Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Google Tools and Bloom's Revised Taxonomy

Facts.
  1. Leslie Owen Wilson provides a good overview of Anderson and Krathwol revised Bloom's Taxonomy which was updated in 2000.
  2. Andrew Churches developed a model, called Bloom's Digital Taxonomy, to highlight the use of tools and technologies at each level to facilitate learning.
  3. Alex Ambrose (2009) created a site dedicated to his idea of Googlios, the use of Google tools to support the creation of student ePortfolios to enhance their personal learning environment.
After looking through the wealth of information offered by Andrew and Alex, and having already developed my own version of Bloom's Digital Taxonomy with my favorite Web 2.0 tools for students to use at each cognitive level, I decided to combine the two-- a Bloom's Digital Taxonomy using ONLY the suite of tools offered by Google.

Boy, was I surprised! Even as a Google Certified Teacher, there were so many cool new tools that I did not know about! Google has purchased some already created, and there are some neat ones in Google Labs, which, hopefully, will "graduate" soon and become part of the core group of Google Tools.

I explored 51 Google tools as I figured out how they met Andrew's criteria for each level of the Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. I justified their use, and some appear in all levels, some in various, and some only in a single level. In my presentation about "Connecting Your Classroom to the Future", I am redoing the section which highlights Web 2.0 tools and highlighting instead the "less-mainstream" Google tools.

I developed a clickable graphic to allow educators to make their own judgments on how the tools can be used to support student learning at each level. I know you creative educators will come up with great ideas to for their use. (Hum, I think I will add a Google form to that page to allow educators to contribute their ideas, too!) The screenshot of the very busy graphic is below, and you can find the information and clickable graphic at this URL: http://kathyschrock.net/googleblooms/




 Let me know via email or comments or Twitter what you think of it!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

First impressions of the iPad 2

Well, I ordered the iPad 2 at 4am yesterday morning, but it was not going to arrive for more than a week, so I just went to my local Best Buy and was able to get the same model I had ordered in my hand today! (Online inventory reporting is a great thing!) Got the white, 64gb, WiFi & 3G, AT&T version.

With a simple call to AT&T, I was able to transfer my unlimited data plan to the new iPad 2 without a problem. (Hint for anyone else who is planning to do that-- sync the new iPad to your iTunes account and transfer all the stuff from your old iPad over before you call, so you do not have to stay on the phone for 30 minutes with AT&T. They were very helpful, but wanted to make sure the transfer of the account worked, so I had a lovely conversation with the agent about any number of things as all of my data and 253 iOS apps and 700 songs moved to the new device!)

Reasons I purchased the new iPad 2
  • Craved the mirroring of the screen via the VGA dongle which makes training and showcasing apps oh-so-nice! I know, I could have jailbroken the old one, but did not want to go that route.
  • The two cameras, one for Facetime and one for photos and video so I can now use all my cool iOS photography apps on the iPad. I can also take movies and dump them right into iMovie or ReelDirector on the iPad 2.
  • Reportedly (and oh-so-true!) faster app launches 
  • I so wanted a white iPad. I was tired of the black-on-black color scheme.
Mirroring of the iPad 2 onto my TV



Things I did not really care about but which are very nice
  • The new one is thinner than the original but very sturdy
  • It is lighter, too, but it does not really seem that it is 15% lighter.
  • The new cover, which I was not going to get, but did. Besides keeping the screen very clean, the ability to type on the slant and, more importantly, hold the folded back cover in your hand as you use the iPad, is a big plus. Plus the magnetic way it attaches and turns the device on and off is very neat!
If you have any questions or want me to try some things out, please let me know!