Bloom's Taxonomy and Literacy Skills in a Technological Classroom

In a classroom that utilizes technology there will be three types of literacy in play: computer literacy, information literacy, and integration literacy. Generally, for all secondary classrooms, information literacy is an extremely important part of teaching children. We ultimately want them to be able to learn without the teacher being present, and that is exactly what information literacy is. It is knowing how and where to find information, and what to do with it when you find it. In my English classroom, this might mean researching a controversial topic, say abortion or the death penalty; students would have to know where to go to find reliable information, which is essentially a knowledge-based skill, and they would have to be able to evaluate that information to see if it is actually valid. Then, they would have to know how to synthesize that information and create something new. These are extremely high-level skills on Bloom's Taxonomy.

In today's world, we are asking student's to have another knowledge-based skill added as a component to their information literacy; and that is computer literacy. Knowing how to use a computer and how it functions has become an integral part of being able to even use information literacy skills today. People no longer know how to research, let alone present information, without the use of their computer literacy skills. It is sad in a way that older skills are phasing out, but these new computer literacy skills are very accessible and much more appealing. This makes it easier to apply students' information literacy skills.

Which brings me to the most difficult new skill for teachers: integration literacy. This is knowing how to integrate computer and information literacy in a classroom. This is no small task. It is easy enough to integrate the two on a very low level on Bloom's Taxonomy; just ask student's to research something simple and make a PowerPoint. But the best of classrooms will not only integrate technology into traditional activities, they will use it to bring students to higher levels of thinking. This can be tricky. How might technology be used to bring students to a level of synthesis, analysis or evaluation?

The Internet certainly makes it easier to attain the application level of the taxonomy. It is now easier than ever to "produce" almost anything; puzzles, movies, filmstrips, pictures with text, songs, and more. Actually, it also makes it easier, or at least far more necessary, to operate on the "evaluation" level as well. With the issue of wikis and personal websites, anyone can publish anything, so when asking students to use the internet as a resource, we are actually constantly requiring them to evaluate information and where it is coming from. This is a good thing as far as education students, but it can certainly be a bad thing in the sense that as teachers we will constantly have to be monitoring them to make sure they are accurately evaluating material.

As we move farther in the direction of technology, it will be more and more necessary for people to have higher level skills. Computer literacy does not necessarily require higher level skills at all, but we will all need them in order to distinguish between the "good" and the "bad" that is out there, especially as technology, information and advertising all become more invasive and more prevalent in our lives.