Bloom's Taxonomy

Blooms work identifies different levels of cognitive thinking and behaviour in measures of use and importantce. His work allows for the inclusion of different learning style.

Different learning styles occiur in all classrooms around the world as each student is different and learns differently. Learning styles include they way that student understand information given to them the best. Such as through visual, written, creative or emotional mediums.

The following is an example diagram of Blooms Taxonomy




This diagram shows that Blooms theory values Higher cognitive thinking most. Creating is at the top of the triangle showing its difficulty and importance. Creating is a very deep level of thining in Blooms taxonomy. IWth this I agree. It is very easy to it back, listen and learn. However when asked to create something that reflects this knowledge a student must really learna dn then recreate this learning and knowledge in a phsyical form.

Unfortunately the triangle also shows that creating is the least used cognitive tool. And tools such as simply having the remembering are far more widely used.

I think that this is quite sad and not the maximum benefit of the student. I think hat the perfect way to truly learn something is to teach it to others in a crteate and effective way.

Constructivism

The basic concept of constructivism is that knowledge is built upon and within a student.

An older or maybe even behaviouralist view of teachibg is that children are empty vessles into which a teacher is meant to simply pour in facts and information.

Constructivism says that this is not the case at all. It is a teachers job to give the information and facts to students yes, but not just for them to memorise or learn by rote. They must create ways in which the student absorbs and understand this information to have it as knowlegde.

Constuvtivist teachers aim to incease good behaviour and learning rather then decrease bad behaviour and increase teaching.

Personally I find constructivism to be very relevant in teaching today. Children are often strving for independance and od not want to be taught as one class entity which learns and understands at the same rate. They react better to a more personalised style of teaching which is what constuctivism promotes.

Children all have different learning styles, learning rates and behaviour patterns and for this reason I beleive constructivism is very valuable as it allows for and nutures this.

Board Of Studies

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/pdf_doc/english_710_syl_brief.ppt

The above is a link to The Board Of Studies website. In particular the syllabus briefing presentations for English in years7-10.

Over the past year in this course I have grown to become very familiar with the board of studies website. Obvioulsy as a teacher this is a must!

The above program covers the topic areas to be taught as well as the areaas that the students are assesed on. I really like the way that the board of studies presents the syllabus to schools and teacher. They do highlight the topics that are compulsory obviously but there is also sligh flexibility in different areas and fields. I think that this would be effective in maximising learning as obvioulsy no one ig going to know a class's learning style and abilities better then their teachers. To me it makes the most sense for a teacher to be able to select specialisation areas for their students for this reason. Although it is a virtual impossibility t have topics that apply to every student of appeal to every students learning style, the teacher is the most likely to be able to achose topics, tasks and assignment that appeal to the majority of their students and will not upset the minority too much.

The briefings while detailing the syllabus and possible assesment tasks do not dictate down to the note what the teachers must do.

They also outline the ways in which teachers can relate the assesment criteria to their students. The different mediums put foward also allow for teachers to once again select a certain tool which best relates to their students and their students learning styles.

the briefings only dictate what areas the studentsmust be assesed on. They do not dictate how they must present their work to be presented.

This means that teachers once again have the option of selecting tak which best suit their students. Assesments can be written and assigned by the teacher to be pesented in many different forms. Assesments such as written essays, short stories, plays, scripts, performances, posters, and pamphlets can all appeal to different learning styles such as visual, written, oral and tactile.

What Makes A Good Blog...

Blogs have become such a craze for a reason. Beacuse they are different!

When they first became popular they were a first in their field. We have Insant Messaging and things similar butnever a medium for regular people to have their life story on the internet for publis viewing. The make sharing ones life easy and global!

Blogs can range from high schoolers chating and exchanging with their friend to serious schollers publishing works of deep thought.

One example of a more serious and well thought out and applied blos is that of Stephen Downes at:

http://www.halfanhour.blogspot.com

Downes' blog has many of the features that make a blog a good blog.

One of these features is that it is constantly changing. The posts made to this blog are regular but always ranging in topics. A blog is viewed by many different people on many different occasions. For this reason it needs to be always interesting and up to date. However Downes' posts are still awlays thoughtful, crutical, reflective and written with purpose.

Stephen Downes also includes a number of more interactive aspects into his blog which can help to make it more interesting
thoughtful. Aspects such as pictures, videos and podcast like the following...

http://omegageek.net/podcasts/edtechposse_20050822.mp3

To Blog Or Not To Blog

http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2006/10/top-ten-reasons-to-blog-and-top-ten.html

This article is simply a humurous acknowledgment of the fact that YES blogs exsist and YES we are all going to have to live with that!

The article highlights the fact that blogs are not a craze, that students and young people ould almost rely on them like a life line! It makes the point that if a teacher wants to relate to their students and really optimise their learning then the best way to do that is through mediums that students relate to. mediums such as computers, technology, ICT and gasp... BLOGS!

It also makes light of the Digital Immigrants stuck in the "dark ages" who refuse to acknowledge or use blogs. It says that thses are the people who will literally be left behind. In tearms of effective teaching and learning and relating to their students, I think
it is very true! Teachers must understand and communicate effectively through all means with their students if they wish for them to learn!

Networking

Hi guys just thought you should read this...
What would it have been like if this was done at 8pm last night???
Well this could have been an interesting phone conversation, alot of swearing and some laughing about how stupid we are because we can't do it. Then the questions would have come flying 'how did you do that?' 'what does your screen look like?' 'how come mine doesn't look like that?' 'what's wrong with my #$!* *^#$@!* computer?'. This could have been a disaster last night, but because we were all sitting here helping each other we were talking it through. Guys this is SOCIAL INTERATCTION at its best. We are now a community, an online community who would have thought... Communicating in person and with a screen infront of the both of you is so much easier than over the phone, where little, stupid mistakes are easily missed.

Cognitive Tools

Cognitive tools help learners with complex cognitive learning activities and critical thinking. These tools are learner controlled: They construct their knowledge themselves using the tools rather than memorizing knowledge. Cognitive Tools can be used by teachers to integrate the technologies that students of today are familiar with into their everyday lessons and learning. Different age groups, intellectual groups and subject areas are provided with numerous amounts of these tools in differing content and degrees of difficulty. Such tools for an older, more intellectually advanced age group include:
1.INSPIRATION.
A tool that prompts and assist in high-level analysis and evaluation. Inspiration allows for ideas and thoughts to be isolated and highlighted all steaming from the main theme of the subject.
2. GAMES.
When a game is relevant to the subject matter, it can be a very effective higher level-learning tool. Games can be very inclusive for students allowing them o interact with each other as well as with the new knowledge and ideas. Another point for games is that they fulfill one of Glasser’s 5 needs; FUN. If a student is given the freedom and fun associated with games they will more likely to be open, receptive and retain the newly acquired knowledge.
3. WEBQUEST.
Webquest are almost like games on the internet. However they are always educational based and can be geared towards specific learning areas and topics. Webquests are a great tool to use in teaching as they incorporate fun and challenges into learning. Students often react well to them as they are different to the way that learning is “suppose” to be i.e. boring, monotomous and teacher based. The students are in control of the webquests in different mediums such as story writing, acting and art.
The following are a few examples of good English and History based webquest exercises.

http://bestwebquests.com/bwq/listarea.asp?wqcatid=3&edid=

http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/ath/library/webquests/backintime/default.htm