#8 - Sports Psych Lab, Bloom's Taxonomy, Teachers' Role in Technology Innovation

When we visited the Sports Psych Lab last week, I loved the wired wraps that could be put in several places on a person's body (fingers, waist, head, etc.) which would track a person's movement, heart rate, breath rate, and motions. It would be really cool to use in a health lesson or a science lesson in a classroom. However, I personally could not see uses for many technologies in the Sports Psych Lab in a classroom. Everything in there was really cool and fun to play with, but I did not see many practical uses for it in an everyday classroom setting.

Bloom's Taxonomy emphasizes higher forms of thinking while learning, instead of simply writing things down/not interacting with them. I found this extremely useful graphic of Bloom's Taxonomy from the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University. PowerPoint can be applied at every level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Create: Students could create their own PowerPoints to present a project they created, maybe in a group. They would gain presentation, public speaking, and collaboration skills through a project like this.

Evaluate: At the end of a lecture/new lesson, a teacher could have each student rank their comprehension of the new content (maybe on a scale of 1-4). Or, a teacher could ask for volunteers at the end of the PowerPoint to explain a recently learned concept to the class. If a student can explain a concept to his peers, he has mastered the content. (And if this is something that is done after every new lesson, the students probably wouldn't be very shy and they would likely be able to speak in front of their class.)

Analyze: Having a set of true/false statements, categorizing new vocabulary into groups of similar ideas.

Apply: Adding discussion questions on a few slides for the entire class to talk about what they are learning, and maybe relate to it a little more.

Understand: A teacher could explain a new concept by telling a story or using personal experience.

Remember: Short pop quiz on the basic ideas (directly on the PowerPoint) after learning a new concept to see how well the students remember the information - maybe using iClickers?

The textbook says that educators must become "agents of change" as advocates for students. Technology has become deeply integrated into the classroom and we need to advocate for its inclusion in schools. It is essential that technology is fully available to students. A website I could use to stay informed of new technology trends is Wired. Wired is a website that has articles about new technology as soon as it is released. I have personally read articles on this website in the past, and it is a great way to stay on top of technology trends, for personal use and in the classroom. (https://www.wired.com/)