Description: Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be aware of how to design and develop a standards-based electronic portfolio, using a variety of technology tools, including relational databases, hypermedia/presentation software, or web-accessible hypermedia files.
How do Standards fit into the process of designing and developing electronic portfolios? This session covers the development process using a variety of software tools, focusing on how to use standards in the portfolio process. See examples of standards-based electronic student and teaching portfolios.
One of the most exciting developments in the school reform movement is the use of alternative forms of assessment to evaluate student learning, and one of the most popular forms of authentic assessment is the use of portfolios. The point of the portfolio (electronic or paper) is to provide a "richer picture" of a student's abilities. Portfolios are being developed at all phases of the life span, beginning in early childhood, through K-12 and higher education, to professional teaching portfolios.
As more schools expand student access to technology, there are an increasing number of options available for developing electronic student portfolios, including relational databases, hypermedia programs, WWW pages, PDF files, and commercial, proprietary programs like Grady Profile, SuperSchool's Electronic Portfolio and Persona Plus.
This presentation will cover the development process using three different working portfolio tools: word processing, slide shows (i.e., PowerPoint), and databases.
A. Determine which standards and performance indicators that the portfolio will demonstrate (the purpose) and the primary audience for the portfolio. Set up the portfolio demonstrating the performance indicators of the specific standards that have been selected.
B. Reflection - Write a reflection for each performance indicator that explains how you think you have accomplished this standard.
C. Artifacts - After the reflection for each standard, identify the portfolio artifacts (examples of your work, hopefully in electronic form) or experiences you have that demonstrate that you have met this performance indicator. Some portfolio development sources also recommend an individual reflection on each artifact, and how each one meets the standards. You may have artifacts that demonstrate more than one standard. If so, create a cross-reference grid (perhaps using a spreadsheet) that shows the performance indicators (the rows) and how they match with the different artifacts or projects (in the columns).
D. Projection - The portfolio becomes a lifelong learning tool, when we take these reflections and set goals for future learning. For each standard's performance indicator, write a statement about what you still need to learn in this area, setting some reasonable goals so that you can work toward achieving this standard in a reasonable time frame.
E. Presentation/Publication - When portfolios are shared, there
is a tendency toward collaboration and commitment to learning goals. There
are several effective ways to publish the portfolio once it is developed.
This presentation will conclude with how to convert any of the three "working
portfolio" development tools (word processor, slide show, database) into
two different web-accessible hypermedia formats: HTML/Web Pages and
Adobe Acrobat PDF files.
Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be aware of how two bodies of literature (the multimedia development process and the portfolio development process) can be brought together to facilitate the development of electronic teaching portfolios to support long-term professional development.
This session will introduce the value of using electronic teaching portfolios as evidence of teacher competencies and to guide long-term professional development. The competencies may be locally defined, or linked to national teacher standards. Portfolios are not a haphazard collection of artifacts but rather a tool which demonstrates growth over time. As we move to more standards-based teacher performance assessment, we need new tools to record and organize evidence of successful teaching, for both practicing professionals and student teachers.
In this session, examples will be shown of student teaching portfolios developed to earn UAA's institutional recommendation for an initial teaching certificate in secondary education. Examples will also be shown of teaching portfolios from first- and second-year teachers, based on the Alaska State Teaching Standards and the ISTE/NCATE Standards for a Basic Endorsement in Educational Computing and Technology Literacy. The reflections of these teachers show the power of the teaching portfolio process to guide long-term professional development.
The presentation will compare and contrast the multimedia development process (Assess/Decide, Plan/Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) and the portfolio development process (Collection, Selection, Reflection, Projection, Presentation).
Based on research into the implementation of electronic portfolios for both students and teachers since 1991, the following benefits appear to result from developing an electronic teaching portfolio:
1. Creating an electronic portfolio can develop teachers' multimedia
development skills. The multimedia development process usually covers
the following stages:
- Assess/Decide - determining needs, goals, audience for the presentation
- Plan/Design - determining content, sequence of the presentation
- Develop - Gather and organize multimedia materials to include in
the presentation
- Implement - Give the presentation
- Evaluate.. Evaluate the presentation's effectiveness
2. Modeling: If teachers develop electronic teaching portfolios, their students will be more likely to have their own electronic portfolios
3. Each stage of the portfolio development process contributes to teachers'
professional development:
- Collection - teachers learn to save artifacts that represent the
successes (and "growth opportunities") in their day-to-day teaching
- Selection - teachers review and evaluate the artifacts they have
saved, and identify those that demonstrate achievement of specific teaching
standards
- Reflection - teachers become reflective practitioners, evaluating
their own growth over time and their achievement of the teaching standards,
as well as the gaps in their development
- Projection - teachers compare their reflections to the standards
and performance indicators, and set learning goals for the future.
