ESIL: A Lens for 21st Century Learning- Video

Learning scales, like Bloom’s taxonomy, help classify learning objectives for students and are used to structure a course’s progression. In this workshop, Maria will introduce ESIL, an additional tool to assess the depth of learning a student needs to reach. ESIL is used to build lifelong learning in the age of information abundance and technology access. Maria Andersen, CEO of Coursetune Inc, presents ESIL: A Lens for 21st Century Learning.

Bloom’s taxonomy of Learning was written in 1956 and various revisions have followed (notably Anderson & Krathwahl’s 2001 revision). However, Bloom’s taxonomy was written for learning in the age of information scarcity (at least scarcity relative to today’s perspective). Today we live in the era of information abundance and work relying on teams of discipline experts. It isn’t even possible to know everything there is to know in a narrowly-defined discipline. What we need for this world is a second lens through which we can peer at our learning objectives. From this lens of information abundance, how deeply does a student need to learn something? Well enough to know how to look it up? (Existence) Well enough to apply it with resource support from the Internet or colleagues? (Supported) Well enough to hold a conversation with a client over dinner? (Independence) Well enough to use it for the rest of their lives? (Lifelong) The ESIL Lens allows us to consider more than the cognitive load of the learning objective. Combining a taxonomy like Bloom with a lens like ESIL, we can design a better and more realistic learning and assessment experience for students.