Teaching Tech-onomy for Spanish

One of the requirements for my technology class is that we create our own digital tech-onomy based on Bloom's taxonomy for the cognitive domain. In teaching Spanish, however, I know that the affective domain is just as important as the cognitive one because students who feel uncomfortable with and around the language will have a much more difficult time understanding the teacher and interacting with their peers in the language.


I chose to combine the two--cognitive and affective--into a cyclical taxonomy. I decided on the cyclical format because language learning does not simply progress up the levels of Bloom's taxonomies. There are many factors that often return students to the remembering level one second and push them to the creation level the next. Many language teachers spend a great deal of time shifting between the Remembering/Receiving and the Understanding/Responding stages, but we must also help our students apply that knowledge to real life and create personally valuable connections. In addition, we must show them the value of what they are learning, which doesn't simply mean a culture lesson, and how to organize that learning into something meaningful.

Technology provides our students with so many possibilities that to not tap into this wealth of resources is counterproductive. My goal is not just to teach my students how to communicate in Spanish but also to communicate in the world. It is important that I take into account their need to be social, especially in terms of technology, and help them learn the responsibilities that come along with this open world. I can't, as an educator, say "it is someone else's responsibility to teach them how to effectively, safely, and responsibly navigate the Web because I have to teach my content." Therefore, I am looking for ways to integrate teaching and learning technology within my content. This taxonomy is my attempt at integrating all of the layers of effective learning--students' affective, cognitive, social, and technological needs--in a way that makes sense for foreign language study.