Theories of Critical Thinking

As ideas and concepts in education change and adapt over time, technology must change and adapt too. Technology usage in the classroom is at an all-time high right now. While I haven’t had my own classroom to experience this in, I witnessed it while student teaching and continue experiencing it through many of my colleagues. Students all have different learning needs, and it is up to educators to do their very best to meet those needs. For many students, having access to adequate resources can make all the difference in the world. Lucky for today’s educators, attaining those resources is arguably easier now than it’s ever been with the surge in classroom technology.

All educators are aware of Bloom’s Taxonomy and its importance in our field. Even as vital as Bloom’s Taxonomy is on education as a whole, it has even adapted over time to keep up with the needs of students and educators. In 2001, Anderson and Krathwohl revised Bloom’s Taxonomy to not only fit into modern education better, but also to attempt to make the process clearer to those it applies to. With modern education adapting to more outcome-focused objectives, Anderson and Krathwohl felt that Bloom’s Taxonomy should follow suit (Huitt, 2011). So, they adjusted the level names from nouns to action verbs, as well as switched the highest two levels of the model (Huitt, 2011). As a side note, the most modern national music standards also use action verbs very similar to those brought forth by Anderson and Krathwohl (NAfME standards: creating, responding, performing, and connecting).

Educators and technology professionals in schools are understanding the importance of technology skills play in their students’ success, not just in the school but in their futures. Common Core State Standards Initiative highlights on the importance of adequate technology skills, stating that these skills are imperative “to be ready for college, workforce training, and life in a technological society” (Hobbs, 2011). If students do not gain adequate training at this point in their lives, they are bound to be behind in whatever their futures hold. I was also intrigued with the section of “Empowering Learner with Digital and Media Literacy” where Hobbs discusses the reality that simply providing the latest digital resources for students is not enough. The resources must be understood well by students and teachers must have a solid plan of incorporating the technology into their lessons for it to be effective (Hobbs, 2011). While it is a benefit to get the latest and greatest stuff when you can, educators need to go through a thorough training before teaching the students how to use it (Hobbs, 2011).

When I become a band director, I plan to incorporate music technology into my program. I believe this will open up new opportunities for my students who hope to pursue a career in music. However, I am also aware that music technology only scratches the surface of some programs and digital resources students already use in their other classes. I hope to collaborate with my colleagues and with the other technology professionals in my school to ensure I am incorporating other resources in my classroom that will benefit my students beyond music, and I hope they will consider doing the same in their classrooms.

Theories of Critical Thinking

It's interesting to note that as technology changes, so do the needs of our students. As students adapt to changes in their world, their educational needs must be met. Technology makes this significantly more easy, allowing teachers to provide accommodations to students and meet them where they are. This easy access to learning also allows for a deeper understanding of the content. However, with these changes, we must teach students to become responsible digital citizens in an age where access to information is all too easy.

As an educator, the well-known Bloom's Taxonomy is a staple. However, in recent years, even this model has changed in order to match what students are being required to do in the classroom. The addition of "Creating" to the highest levels of the model, are no doubt the result of technologies that allow students to easily become producers in their own way (Huitt, 2011). In my own classroom, honestly, I see the need to reinforce more strongly the beginning steps of the model, before pushing ahead to the level of creating. I really benefited from the matrix combining Bloom's and Gardner's theories in a real world classroom (Kuhn, 2008). It was helpful to see concrete examples of how these different types of intelligences could be displayed at different levels of understanding.

With the rise in technology, it's imperative that we teach students how to be responsible when they're creating. My school has always had an advisement program to encourage students to be responsible citizens. However, it's only been in recent years that digital citizenship has been integrated into the curriculum.  One of the biggest concepts that I took away from "Empowering Learners with Digital and Media Literacy," is the importance of teaching students to evaluate and analyze the information they take in online (Hobbs, 2011). In the age of "clickbait" these skills are huge, and they also incorporate, in a sense, the principles of Bloom's Taxonomy.

In my own day-to-day life, it's easy to use technology as simply a means to an end. However, these texts have reiterated the importance and the possibility of using it as a tool to create a deeper level of understanding.

Theories of Critical Thinking

Education is continuously changing. When I began teaching eighteen years ago, we did not use technology much at all. I remember using a computer for attendance and that was all. Now teachers are encouraged to use technology as much as possible because the students seem to be more engaged when using technology. The traditional teaching methods are fading and we are now in a Digital Age. Educators are tasked with engaging students and making learning entertaining.

Bloom's taxonomy, developed in 1956, was a classification of intellectual objectives and skills essential to learning. These objectives have been used to structure lessons, guide learning, and assess students' performance (Huitt, 2011). Anderson and Krathwohl updated Bloom's taxonomy to indicate outcome focused objectives (Huitt, 2011). Bloom's taxonomy is a tool that can be used to help teachers effectively incorporate higher levels of learning into lesson plans.

