As with all learning activities, careful planning is required in order for the activity to be successful. When planning Internet activities, you should first begin by determining the level of cognitive learning you expect your students to demonstrate. Once you have determined the desired cognitive learning level, you can then decide what type of activity is appropriate.

B: Determining cognitive learning levels

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of educational psychologists who developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. This became a taxonomy including three overlapping domains; the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. Each of the domains can be utilized through the interaction of media.

Cognitive learning is demonstrated by knowledge recall and the intellectual skills: comprehending information, organizing ideas, analyzing and synthesizing data, applying knowledge, choosing among alternatives in problem-solving, and evaluating ideas or actions. This domain on the acquisition and use of knowledge is predominant in the majority of courses. Bloom identified six levels within the cognitive domain, from the simple recall or recognition of facts, as the lowest level, through increasingly more complex and abstract mental levels, to the highest order, which is classified as evaluation. Verb examples that represent intellectual activity on each level are listed here.

Knowledge: arrange, define, duplicate, label, list, memorize, name, order, recognize, relate, recall, repeat, reproduce state.

Comprehension: classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, identify, indicate, locate, recognize, report, restate, review, select, translate,

Application: apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.

Analysis: analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.

Synthesis: arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, write.

Evaluation: appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose compare, defend estimate, judge, predict, rate, core, select, support, value, evaluate.

Once you have determined what level your students are, you are then reading to begin planning activities that will help them increase their comprehension. As they increase their reading comprehension, there will be a natural elevation through the cognitive domains as set forth by Bloom.

In my next article, I will discuss six types of activities that can be developed using internet resources. I will also explain cognitive domain is used while participating in each of the 6 activities.

John Erskin is currently residing in South Korea where he has been teaching English as a second language for the past 11 years. He also maintains two websites devoted to ESL/EFL John's ESL Community and the Tower of English