Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Verbs For 21st Century Students

by TeachThought Staff

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a powerful tool to frame teaching and learning.

In one model is a framework that not only lays out for teachers the kinds of thinking that we, as humans, tend towards, but also provides a kind of hierarchy that etches out the possible progression of that thinking. If we can remember, we can begin to understand. Understanding allows us to apply what we know, which enables us to make judgments on the utility of that knowledge, and even our own mastery of it.

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Verbs adapt Bloom’s original cognitive framework for digital learning, helping K-12 teachers integrate technology while building essential thinking skills. The taxonomy organizes digital actions into levels like remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating, each with tech-based verbs that support specific learning goals.

For example, remembering might involve ‘googling’ or ‘bookmarking’ to recall information, while understanding could involve ‘commenting’ on shared documents to show comprehension. Applying might include tasks like ‘simulating’ a science experiment or ‘coding’ a simple program, and analyzing might involve ‘data mining’ or ‘visualizing’ through digital charts. Evaluating encourages ‘critiquing’ a peer’s post or ‘reviewing’ feedback, fostering critical thinking. Creating might involve ‘producing’ a podcast at the highest level, allowing students to synthesize and present knowledge. This framework gives teachers tech-friendly ways to structure digital learning with clear cognitive goals.

Global Digital Citizen Foundation created the following graphic, which helpfully combines Bloom’s Taxonomy (which, the graphic explains, was created by Andrew Churches) with power verbs useful for lesson planning, assessment design, and the general planning of learning experiences based on thinking and complexity.

We’ve previously shared a post on evaluating digital tasks using Bloom’s taxonomy, as well as an almost overwhelming list of Bloom’s power verbs as well. This graphic doesn’t add much to these posts but captures both in one wonderful image.