Below is my recent presentation entitled “ePortfolios: An Interactive Inspection of a Primary Teacher’s Journey with ePortfolios from Inspiration to Implementation.” The presentation was given at ULearn09 held in Christchurch, N.Z.
The presentation was broken into three parts; my research, a chance for individuals to look through 7 of my student’s ePortfolios and lastly a look at three ePortfolio perspectives (students, parents and mine).
The video interviews (lasting 6 mins long) with a sample of my Parents is not viewable from the slideshow below. I do not currently have permission to share the video publicly. However if you are interested email me at j_lietze@yahoo.co.nz or if you have a Centre4 login you can view my presentation with the video and notes here.
It was exciting to see the report entitled “ePortfolios Celebrating Learning” published yesterday. Commissioned by the MOE this report investigates and encourages discussion on the use of electronic portfolios within the context of NZ schools.
The following was my initial response to the report and the two cents I contributed to the forum:
Hi Paul
Firstly I want to say thank you for commissioning the research paper into ePortfolios. It is a timely paper and has encouraged and informed me (and other teachers I am sure) in our schools pilot use of ePortfolios for the purpose of enhancing teaching and learning.
I also wish to thank Ian, Sandy and Viv in the fact that they carried this research out with the following principle in mind: “ePortfolios are not about technology; they are about pedagogy and learning. They are about life-long learning.” (Pg 17 of the paper) This I believe has kept the report rooted where it should be; on learning.
I do wish to support the report findings and the development of one national ePortfolio tool because there is more to it than just reasons of efficiency, user familiarity, access through schooling and learner ownership. I had a conversation with Lenva Shearing a few weeks ago and she referred to the desire of having an ePortfolio tool that was “an empty box” (I hope I have quoted her correctly). I liked this analogy. So from here I would like to share a few more thoughts and add these to the discussion.
If we all used one tool then schools/teachers will have:
1) Flexibility (They can use this one tool to add what they like into it to meet the individual needs and while maintaining student choice, voice and ownership.)
2) Better communication (Students/Teachers would use “one language” and so work together easier across levels and ages developing their ePortfolios.)
3) Efficencey (Professional development is made easier because we are all using the same language and focusing on the one tool.)
4) Better consistency (One school or teacher will not be considered lower than another because they did not have the expertise or financial support to develop superior ePortfolios. Everyone will have the same building blocks.)
Please don’t get me wrong; I am not advocating for a “straight jacket” type of tool. This one tool would have to be cleverly developed so that it did support different learning styles, user choice, offer flexiblitiy, etc.
Naturally my curiousity got the better of me and I clicked on over to his blog to discover that he was referring to ePortfolios. On another post he put it this way: “the new buzz, is a style of portfolio assessment that integrates into the teaching, learning, classroom, school, and community cultures.”
He goes on to say that during NECC 2009: “My group was assigned to look for ways to make learning more engaging. So what would engaging assessment look like? What kind of accountability scheme might we grow into, that is fun to participate in, both for students and for teachers? How might we make assessment and accountability an integral part of the formal learning process — a learning process that comprises fun and engaging hard work?”
You can follow this link to his post where he identifies a range of features he would like to see in an ePortfolio. I was particularly interested in the following feature he identified: “It will have elements of social networking, featuring personal profiles and a variety of communication devices, such as blogging, micro-blogging, discussion forums, and commenting.”
From my short experience I support the idea of incorporating social networking applications as I have found them to be a key attraction and one which gives students a stronger sense of ownership. This is important in establishing a working, up-to-date student operated and driven ePortfolio. They love receiving messages from peers that include photos and links. It has also given me as the teacher a deeper insight into my students as I have had a number of messages that have expressed gratitude, concern or a genuine call for help. This has enabled me to connect at a deeper level and better meet the needs of my students.
The social networking feature however must have features that enable it to be moderated, kept secure and if need be locked from students if they mistreat it. The Teacher must have control and oversight of the social networking.
Who else uses social networking to support the development of communication and collaboration within ePortfolios?
Social Networking picture author = http://www.icis.com/blogs/icis-chemicals-confidential
