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Diigo, Bloom's Taxonomy, and the Development We Need (BJ8)


Diigo has shown me how internet collaboration can be streamlined to be more effective than ever before. With Diigo, I now know how to annotate texts thoroughly and build upon other people's annotations. Also, Diigo has shown me how to share a resource with others that isn't out of the blue; the tags and descriptions show why that text is important, which is vital for effective collaboration. In my classroom, I can see my students using Diigo as part of a group project with one group working together to annotate something and then me, as the teacher, going in and evaluating whether they got the main point and most important details from their work. With my team members, I can easily use Diigo to share resources that I think are relevant, and vice versa, so that we can build upon each other's resources to be the most effective teacher we can be. Finally, In my individual professional efforts, I can use Diigo for professional development by tagging what sources go with which skills and keep track of all my skill-building efforts. 

PowerPoint can be used at every level of the Bloom's Taxonomy. Starting at the bottom, Remember is recalling facts and concepts with memorizing, reciting, listing, etc. PowerPoint can be used as a review game for this level. For example, you can create a jeopardy game, multiple choice game, review interactive story, etc that will help students memorize and recite information that they are learning. Moving along, Understand is the ability to explain and describe concepts and ideas. Students can themselves create a PowerPoint video where they create the slides and then narrate what the slides mean and explain their thought process. Also, teachers can use PowerPoint to show pictures or phrases and then have students explain what they mean and how their relevant. Continuing on, the next level is Apply: using the information you gathered and putting it to use with a task that can involve solving, interpreting, operating, etc. With this level, PowerPoint can be used as a storyboard like we saw in class, and there are certain answers that must be used to be able to reach the end and "win." Or, PowerPoint could be used in a way that gives students a situation, and they must explain why it would work or not, and the continuing slides would be the correct answer, one way to do, or something else that measures the application of the information. Third from the top, Analyze is the next level where students draw connections among ideas through organizing in different ways. For PowerPoint, students could have a slide with movable objects, and using a SmartBoard, they move the objects into the correct spots of a graphic organizer. Moving forward, the second to last level is Evaluate where students make decisions that they can back up with information that they already have. PowerPoint can, again, be used with an interactive storyboard, but instead of having just one answer, there are multiple ways the story could go. The students have to explain their choices to the teacher to be able to move forward. Finally, the top level is Create: to produce new or original work. Students can easily use PowerPoint to create a presentation of their own that represents an idea that they are trying to teach the class which reinforces information and provides students with a creation of their own. 

In today's world, technology and teacher professional development are more hand in hand. Instead of teachers having to take a day off of school to go to a workshop, they are able to complete these workshops in their own time on the internet outside of school hours. Also, technology brings about blogs, tweets, chats, webinars, etc. that are different forms of development that are more accessible and convenient than the traditional, face to face development. For example, PBS TeacherLine is one website that teachers can use for professional development. It has workshops for teachers that they can do on their own time and interact with others around the country for a convenient development workshop. They can choose if they want to collaborate with others and how long the course is and the subject they wish to focus on, and one of the courses is technology in the classroom!


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