Repackaged... ain't it the same thing?

Bloom's Taxonomy

The old... (Benjamin Bloom 1950's)



The new... (Lorin Anderson 2001)



The Techie new... 'Bloom's digital taxonomy map'

Key:

Elements coloured in black are recognised and existing verbs, Elements coloured in blue are new digital verbs.

So honestly, what is the difference?

I have only been in education for ten years and already I am seeing things re-packaged, re-worded, re-branded and regurgitated. Is this stuff completely revolutionary?

My opinion: No

I also tend to disagree with some of the words used under each of the headings in Bloom's Digital Taxonomy, which are explained more in depth in Andrew Churches article 'Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally'. I don't think that Bloom would place video editing as a higher order thinking skill (HOTS)... the reality these days is that many of the tasks appearing on the surface as HOTS are not. Technology has made these skills accessible to a wider range of people via a more user friendly platform, what we do looks more 'flashy', but the reality is that we do much of it without using many HOTS.

I also struggle to agree with Anderson's new Bloom's taxonomy. The change from using noun descriptors to verbs makes much sense. However, the swap at the top doesn't ring true to me... I struggle to see how one can evaluate before there has been some form of creation/synthesis. By placing creation at the top it almost assumes we have an endpoint in the thinking process, this is counter productive to further development of the thinking process. Evaluation above synthesis/creation inspires us to maintain our learning.

In saying all this, I see value in integrating the different digital tools and skills in 'Bloom's digital taxonomy map' in order to promote higher order thinking skills amongst my pupils, some do have merit and it is a good starting point when it comes to the integration of technology across curricula.