This is the stage where portfolio development becomes professional development.
- Presentation - teachers share their portfolios with their supervisor
and peers. This is the stage where appropriate "public" commitments
can be made to encourage collaboration and commitment to professional development.
Workshop Description: This workshop will cover innovative assessment techniques and how to use a variety of multimedia technologies to electronically maintain authentic samples of student work.
Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be aware of the issues involved in planning and implementing electronic portfolios in K-12 schools and Schools of Education.
With the increasing use of technology to support portfolios and other forms of assessment, there are many issues that teachers, administrators and parents need to address. This session covers many questions that are raised as schools begin to implement technology-supported alternative assessment. Information for planning both Student and Teacher Portfolios will be addressed. The presentation is based on a paper published in the October 1998, issue of Learning & Leading with Technology, is available online at Dr. Barrettís Technology & Alternative Assessment web site (http://transition.alaska.edu/www.portfolios.html), and forms the framework for a generic Electronic Portfolio Handbook which is currently being written. Sample planning forms from that publication will be provided to the participants.
These methodologies include audio and video portfolios, publishing electronic portfolios using commercially-available programs or HTML (WWW) format, computer programs to gather and present anecdotal data gathering, file storage and management techniques. In addition, the presentation will compare and contrast the multimedia development process (Assess/Decide, Plan/Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) and the portfolio development process (Collection, Selection, Reflection, Projection, Presentation). Gain practical ideas from other participants for getting started or expanding your current portfolio assessment system. Ideas for both elementary and secondary teachers.
Prerequisite participant skills/knowledge required: Intermediate
computer knowledge. (no hands-on)
Agenda for half-day workshop (no hands-on)
Introduction & needs assessment - Overview of session - group objectives
(1/4 hour)
Discussion: ìwhyî of portfolios and key elements of portfolio
assessment (1/4 hour)
Discussion of the Planning Issues, Resource Questions, Portfolio Context
Questions (1 hour)
Break
Electronic Portfolio Construction Process (multimedia development +
portfolio development)
(1/2 hour)
Commercial software and hardware available (1/2 hour)
Q & A and evaluation (1/4 hour)
See the following URL for the content of this session:
http://transition.alaska.edu/www/portfolios.html
Workshop Description:
As we move to more standards-based teacher performance assessment, we need new tools to record and organize evidence of successful teaching, for both practicing professionals and student teachers. This workshop will introduce a strategy for using a variety of cross-platform strategies to store and organize Electronic Teaching Portfolios. Participants should bring a floppy diskette with files that they want to convert, as well as the evaluation criteria/standards/rubrics they want to demonstrate with their portfolios. The results of the day-long activity can be saved on a floppy diskette (without video) or a high density floppy, such as a Zip disk. For more information about the workshop, go to: http://transition.alaska.edu/www/portfolios.html
Objectives: Participants will become aware of the various strategies for authoring electronic portfolios and begin to design their own personal electronic teaching portfolio. Participants will become familiar with creating and editing PDF files, and how to translate files from a variety of applications into Adobe Acrobat or HTML format.
Prerequisite participant skills/knowledge required: Intermediate computer skills - this is NOT a workshop for beginners.
Workshop Outline:
Participants will:
Become aware of the various strategies for authoring electronic teaching
portfolios
Become aware of the electronic portfolio development process, which
is a combination of the multimedia development process (Assess/Decide,
Plan/Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) and the portfolio development
process (Collection, Selection, Reflection, Projection, Presentation)
(1.5 hours)
Learn to Edit PDF files with Adobe Acrobat Exchange. (1+ hour)
Design their own personal electronic teaching portfolio:
- decide on goals of portfolio (based on learner outcomes that are
based on teaching standards and evaluation rubrics) - (for this workshop,
participants are provided with the ISTE/NCATE Educational Technology Foundations
Standards if they did not bring their own to use)
- describe the audience for the portfolio
- decide on content of portfolio
- decide which software tools are most appropriate for the portfolio
context
(1/2 hour)
Create the Working Portfolio, using one of a variety of applications
(i.e., word processing, database, presentation/slide show).
