eLearning Infusion

Further to my thoughts on whether teachers should have their own eportfolio, I have spent some time reading up on the Registered Teacher Criteria which have begun to progressively replace the existing Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions this year.

The Criteria are designed:

It is suggested that evidence against the criteria can be gathered a number of ways including;

1. Observation: formal with structured feedback and next steps.
2. Discussion: including meetings, structured mentoring, critical self-reflection.
3. Documentation: collections of evidence including reflective journals, analysis of learners assessment, records, PD

Needless to say, an eportfolio would be the perfect container for bringing all of these elements together. What a great opportunity for school leaders to ‘encourage’ staff to create an online space as an authentic collection of evidence and critical reflection to demonstrate successful teaching.

I do have a couple of questions/challenges for the NZTC:

1. Instead of providing (i.e. Word templates) which use a text based solution for teacher self-assessment against the criteria, why not provide an online tool that allows teachers, school leaders etc. to access, revisit, comment on where teachers are at? Sure, lots will do this using Google Docs, but how could we be more proactive in getting teachers online, creating PLNs, and using the tools we all expect our students to?
2. Why is there no mention or modeling of how this evidence will be collated? How exciting would it be if the NZTC gave us access to an ePortfolio account using Mahara through myportfolio or similar. Or is the old process i.e. evidence is text based, printed out, highlighted and sloted into clear files still OK?
3. My concern is that we have a new set of criteria, so change going to happen already, but we are not going to make the most of it. Why not grab this opportunity to move this process into the 21st Century with the use of some collaborative learning tools?

Don’t get me wrong, I have no complaint at all regarding the criteria, gathering evidence, critical reflection and discussion. I can see them dovetailing quite nicely with a Teaching as Inquiry approach. My questions are more process based about packaging this up in order to ‘present’ your professional outcomes.

And… it is not all doom and gloom. If you watch the Part B of the introductory DVD, portfolios do get a mention. I just couldn’t catch if there was an ‘e’ on the front…

Also, I wasn’t able to attend any of the provided workshops for this, so maybe these points were discussed..?

Below is a short presentation for the EBE ICTPD cluster focusing on student voice in schools.

Unfortunately I am not able to present this in person nor am I able to Skype in to facilitate the meeting. So I have undertaken a new learning experience in creating a slidecast/webinar in Slideshare. A straightforward process but the recorded voice just doesn’t have the same impact as F2F…

In the presentation I have tried to give a brief overview of student voice in four areas:

• student voice in reflections on learning
• student voice in student led conferences
• student voice in learning and school design
• student voice in a democratic curriculum

Pulling together all the threads of student voice has been a great process to go through for me professionally. There are some great resources out there that support the importance of engaging students in discussions about learning and school. This quote sums it up nicely:

What pupils say about teaching, learning, and schooling is not only worth listening to but provides an important – perhaps the most important – foundation for thinking about ways of improving schools. Rudduck, Chaplain & Wallace (1996).

Have also being playing with LiveBinders to act as the online portal for this presentation. This allows me to collect all the resources the audience needs for the presentation, organize them neatly and easily and present them with ‘pride’.

For example, the Livebinder below has a tab for the presentation, my blog, two videos to view, my Delicious tags for studentvoice and a Google doc of the presentation notes. Essentially a one stop shop for supporting the ideas presented and any follow up.

Thanks to @janenicholls for alerting me to this tool. Would appear to be a really simple way to effectively support a presentation you are giving.

Although, having seen Jog the Web (thanks @miriamtuohy) used before for a similar purpose, and liking the layout and look better, will probably jog rather than bind. What do you think?

Further to a previous post I have added three new discussion questions to use when thinking about some of big underlying themes surrounding eportfolios.

I can’t take credit for the thinking behind these questions as they have stemmed from comments left on this blog or through face to face discussions when visiting schools.

So here is the first one:

Thanks to Jamin Lietze, who left this comment:

…what measures is the school going to put in place so that there are consistencies between classroom ePortfolios? Parents will compare and complain if one teacher is not perceived as doing much.

I don’t know if my question reflects exactly the point Jamin is making, mine is more related to surface features but will recraft it at some stage. Jamin refers to the content and makes a valid point. Often in schools we ask for consistency and commonalities in ‘school-wide’ approaches to teaching and learning. There are core values and beliefs that guide what we do. At a different level schools may develop guidelines that describe expectations for such areas as planning and assessment. Is it therefore necessary to develop guidelines for eportfolios, what goes in them and how often? Or would this defeat the purpose of a student directed, student owned eportfolio that supports the learner and instead become a prescriptive teacher directed product?

