Week 14 - Teachthought on Tagging
Terry Heick's this topic is what he calls "tagging" his curriculum.
This is related to his own practice of tagging content on his website to make it more searchable, and he offers examples from a video game website that creates a range of particular topic - not just broad categories like "action" or "simulation," but more specific ones like "Visual Novel" or "Controller Friendly."
He then enumerates several benefits - organization, filtering, visibility, collaboration, and crowdsourcing. Most interestingly, collaboration and crowdsourcing involve student's feedback on which tags are most helpful, most useful, or they allow students to develop their own categories and refine assigned tags as they work through content artifacts provided by the teacher.
This simple process, of labelling files in a way and on a platform that is searchable, will be especially useful for courses that allow students to seek their own path through content, or ones that encourage students to engage in independent paths of reading, writing, or other progress aligned with their goals in the course.
While Mr. Heick closes with some facetious examples of when to use tags (as a resource for "Quiet Day" or in response to "Spring Fever"), and some dismissive nods to reasons you wouldn't use this method ("If you don't use technology," "If your lessons and units are set in stone and have been for years"), this piece plays to Mr. Heick's strength as a writer. He has a good idea that doesn't need much support or specific examples (although he provides two screenshots of his own tagged files), and a range of contexts that support the value of his idea.
Have a great week!
This is related to his own practice of tagging content on his website to make it more searchable, and he offers examples from a video game website that creates a range of particular topic - not just broad categories like "action" or "simulation," but more specific ones like "Visual Novel" or "Controller Friendly."
He then enumerates several benefits - organization, filtering, visibility, collaboration, and crowdsourcing. Most interestingly, collaboration and crowdsourcing involve student's feedback on which tags are most helpful, most useful, or they allow students to develop their own categories and refine assigned tags as they work through content artifacts provided by the teacher.
This simple process, of labelling files in a way and on a platform that is searchable, will be especially useful for courses that allow students to seek their own path through content, or ones that encourage students to engage in independent paths of reading, writing, or other progress aligned with their goals in the course.
While Mr. Heick closes with some facetious examples of when to use tags (as a resource for "Quiet Day" or in response to "Spring Fever"), and some dismissive nods to reasons you wouldn't use this method ("If you don't use technology," "If your lessons and units are set in stone and have been for years"), this piece plays to Mr. Heick's strength as a writer. He has a good idea that doesn't need much support or specific examples (although he provides two screenshots of his own tagged files), and a range of contexts that support the value of his idea.
Have a great week!
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