- gather multimedia materials to include in the portfolio which represent
learner's achievement
Record self-reflection on work and achievement of goals
(1.5 hours)
Create Portable Document Files from a variety of applications (i.e.,
word processing, database, presentation/slide show)
Organize with hypertext links between standards/rubrics/goals, student
work samples, rubrics, and assessment
(1 hour)
Present portfolio draft to participant audience
Evaluate the effectiveness of the portfolio presentation
(1/2 hour)
Workshop Rationale
Based on research into the implementation of electronic portfolios for both students and teachers since 1991, the following benefits appear to result from developing an electronic teaching portfolio:
1. Creating an electronic portfolio can develop teachers' multimedia
development skills. The multimedia development process usually covers
the following stages:
- Assess/Decide - determining needs, goals, audience for the presentation
- Plan/Design - determining content, sequence of the presentation
- Develop - Gather and organize multimedia materials to include in
the presentation
- Implement - Give the presentation
- Evaluate.. Evaluate the presentation's effectiveness
2. Modeling: If teachers develop electronic teaching portfolios, their students will be more likely to have their own electronic portfolios
3. Each stage of the portfolio development process contributes to teachers'
professional development:
- Collection - teachers learn to save artifacts that represent the
successes (and "growth opportunities") in their day-to-day teaching
- Selection - teachers review and evaluate the artifacts they have
saved, and identify those that demonstrate achievement of specific teaching
standards
- Reflection - teachers become reflective practitioners, evaluating
their own growth over time and their achievement of the teaching standards,
as well as the gaps in their development
- Projection - teachers compare their reflections to the standards
and performance indicators, and set learning goals for the future.
This is the stage where portfolio development becomes professional development.
- Presentation - teachers share their portfolios with their supervisor
and peers. This is the stage where appropriate "public" commitments
can be made to encourage collaboration and commitment to professional development.
Current action research being conducted:
In the 1998-99 school year, Dr. Barrett received a grant to enhance the existing workstations in the School of Education's Computer Lab with the hardware necessary to develop electronic portfolios. The additional equipment provides students with the tools to develop electronic portfolios which demonstrate their achievement of the Alaska State Teaching Standards. This year, every student in the Secondary MAT program was required to develop a portfolio that demonstrates the achievement of these standards to receive UAAís Institutional Recommendation to be certified to teach in Alaska.
As part of the portfolio development process, students gather evidence (portfolio ìartifactsî) of their achievement of each of the Alaska State Teaching Standards. Students who elect to create an Electronic Portfolio may include QuickTime (digital) video clips of classroom activities, as well as sound clips, word processing documents and graphic images, all converted into Adobe Acrobat PDF files (Portable Document Format) and written to Compact Recordable Disc (CD-R) or to video tape. More VCRs were added to the School of Education lab, updating substandard or nonexistent equipment. In addition, video and digital still cameras were acquired for use by faculty and students to capture portfolio artifacts from activities in methods classes. Finally, two CD Recording stations with built-in Jaz drive and 4 GB hard disk were added to the lab to enable CD-ROM development.
Part of this project includes training students in the skills necessary
to develop electronic portfolios using a variety of strategies. The skills
to be covered in the workshops and online tutorials for developing CD-ROM-based
portfolios using Adobe Acrobat include:
- Converting files from any application to PDF using PDFWriter or Acrobat
Distiller
- Scanning/capturing and editing graphic images
- Digitizing and editing sound files
- Digitizing and editing video files (VCR -> computer)
- Organizing portfolio artifacts with Acrobat Exchange, creating links
& buttons
- Organizing multimedia files and pre-mastering CD-ROM using Jaz disks
- Writing CD-Recordable disc using appropriate CD mastering software
- Recording computer images with narration to video tape (computer
-> VCR)