PuppetPals & FlipBoard: Bloom’s Taxonomy in iPad Apps

With the advent of the iPad, we are surrounded by abundant applications that we can utilize for educational purposes. This blog posting researches two iPad applications, PuppetPals and FlipBoard, in terms of how the two can contribute to learners’ cognitive development based on the Bloom’s Taxonomy. First, PuppetPals can be categorized into the “Creating” domain, the highest-order thinking domain, because it promotes learners’ creating ability. As Sandvik et al. (2012) have pointed out, PuppetPals is an open-ended application that challenges learners to actively and authentically create narrative movies. The students can create plots, characters, and lines just as movie directors do. This application, therefore, can give a strong ownership to learners, which will effectively motivate students and facilitate learners’ higher-order thinking. Second, the Flipboard can fall into the “Evaluating” domain because it enables users to create their own magazine by adding, deleting, and organizing a number of social media including news articles, Facebook messages, and Twitter messages. Flipboard goes under “Evaluating”, not “Creating,” because users do not create the content from scratch (like PuppetPals). Rather, they add and organize electronic data (e.g., a news article) that others have already made by evaluating the values of the data for the users’ specific purposes. Olberding (2013) argues that Flipboard “allows users to peruse thousands of content sources and choose feeds on topics they like, assembling a unique digital magazine.” Therefore, Flipboard can be used to facilitate learners' evaluating ability by letting them to assess the values of the various data on the Internet. In conclusion, teachers can use these two iPad applications in order to dramatically foster learner’s higher-order thinking, PuppetPals for “Creating” and Flipboard for “Evaluating.” Using the applications will effectively motivate learners because they are not from the textbook, but a thing in students’ daily lives. This aspect may explain why using technology has high authenticity and effectiveness in education.

Sandvik, M., Smørdal, O., & Østerud, S. (2012) Exploring iPads in Practitioners' Repertoires for Language Learning and Literacy Practices in Kindergarten. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 7(3). 204-220. Retrieved from http://www.idunn.no/ts/dk/2012/03/exploring_ipads_in_practitioners_repertoires_for_language_

Olberding, D. (2013, December 3). Flipboard “Personalized Magazine” Will Boost Windows 8. Retrieved from http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/12/prweb11389858.htm

PuppetPals

FlipBoard