LINCoq

Stage 7: Creation Activities: plan, make, create, innovate, originate, construct, produce, invent, direct, program... Bloom's taxonomy was developed during a time when the tools, pedagogy and social impetus for students to create original work were rather weak. Thus the highest rung in the Bloom ladder was evaluation. Fast forward to the digital age, when creativity tools are abundant, and the new ISTE standards promote innovation and creativity figure prominenty, and the ability to create becomes an important high end cognitive function. This applies to all phases of media development.

Stage 8: Publication, presentation Activities: show, publish, present, communication... This is a direct result of Stage 7: Create. In the digital age, creativity does not happen in a vacuum. Presentation is very much about creating student work with an expectation of audience. Doing so raises quality standards, and expectations of public involvement. Again, in Bloom's time, there was very little opportunity for public involvement in terms of seeing or evaluating student work. Now, the venues for showing work on the web are copious, international and flexibile in terms of the kind of work they facilitate, including text, video, images, media collages and so on. This directly correlates with Phase V of media production.

I think that's where we are with most online courses: They're not quite as good as face-to-face, but they're close enough. Are some of them just as good? No doubt. Might some be even better? Possibly. But a few, at least, should probably not be taught at all—"Advanced Brain Surgery" would be high on my list—and most are merely good enough.

I'd like us to be more honest with students. Generally speaking, online courses are harder than face-to-face ones, not easier. Online courses require a tremendous amount of self-discipline and no small amount of academic ability and technical competence. They're probably not for everyone, and I think we need to acknowledge as much to students and to ourselves.

Online enrollments across the country are strong and growing, while success rates stay about the same: abysmal.

Face-to-Face + Synchronous Conversations + Asynchronous Interactions = Strong Online Learning Environment

I met with the representatives of three of the major competitors of learning managements systems for schools and tried out each interface. Each permitted transparency for parents. Each permitted me to create a bulletin board of sorts where I could load recorded lessons, upload videos, provide assigned links for homework, create a dropbox for my own handouts, post grades, receive assignments, email, etc. Pretty cool; but not enough.

What was missing was my own interaction with the students.

They need a librarian more than ever (to figure out creative ways to find and use data). They need a library not at all.

Librarians that are arguing and lobbying for clever ebook lending solutions are completely missing the point. They are defending library as warehouse as opposed to fighting for the future, which is librarian as producer, concierge, connector, teacher and impresario.

Post-Gutenberg, the scarce resource is knowledge and insight, not access to data.