<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2873" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV>> Could it be that computers and AI research (Minsky, Brookes) will lead
us to rethinking Blooms taxonomy? </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I think a taxonomy which
incorporates computers is overdue, I bet Bloom didn't know much about
spreadsheets or code. Read Bloom's Taxonomy, its obvious that he was a writer
not a mathematician. It is so difficult to discuss higher order skills in
computers without an appropriate taxonomy. See the discussion at <A
href="http://pdchandler.wikispaces.com">http://pdchandler.wikispaces.com</A> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>> on the other hand I can see that learning the messy idiosyncratic
detail of the user interface of its day and </DIV>
<DIV>> becoming fluent in its operation is simply essential </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yes, but remember this application based knowledge
will at best last them till university. Hopefully it will allow them to bridge
to the new systems just as we had to bridge from our understandings of DOS to
Windows. They are going to have to do a lot of independant learning after they
leave you so the way this is taught should provide the base for further
learning.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I was wondering whether directory tree file systems
is a piece of knowledge with a bit of longevity, but no. As a computer engineer,
the first "word processor" I saw was the Vidikey in 1976. It had a 256 byte (yes
byte) buffer and wrote to punched tape. The only editing function was backspace.
The Omnitext with 4k of core memory had block start, block end, move, copy &
delete but still wrote to punch tape. The first disk based word processor I saw
was the Varicomposer with up to 32 files on 32 tracks on its 8 inch floppy,
it had a root directory but no subdirectories. It wasn't till the CPM machines
came out that I saw my first directory tree. The volume of information we now
have access to, both on our hard disk and external to it means we increasingly
search for it rather than neatly file it in a tree structure. The file tree has
not been an invariant of computers and is not likely to be. Though the tree has
had a long life, I doubt it is a constant.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So what higher order computing "meta
skills" could have I expected to have some longevity back in
1976?:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Persistence: don't give up too easily</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Playfulness: don't know how a feature works, play
with it</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Flexibility: be prepared to continually readjust
your mental model of a system in the light of new information</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Data retrieval skills: (this started as read the
Help. You don't read the help any more, you search it). Increasingly help
lies on the web and merges with general Googling. You form a mental model
of how a body of information is organised, you interrogate it. On the basis of
your interrogation, you readjust your mental model and re-interrogate it. Maybe
this is the most important new millenium skill. (stop me before I get on my
filtering hobby horse!)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>