Meeting after meeting, teachers are introduced to new digital tools. While new tools are important, it is not imperative that educators have the latest technologies (Hobbs, 2011). The main focus when the teacher is planning lessons is how effective the tool is when doing projects. If it is too difficult for the students to use, they will get lost trying to utilize the technology, instead of learning the objectives for the class.

When I am an administrator, I hope that all teachers will use technology in the classroom. I know it is not practical to think that all teachers will use technology daily, even if it is available. I hope to provide enough professional development, so that all teachers are comfortable using new digital tools in the classroom. In order to get the teachers on board with new tools, I will model them during faculty meetings. I can not expect the teachers to use new technology if I am not willing to do so myself.

Alabama Virtual Library Demo

Kid Info Bit Video demonstration

This database is called Kids Info Bits. This is focused on lower elementary children in my opinion. Any age child could use this. It could also be helpful for special needs students to still be able to search and do the same project their classmates are doing. This database is divided by topics and allows you to easily search by topic and subtopics. Once in a specific topic you can find books on this topic, articles as well as videos and pictures. I also really liked that the articles could be read to you and it showed levels such as advanced or basic. I plan to use this for my 6th graders to begin learning how to use databases when we do research papers in the spring.

Alabama Virtual Library Demo

Virtual Library Demo

For my demonstration I chose to look at the Alabama Virtual Library from a different perspective. I am not currently in a classroom, therefore I was looking for a resource that I can use at home with my preschool and elementary aged children. I specifically chose the Pebble Go resource to learn about farm animals. The site provides information about a variety of different animals, and includes pictures for engaging younger children. There is also a science section that can be used. Pebble Go was easy to use, and it kept my children engaged. The sound feature was especially helpful as my youngest is only beginning to recognize sight words. This is a great resource whether in a classroom or at home.

I chose to use the Brittanica Academic link.  Growing up we all had use of encyclopedia sets such as World Book and others.  Brittanica was always considered the more academic of encyclopedia sets when I was in school.  I found this site very helpful because of the headings that it has.  Being a social studies guy, I appreciate how it has headings and links for different disciplines under social studies like political science and geography.  My main focus of interest was the link to primary source documents.  That was really helpful especially with many districts going to Eureka curriculum which focuses on more document based teaching.  The other reason that I chose this site is the helpful flyer that is viewable from the avl website.  This site even offers a free 30 minute webinar that teaches one how to use the site.  It’s really a great tool that I have not seen with most other document/academic search engines.  Very helpful.

View my video!

Alabama Virtual Library Demonstration

Alabama Virtual Library Demonstration

I did my presentation on Britannica Elementary. Britannica is online encyclopedia that meets the basic research needs of all ages. My favorite part about it is that you can link the articles to google classroom. You can choose different reading levels, and students can view images and videos related to the article. The site is very easy to navigate, and they regularly update it to cover newly existing material. I would use this in my classroom during Genius Hour, to extend a science or social studies lesson, or for indoor recess. I highly recommend this site!  


Melanie Cornelius

AVL Demonstration Screencast

Click here to watch my screencast!

For my screencast, I focused on the kids info bits resource. I loved this resource. I actually do not use the AVL often because I am a Tennessee mathematics teacher. I do however teach social studies and science also which is where I found this resource to be very helpful. This resource would be great for elementary age students. There are pictures and tools to help the students find the information they are looking for. This website is separated into different categories and sub categories making research easy.  The advanced search tool is great because it is user friendly and easy to access. This website tells you content levels, lexile levels, and there is a read aloud option as well. I could easily use this tool to help with research projects in science or social studies. For example, students could research specific animal groups, types, or habitats for out end of the unit project.

Amber Ezell

AVL Screencast Video

Click here to watch the screencast.

URL: https://vimeo.com/302960833

I explored the resource Britannica Elementary. This is a wonderful database for students K-6 grade to teach information literacy. This resource can be utilized by classroom teachers and media specialists. It is crucial that educators teach information literacy skills to students at a young age. Britannica Elementary helps students to gain foundational knowledge in how to search and find information appropriate and relevant to the topic they are exploring. Students are required by Alabama CCRS to collaborate together in a shared research project beginning in kindergarten. This is a great tool for students to work together to gather information on their individual reading levels.

Alabama Virtual Library Demonstration

Thomas AVL Demonstration

Alabama Mosaic

As a music teacher, I am not familiar with the AVL. After searching the AVL and experimenting with the resources, I think it is an excellent tool for students and teachers to use for academic research. I chose the Alabama Mosaic database to explore. The Alabama Mosaic resource is a database that allows users to locate digital content that is specific and unique to Alabama history, places, people, and culture. You can find historical pictures, newspaper articles, sheet music, recordings, and more through the Alabama Mosaic database. This database would be useful to high school and college aged students as well as anyone that enjoys Alabama history. I am using the Alabama Mosaic database to collect information for a project I will be doing with my band students. The project will be based on the music of Alabama and the Alabama Bicentennial celebration. This would be a fantastic resource for an Alabama history course as well.