Question 2:

A conversation with Deidre Alderson, principal of Willowbank School prompted this question. We were discussing eportfolios and getting parents online and involved in leaving comments and giving feedback to their children in these online spaces. I outlined how in my research parents of year 3 and 4 students showed a much higher involvement than those at year 5 and 6. We discussed a number of reasons why this may be which I also discussed in my research. Deidre had a new perspective on this. She suggests that how students want to get feedback and the form that feedback takes changes over time. For example, a younger student may really respond to and deliberately seek out feedback yet an older student may only want feedback when they specifically ask for it and perhaps not from you as a teacher or parent at all. While the eportfolio is only one of many ways to give feedback to students, is the feedback we are giving online inline with what they want, regardless of whether it is technically correct (purposeful, specific, related to criteria, includes next steps etc).

Question 3:

Thanks to Kathy Paterson and Carol Brieseman who both felt this question was worthy to be mentioned.Kathy asks:

perhaps there could be a question directed at the use and management of eportfolios for staff journeys?

Supported by Carol:

Staff documenting their own learning as an e-portfolio would help build confidence that may not be there at present.

I agree. As simple as the saying ‘walk the talk’ is, no more could it be truer here. And what a rich authentic alternative to an appraisal checklist type approach to teaching competency. Not to mention the reflective practice involved in an eportfolio that sits hand in hand with the teaching as inquiry approach to knowledge building. Why wouldn’t you want staff to have their own?

So there we go. Three more questions to discuss if you intend heading down the eportfolio route or if you are in the process of review how you are implementing them currently.

Once again, would love to hear of any questions or areas that I have not considered!

Special thanks to:

Photo 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/
Photo 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/raigverd/
Photo 3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/torres21/

ePortfolio presentation given at a CORE Education Breakfast Seminar.

Some of the main points from the presentation:

• clarify your purpose (pedagogy) before your technology (eportfolio tool)
• the eportfolio becomes the vehicle for drawing in the components of effective pedagogy and assessment
• engage all stakeholders in discussion about the purpose and expectations surrounding eportfolios
• the eportfolio learning process is complex and cyclic, mirroring our expectation of teachers engaging in teaching as inquiry
• quality feedback, reflection and next steps are integral for eportfolios to support learning and attainment of goals

I am often asked my opinion about what to buy or how to organise technology in schools. I am in a privileged position working with 17 ITCPD cluster around NZ. That is a lot of schools I am lucky enough to visit and a lot of teachers and principals I converse with. I see an huge range of different set-ups in schools from the traditional computer suite to 1-1 programmes.

What works best and what would I recommend? Well that’s a really hard question to answer as I have seen every scenario work really well and allow for the integration of technology into learning but equally have seen the other side of the equation where the same set up in another school is not effectively used. We know that it is not the technology that makes for effective elearning pedagogy. Sure the access to technology is a factor but it is the understanding of and deliberate acts of teaching using technology that make it happen successfully and seamlessly.

It is hard to recommend any particular setup. Do you have 2 or 3 desktops in classes supported by mobile pods of laptops? Do you use netbooks as learning is increasingly happening in the cloud? Are laptops the only way forward? I know schools that only have 1-2 computers in each class that do amazing stuff, and then know schools that have huge almost unlimited access to computers who do pretty ordinary stuff.

What leading schools are clearly doing is projecting the way the want technology being used in classrooms in 2-3 years which is predominantly cloud based and increasingly mobile. If you look at the trends from Horizon reports, UNESCO or BECTA they support this direction as well.

My current line of thought is a little different. I am really keen on giving teachers the flexibility to makes these decisions themselves. i.e. If you have a clear budget, why not ask a teacher how they want to spend their allotment, so that the purchase clearly aligns to their pedagogical approach. They may choose laptops or even ipads, whatever. While this can be complicated and comes with lots of questions, is there really a one size fits all to a technology roll-out or should a teacher have the flexibility to choose what they use, just as they do with every other resource they use in their teaching?

Does every classroom need to have an equal share. I know that in the past I have certainly gone about strategic planning by stating, “Every class will have 3-4 desktops supported by a mobile pod of ten laptops for each team.” etc.

