A Powerful App For Every Level Of Bloom’s Taxonomy
Using Apps
There are a ton of apps out there that address different ideas in the Bloom’s Taxonomy hierarchy. There are a multitude of resources out there that list tons of apps that are relevant. Some may be useful to you, some not, but either way, that’s a lot of information to sort through. So we pulled together a list of six apps – one for each level of understanding in the Bloom’s scheme. There are obviously innumerable combinations that you can shuffle together to make a grouping that works great for you – this is just one (six!) option(s).
Remembering
Apps that fit into the ‘remembering’ bucket include those that improve a student’s ability to identify and recall facts, define terms and concepts, and locate information.
Screen Chompis a free app that is a basic doodling board with markers. Users can record audio/video with their device (or upload a file), then use the drawing tools to sketch out ideas. It works as an easy screencasting and notepad tool students can use to put together pieces of information. It would also be great as an idea collector for a pre-writing activity. Bonus points because they have a cute little cartoon monster guy as their logo.
Understanding
The ‘understanding’ bucket should be filled with apps that allow students to explain concepts and ideas that they have come to understand. Clearly this can be a very large bucket encompassing many different ways of explanation.
StoryKitis a free app that offers an easy way to combine videos, photos, and text to create a storybook and share that information. Students can create ‘books’ that showcase their knowledge. Students can even record themselves reading the book to show their understanding of reading and language fluency.
Applying
Apps that would fall into the ‘applying’ bucket provide students the opportunity to demonstrate what they’ve learned by applying it to a relevant scenario – more than just regurgitating or explaining the information.
SimpleMindis mind mapping app that students (and teachers!) can use to brainstorm, collect, and organize their ideas. Users can easily add links, cross link pieces of their mind map, organize and reorganize branches of the map, and share their mind maps. Storage is linked with the cloud for easy synchronizing between devices. ($5.99).
Analyzing
When analyzing, students need to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant knowledge, organize the content, and link relative relationships between information. Apps that fit into this category help with organizational hierarchy – like outlining or making graphs and charts.
Easy Chartis a free app that offers basic chart-making tools. Users can select bar, line, sidebar, or pie charts to organize their data. The interface is very basic and easy to use, but gets the job done easily. Great – especially for a free tool.
Evaluating
In the evaluating stage of thinking, students need to be able to draw conclusions about pieces of information that they’ve collected. This might include data points, facts, or source and reliability of material. Apps that aid in this category help students improve their evaluation skills, either via their own critique or via a collaborative tool.
TheGoogle+ appticks the collaboration box in this category. From finding information from groups and outside sources to sharing and receiving feedback, sharing and collaborating are easy with this free app.
Creating
Creating is the putting it all together level of thinking. From collecting information to organizing it and analyzing it, this highest level is where students can synthesize their own ideas, products, and creations. I like to think of these as the ‘doing’ apps, and there are a LOT of them and they can cover a wide range of creation activities.
I don’t think you can get more firmly in the creating camp thanGarageBand. This $4.99 app offers a host of tools from various musical instruments to beatbox jams and electronic drum kits for users to create, edit, save, and share their musical creations.