Education Investigation

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.

Recently I chaired my first meeting of the newly formed Primary and Secondary ICT Committee. I am excited that we are already engaging ourselves on meeting our first challenge; developing an ICT strategic plan that will hopefully sharpen the level of eLearning in our school.

This challenge has caused me again to explore current research into ICT and it’s impact on learning. I have  been interested in the developments of mLearning so have been looking for research in this area. I put a call out on Twitter the other night and Paula Jamieson responded with some helpful pieces of research:

1. Victoria’s (Australia) Department of Education and Early Childhood Development released this helpful piece of research entitled “iPod Touch Research Report” (November 2008). I found the recommendations simple but helpful.
2. Carly Shuler published “Pockets of Potential; Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Childrens’Learning” (January 2009). This research presented some clear opportunities and challenges with mobile learning.

It has also been helpful for me to follow New Zealand’s own Toni Twiss. At the end of 2008 Toni published her research into mLearning entitled: “Ubiquitous Information”. Since then she continues to pursue this topic and in one of her recent posts Toni made this pivotal statement:

In-light of some of the ways that educators are choosing to use mobile phones as covered in this review, it becomes very clear that the technology enables a wide-range of variation for the use of these devices within an educational setting.  However, in order to make the most of many of these learning opportunities, it is going to require a fundamental rethink of the way teaching and learning happens.  Simply using mobile phones to teach using traditional methodologies will not be effective.  However, nor will planning teaching and learning episodes solely focused on what the technology is capable of.  From the findings of this review, rethinking when and where learning opportunities can take place and how mobile technologies can facilitate this is fundamental to developing sound teaching and learning practice.

In my mind Toni has ‘hit the nail on the head’. If there is going to be change in our classrooms and effective integration of ICTs to enhance teaching and learning then it is pedagogy that needs to be addressed. If our pedagogy is not rethought we will just keep on teaching the way we have always done it but with modern tools for example; using an interactive whiteboard in the same way you use a whiteboard. This equates to a very expensive whiteboard! So as my school and I go about developing an ICT strategic plan I have in the forefront of my mind the awareness that our biggest challenge is not finance or the teaching of tool tools, but helping to develop sound pedagogy in our teaching staff.

I would appreciate your help. What ways have you found effective in developing Teachers’ pedagogy about the integration of ICT? Do you have any websites that could help us develop an ICT strategic plan?

I am also interested in the use of notebooks in the classroom. Do you have any links to research on this topic? Do you use notebooks in your class? What have you found are positive and negatives about integrating such a tool?

Picture Authors (Creative Commons License = Attribution):

- "Winding Pathway" http://www.flickr.com/photos/g-hat/2050774790/

- "Brain" http://spacesuityoga.wordpress.com/

Over the Christmas holidays I have found myself searching, scanning and reflecting on a range of ePortfolio readings in pursuit of the ultimate platform.

Below are several that stood out:

• Ray Tolley stepped into my world after he left a comment on a previous post of mine. His knowledge and perspective caught me and I have since enjoyed communicating with him and reading the following writings:
  • “The Prime Directives for an ePortfolio” Here Ray identifies 10 criteria for an ePortfolio (compiled 18 months ago).
  • “A Universal ePortfolio?” was put together for a conference Ray presented in Paris in Feb 2008. It explores the potential for a universal ‘5-95′ ePortfolio.
• I was excited to finally see Nick Rate’s completed research in December and so enjoyed the 73 page read entitled “Eportfolios and Assessment For Learning.” What interested me was:
  1. His writings on “Assess to learn – a formative approach to teaching, learning and assessment.”
  2. The reflective perspectives of both the teachers and students who engaged in ePortfolios.
  3. His investigations into the following ePortfolio platforms: Elgg Classic, Wordpress MU, Knowledge Net, Marhara and DrupalEd.

So what am I up to now?

1. I have booked Nick Rate to come and visit my school, speak with my ePortfolio team and share his research with interested staff.
2. Ray Tolley is currently arranging for me to view and play with his eFolio platform.
3. Pebblepad has just been pointed out to me as a “nice user interface for children.” So I have been investigating this.

Animation Author: http://www.free-animations.co.uk/animation.html