Tech Play 2: Eportfolio

Portfolios, whether traditional paper-based or the electric variety, provide students and educators a chance to assess learning and growth through projects and insights. Most classrooms today still employ the traditional student achievement assessments that have been used for a hundred years. We walk around with personal computers in our hands every day, but we're still using pencil and paper to assess learning. Quizzes, tests and worksheets arguably show the minimum amount of knowledge a student knows on a subject. They cannot show you how the student thinks or their ability to solve problems. They merely show you how they can regurgitate facts or how good they are at guessing. The eenie, meenie, miney, moe method of assessing knowledge is about as useful as a rotary phone in this day and age. What is the solution to multiple choice tests? How do we teach with technology and how do we assess it? 

We know that project based learning which incorporates multiple disciplines, activates and employs different parts of the brain, and engages learners is where education is heading. There is a major disconnection in how we want to teach our students and how the government says they will be assessed. How do you assess project based learning and can those assessments be of value to the student and the teacher? Portfolios are the answer. After projects are completed and products are created the student is called upon to create a portfolio. The minimum requirement of a portfolio is to collect products created over a specific amount of time. After collection occurs then selection must take place using critical thinking skills and perhaps guideline that are either self-imposed or attained from the student's teacher. The selection process allows the student to reevaluate the products created. It is now time to reflect. Reflection of the creative process and products helps the student identify their strengths and weaknesses. They should then develop a strategy to either improve their past work or make improvements in the future. Students will most likely make connections at this point between their learning to other classes, subject, projects, and even life skills.  If the portfolio is well documented then the teacher or professor will be able to assess not just surface knowledge, but the student’s ability to think, reflect, evaluate and make changes. 

As a student I think I would prefer a portfolio as a means of assessment. That is a difficult decision for me. I know that I can read and answer questions. I’m an excellent test taker and it doesn’t take as much time as creating a portfolio, but I love learning, creating and solving problems. At this point in my life, I’ve been out of school for 16 plus years. I have a family and illnesses that I deal with on a daily basis that take so much time and energy. It is difficult not to be practical and choose the option that takes less time and effort. As an educator I would much rather use the portfolio system, but only if it could be sincere and if the students could truly be evaluated on their work.

In my past life, when I was an undergrad student and the internet was still fairly new, I was required to create portfolios for my communication classes. These were the old fashioned kind with paper in a binder. I believe that good portfolios should have the potential to grow with you and expand with your knowledge. My traditional public relations portfolio is collecting dust in a box somewhere at my mother’s house right now. And while it has some potential to grow with me, carrying around a giant binder everywhere isn’t exactly convenient. Eportfolios on the other hand, have an endless amount of potential, not only for growth, but also for different mediums. They also are much easier to share with others. Can you imagine trying to share a paper portfolio with someone in Alaska? What do you do? Make copies of everything? Send the original and just hope and pray that nothing happens to it and the person receiving it sends it back?  Thank goodness for technology!

I took a look at Wikis, which I’d never explored other that Wikipedia, Weebly, and Foliotek for my tech play this week. I loved the idea of a wiki for a group project because it allows you to collaborate with others, but it didn’t seem like the right place for a portfolio. It might be strange, but the site seemed messy to me and didn’t seem like a place to make a professional presentation. I took a more in depth look at weebly this week and started to set up a page for my portfolio. I like how customizable it is and how you can add to it endlessly.  I then went on to Foliotek and began creating a portfolio there. It is proprietary, but only costs ten dollars a year to use the more advanced images and templates. It was fairly easy to use and I really like how easy they make it to share with others and receive their feedback.

If I was asking my students to create an e-portfolio I would have them use weebly or another more kid friendly web based program. Foliotek is a really neat program, but it just wouldn’t work well for elementary students because of the cost.  The tool I would you for my students would be very intuitive and easy for them to operate. I would like them to be able to add content easily. It would also be nice if the templates were easy to read and not too customizable. I know that I can get lost in designing something if I have too many choices, I am sure my students will be the same way. I would prefer their time to be focused on the content.

Please find my new eportfolio at http://www.foliotek.me/KellyParsons.