But should we have moved beyond this now?

I had a recent conversation with a principal who is establishing a new school. He can’t decide on IWBs or the flat screen teaching stations, so instead appointed staff will possibly get an allowance of $4000 to use either way they see fit. I think taht is just fantastic.

Sure there are lots of questions raised by using this approach. What happens when the teacher moves on? How do you manage and support a range of different technologies? What if a teacher makes the wrong decision? What happens if the need for a certain technology is no longer relevant? and so on.

But I am looking at it from this perspective: They whole process of deciding what to buy fits directly in the ‘teaching as inquiry‘ approach and would really make teachers examine their elearning pedagogy. The use/purchase of technology would be directly related to the needs of the students and the teacher’s approach/pedagogy. The teacher would be required to research, visit and answer any questions to reinforce their decision.

30 ipod touches may be a much better investment for students lacking fluency and comprehension skills rather than 6 laptops and a projector.

Have we depersonalised our teachers own elearning pedagogy by deciding what technology they should use?

What do you reckon?

Further to my previous post on a Web 2.0 collage, I came across this, The Conversation Prism: The art of listening, learning and sharing.

Sorting and categorising different web tools, this visual goes a few steps beyond my humble effort! Click on the image to view, download or embed larger versions.

More social media visuals can be found here.

The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas

New eportfolio workshop in the works, can’t decide on a title. Two options on the board at the moment shown below. Which do you prefer, if any?!

Option 1:

Option 2:

I have a few eportfolio presentations and workshops in the pipeline, one at a local ICTPD conference here in Palmerston North, a couple of CORE Breakfast Seminars and plans are already underway for a pre-conference workshop for ULearn 10 in October.

So I have been clarifying and updating some previous presentation slides and thought I would flick them up here in order to hopefully get some feedback.

Part of the purpose of the workshops from my perspective is to get the attendees to think critically about the bigger picture of eportfolios and some of the concepts and ideas that need to be discussed before diving in and also as part of the ongoing review of implementation. So I have 8 questions/discussion starters below. Have I missed anything obvious out? Or what big picture question related to eportfolios do you have that aren’t covered in these questions. Please let me know.

Should an eportfolio include all aspects of a student’s life and learning? Will the eportfolio reflect what is happening beyond learning associated with school? If a student is actively involved in music lessons, sports, coaching, volunteer work, travel etc. not directly related to school, will that be part of your eportfolio vision?

Are your parents and teachers ready? Do your parents understand the school’s beliefs associated with eportfolios? Do they understand the benefits to learning? Is the technology available at home? Work? Does everyone have an understanding of the process involved? The pedagogy? The importance of feedback?

What happens when a student leaves school? Moves to a new class? Transfers? Covering the angle of those wanting interoperability between systems. Is that necessary? Is there one protocol that will allow flexibility of choice so that the system does not dictate the pedagogy? Should every student use the same tools? What happens if the teacher moves on?

Do your current internet & computer use policies cater for eportfolios and the use of Web 2.0 tools? When a student does move on from your school, what happens to the learning contained in your school’s Web 2.0 sites? What of sites that have minimum age requirements? Concepts of digital identity, digital citizenship, digital footprint, online safety, online security, moderation… need to be clarified along with all long term implications.

Will your eportfolios play a role in reporting achievement against the National Standards? Is there a middle road that can be found by including plain language reporting and judgements within a reflective learner centered eportfolio? Does an eportfolio qualify as a written report?

Who retains ownership and control? Related to a number of questions already asked such as transferability and inclusion of learning beyond school. Is the portfolio institution controlled and directed or student centered, open and flexible? Learning selected by learner or prescribed by teacher? Assessed or reflective?

Do you need a packaged solution or is a mash-up of Web 2.0 tools OK? Does appropriately tagging artifacts, rss feeds, and the use of aggregators negate the need to have an eportfolio product or container? Web tools are chosen as required, flexible, for specific purposes, tagged and subscribed to or with an alert through another service such as Twitter to the social learning network… is that still an eportfolio?

I needed something like this for a presentation and couldn’t find what I needed online so ended up making one. This one I found and have used previously doesn’t quite have the right mix of sites. Someone else may find it useful too.

Click the image for Flickr link.

Thanks to Frank for this link. Always interstign to see up-to-date data on Internet usage and trends.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.