Often, before they even picked a topic, I would give them a little sspeech about why it was important to conduct research that this was just one opportunity. I would explain that if they were a mechanic and I brought in my classic car and the part was no longer readily available what could they do (or how would they find) the part that was needed to repair my car? I also gave an example that if I was in a salon and one of them was asked to highlight my hair and there was a new product out but they had never used it, they would have to research to see what kind of product it was and if it was a good choice for my hair type because I would not be a happy customer if I was to walk out they salon without any hair. Finally, I would use a restaurant and discuss ways that they manager would have to do research about how to be more competitive while keeping prices to a minimum. I always said something to the effect of "this is where you're going to learn the skills to be able to research when you walk out of the this school;" therefore, I encouraged them to select a topic that truly was of interest to them or that they needed to resolve and not just one they thought was easy. (Kyra)

This whole idea of the 21st century literate, version of the problem-based classroom should work very well in a science classroom. It is interesting to watch students go through the problem solving steps to try to solve a science-based problem, and then through these 21st-Century Fluency skills to figure out how to report their findings. Scientists and engineers must do this all the time in real life. If they make great discoveries but don't have the skills to report their findings, then there becomes the possibility that their work becomes irrelevant or overlooked. By having the kids use the skills developed in the the fluency process, they are also going to retain more of the information because their brains have to look at the same information multiple times and in multiple ways. (John)

As I plan with teachers who are implementing the new curriculum, I constantly bring them back to the objective and purpose for the lesson, while also focusing on how we will collect evidence of mastery. This begins the process of discussing which project or problem the students will be given to work through. The relevancy piece is HUGE for kids. I work with high school teachers on content area reading in the summer and this is a big part of the conversation for us as we move through the course. How can it be relevant? Using project and problem based learning can really make the learning real world for our high school kids. Many High school students do not see the relevance of school in general. The teachers who have terrific results are the ones who work hard to engage their students in real world problems. (Carrie)