Bloom's Digital Taxonomy

How can educators incorporate 21st Century Skills into their lessons and student activities so that student thinking and learning are improved?

The CISD instructional and technology staff have identified three key areas in which educators must understand in order to improve student thinking and learning. Educators must have an understanding of the classifications of human thinking, be able to identify the intent of educational goals (TEKS and SE's), and demonstrate proficiency in utilizing 21st Century Skills.

Bloom's Taxonomy was revised and re-published in 2000, and Andrew Churches further developed a model in 2001, called Bloom's Digital Taxonomy, to highlight the use of tools and technologies at each level to facilitate learning. This model provides the best method for classifying the six cognitive levels of complexity for the 21st Century student and teacher. In the revised taxonomies, the categories have changed from nouns to verbs, reflecting teacher and student actions. Some categories have also been changed, such as evaluate moving to a lower place on the taxonomy and creating at the top to show a more logical progression of thought.

In addition, CISD uses the Kilgo verb list as a method for determining if the specific SE is being taught at the intended rigor. A CISD Symbaloo of web tools and apps categorized under a list of digital verbs has been developed to identify the cognitive level of each 21st Century skill.  


Teachers need to be aware of the level of thought of each student activity and how to incorporate appropriate web tools and apps that can be utilized to facilitate student learning at the targeted level of the lesson or intended rigor of the student expectation.

Use of the CISD Digital Bloom's resources ensures that educators are providing digital experiences for students and helping them develop higher levels of thinking. It is important to remember that students cannot simply jump to creating complex products and ideas (the highest level) if they haven’t mastered some lower level skills such as remembering and understanding. If students do not remember or understand the information they are studying, they are unlikely to be able to apply it in a new situation or analyze and evaluate it to develop products or ideas.

However, in Kathy Schrock's 2012 model, she illustrates that creating is interlocked with the other cognitive levels.


She states that the cognitive processes are meant to be used when necessary, and any learner goes up and down the categories as they create new knowledge, so the above image might be a better explanation than the pryramid diagram. 

With the increased rigor of state testing standards, teachers must manage their classroom time in order to ensure they are covering the CISD scope and sequence according to the time outlined in the pacing calendars. In addition, they must appropriately understand how to enhance the Instructional Focus Documents to include 21st Century Skills in the student activites to improve student thinking and learning.  

With the technological changes in society and the exponential increase of digital information, these resources provide powerful tools to fit today's teachers' needs. The resources provide a clear, concise, and visual representation of the alignment between levels of thinking,  educational objectives, and student digital activities. 

Click the links below to add the Symbaloo webmixes for each cognitive level in Bloom's Digital Taxonomy to your Symbaloo. CISD has provided webmixes for each cognitive level of district-supported Web 2.0  applications.

Remembering:  http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/1remembering

Understanding:  http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/2understanding

Applying:  http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/3applying

Analyzing:  http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/4analyzing

Evaluating:  http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/5evaluating

Creating: http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/6creating