Number 3. Pedagogy not just a word Bloom

Today while engaging in the productive pedagogy learning materials below, the labeling of Blooms Taxonomy was creating a block for me.  I am a high achiever and like to do well, so as I read through the concepts of learning in action  I think, "On no I am in the lower order thinking, how will I ever get out of it?" In my experience the term lower order is a phrase that is used to describe monkeys and parrots and their reciting abilities. On the other hand the use of the words 'higher order' indicates a level of superior intelligence. So far, I am still hanging out with the parrots and monkeys with a desire to reach this ‘higher order thinking’.

Scholars agree that through the use of productive pedagogy human beings are capable of higher order thinking (Shulman, 1987).  However in my mind, the way the language is used here to create meaning in Bloom’s model makes me see the low and the high as separate groups. When in fact, it is a progressive construct and the journey is just as important as the destination. 

Today I want to rename the two groups: first order thinking and final order understanding. 

Because for me today and every other day in my digital interactions I know that lower order thinking has to come first.

http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=12578

Number 2. Mind Mapping Bubbles & Boggles

Digital Tools 4

Bubble Mind for brainstorming from

Mind Map from

As I went through the tutorials on-line I found that I really loved working on the activities.  Anywhere there was a link to "try this yourself", I was all for it.  After watching Tony Buzan discuss how the brain pathways hold information, I went through the below activities.  As I was doing them I realised that brainstorming and mind maps are a great way to think about topics and come up with simple ideas that are all interconnected.  They allow you to get a better visual of how and where things interlace.  I think both of these would be great tools to use in a classroom. I agree with Prensky's (2001) ideas; that children need to be engaged on a digital level in our classrooms.  I think that learning is best achieved when it is interactive, interesting and when we value what we are being shown. Mind maps and computerized applications such as these allow the learner  to engage, activate and build on knowledge that they already know and understand.  By moving from a main frame concept and allowing learners the freedom to explore, they get a much better feeling for their own knowledge structure and in turn a real sense of empowerment about their learning. Nice to find great resources as you go.  Although I suspect by the time, I start teaching there will be much fancier, faster and smarter applications to use.

Number 1. 'the most daunting"

In starting this blog I look to the top of my screen where there is more than seven tabs open, all showing different information from learning styles to online moodle courses. I have changed my profile shot twice and I am pretty sure I will change it again.  There are so many decisions to make about how you want it to look and what you want to put out there into the world. For me as a new learner, there is so much information to take in that its almost blinding.  So far my first week at university is an information overload and even though setting up this blog was quite simple. I managed to make sure I found the complex way.  Somehow I whited out half of the text with a highlighter whilst trolling around in the advanced editor. Now an hour and half later I have resigned myself to deleting my first blog and starting from the beginning.   Thank god for copy and paste in Microsoft Word.  I sure hope things start to make more sense soon.