Graduate Attributes are at the core of learning design. Graduate Attributes address the long-term, enduring aims of our educational activity. They involve thinking about the type of people that emerge from our educational programs – their ethics, responsibility, and citizenship, for example – and their employability in our current and future society. Teachers must constantly revisit the way in which their programs are contributing to the development of these attributes. Every teacher needs to look at their courses and pedagogy and ask, “How does everything I do support these attributes? Is there any way I can build content and activities that help students become ‘excellent’?”

Bloom’s Taxonomy is really a way of helping teachers design learning objectives that require higher order thinking. You start with ‘remembering and understanding’, which is the easiest category to serve with objectives but produces the least effective outcomes in achieving transformation. When supporting teachers, I recommend they try to get at least one learning objective from each category and always push towards the domain category of Creating, where higher order thinking takes place. This is the ‘By the time you finish this workshop/seminar/lesson you should be able to. . .’ type of thinking. Only after you have developed your learning outcomes are you ready for technology enhancement.

Bloom’s Taxonomy is really a way of helping teachers design learning objectives that require higher order thinking. You start with ‘remembering and understanding’, which is the easiest category to serve with objectives but produces the least effective outcomes in achieving transformation. When supporting teachers, I recommend they try to get at least one learning objective from each category and always push towards the domain category of Creating, where higher order thinking takes place. This is the ‘By the time you finish this workshop/seminar/lesson you should be able to. . .’ type of thinking. Only after you have developed your learning outcomes are you ready for technology enhancement.

Technology Enhancement serves your pedagogy. When you choose any app or technology remember to apply the app selection criteria. The model only suggests apps that can support the learning objectives and activities at the time of publishing. The Pedagogy Wheel constantly needs updating with apps as they are released. Teachers also should think customization all the time – is there a better app or tool for the job of enhancing my defined pedagogy?

Developed by Ruben Puentedura, the SAMR model – standing for “Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition” – is a framework that assists teachers to assess the degree to which digitally-empowered learning and teaching is (or is not) moving beyond what can be taught using analog technologies. The SAMR Model is extremely useful when considering how you are going to use the technologies you have chosen.