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How Do We Promote Higher Level Thinking Today?

It’s one thing for educators to teach to tests that offer learners certification that proves they’ve mastered key facts and concepts that panels of experts deem necessary for an ‘educated’ person to know.

It’s another thing altogether to help learners exploit their native curiosity and continuously improve their higher order thinking so they are able to solve the endless stream of complex problems that everyday life delivers. It’s true, as Tony Karreer says, life is mostly an open book test.

For many years, Bloom’s Taxonomy has offered teachers and learners some useful distinctions that help break down complex tasks into structured learning experiences that allow people to build on their success.

The early taxonomy began with knowledge, understanding, and application as lower level skills and cast higher level skills as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

However, getting learners engaged - and keeping them engaged - in the increasingly busy and ‘noisy’ information environment of the 21st century seems to be presenting new challenges.

In 2001, Anderson and Krathwohl adapted Bloom’s model to fit the needs of today by employing more outcome-oriented language, workable objectives, and changing nouns to active verbs.

Most notably, knowledge was converted to remember. In addition, the highest level of development is now called create, rather than evaluate.

Recently, Barbara Clark (2007) provided an adaptation of Bloom’s work to facilitate active learning.

This circle is called the Cognitive Taxonomy Circle:

I find Clark’s tool useful when I need to respond to learners’ needs directly, actively, and specifically. I use it to help me meet learners of all ages - and all abilities - where they are in their personal inquiry, not where I am, or where I think they ought to be.

When I’m able to do this, engagement seems to take care of itself.

What tools do YOU use to help you meet learners where they are?

Some people are crazy enough to think they can change things. And then do something about it.

If you don’t try WiZiQ now, you’ll hate yourself later.

Harmon Singh, the 30-year old CEO of WiZiQ, believes the most important thing he can do to support education reform across the globe is to give teachers and learners a feature-rich virtual classroom space where they can meet whenever and wherever they need to. Inside or outside of conventional schools.

Harman also believes that the technology needs to work simply and seamlessly, requiring no downloads on either side of the teaching-learning equation.

And he also believes the cost of using the technology should be affordable to any teacher willing to translate his/her expertise into a virtual arena and share it with a learner.

So, Harman’s development team has made WiZiQ – a free, public system that teachers and learners can access whenever they need to, using any broadband internet connection in the world.

Harman Singh has a big dream, a powerful development team, and strong financial backing.

Hear him talk about what WiZiQ is and why you need to take a look at it today.

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What can YOU imagine teaching in a FREE virtual classroom of your own?

Listening to Mark Cruthers talk about his experience teaching AP History online to a group of homeschoolers, what comes up for you?

If you haven’t yet heard this interview, see previous post to listen: “How to Make an Extra $25,000 A Year Teaching A Few Homeschoolers Online.”

The WizIQ free virtual classroom, Elluminate, Kasamba, Moodle, and the new tutoring environment at LearnHub are opening doors to brand new possibilities for teachers - of all kinds - and learners - of all ages.

We truly CAN teach and learn whatever we want, anywhere and anytime we’re ready.

Some of us want to enjoy this freedom now. But there’s way too much information to decide where to start.

We want reliable tools and strategies that will work for each of us. And we’re different.

I’m recommending that clients use these 9 questions to chart their own best course:

1. What do you want to learn live - and online - with others?

2. What could you teach in a free virtual classroom?

3. What would be the most fun to teach and learn with a group of people with whom you’re not co-located?

4. What might you need to translate about the way you work face-to-face so that you can create a trusting, vital, collaborative learning relationship with others in a virtual classroom or office?

5. What will you need from live teachers and co-learners for you to achieve your best performance?

6. What kind of help do you want navigating collaboratively with others? What would you prefer to explore alone?

7. What other questions come up for you when you think about teaching and learning whatever you want online?

8. Where and how will you evaluate the answers you find?

9. When would now be a good time to start experimenting with some new possibilities?

As you consider these questions, please choose one or more of them and share your thoughts and feelings below using text.

Alternately, you can share your thoughts using your microphone, telephone, or webcam on THIS VOICETHREAD.

Soon, I will convene a live session, using WizIQ, where we can explore our thoughts and share our experiences in this brave new world of live, online teaching and learning.

Watch this space for an announcement of the date and time.