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Dr. Helen Barrett shows how portfolios can be used as reflective work tools and and also to report out on student learning--two different purposes obviously.This is a follow-up to the discussion led by Jean Berthiaume at our Rowland Fellows Meeting this week. Here is her lecture on the topic: http://blip.tv/eportfolios/balancing-the-two-faces-of-eportfolios-3162109

I wonder if there could be some mutual advantages of a high school and a college working together on a framework around ePortfolios?

This Google Site has been set up by Dr. Helen Barrett to focus on the use of Google Apps to create ePortfolios. On this site, there are instructions on how to use the different elements of Google Apps to maintain e-portfolios.

Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL) Monday, July 16, 2012 Boston, MA "This Institute will launch a conversation among educators and enable participants to raise questions and examine issues about the implementation of eportfolio programs for K-12 teaching, learning and beyond."

Website also has significant amount of information, resources, and exemplars re for those engaged in ePortfolio work.

"...the key to understanding ePortfolios is realizing that what you're looking at is a supporting technology that opens up an enormous range of potential for evidence-based learning."

"Here are 5 reasons why we are making student blogging and portfolio development a high priority."1. Positive digital footprints2. Communicating with digital tools3. Transparency for parents and family4. New ways of thinking about Web tools5. Effective digital citizenship++Their world view is changing

It would be interesting to see a group of teachers collaborate over the course of a semester in having each of their students create their own blog. This collaboration wouldn't require common planning / interdisciplinary assignments, but having a common theme to connect the content would make sense.

"What if students instead came to each course or classroom with a digital backpack of data about their learning levels, preferences, motivations, and personal accomplishments? How would this improve each teacher's ability to tailor learning to meet the needs of individual students? What if parents and students could easily access their child's records to share the information with afterschool providers? How would all of the personalization this affords add up to deeper learning and improved college and career readiness?"

The experience of using portfolios in the past may lead to some push back from veteran educators. Reframing ePortfolios as tools to help them might be a good way to begin a process of an indiscernible evolution rather than attempting to implement sudden change. ~jf

"What do teachers wish they knew about new students? In what environment do they learn best? Are they meeting the standards in key areas like math, reading and writing? What goals have they identified for themselves? What level of support do they have at home? Do they participate in any community programs or organizations? Do they do best when working alone or with peers? What are their outside interests that I can use to motivate learning? Is there anything in their learning history that I should flag for follow-up or special attention? What did other teachers note about their strengths and challenges?"

"This is the workspace for an online course Introduction to E-Portfolios in K-12 Schools, developed by Dr. Helen Barrett."

Nice rationale for the advantages of ePortfolios for today's students. I think tit's interesting that the author's arguments for using them with 6-year olds are the same as mine for using them with 16-year olds...

"Internships came back as the most important thing that employers look for when evaluating a recent college graduate," says Dan Berrett, senior reporter at the Chronicle. "More important than where they went to college, the major they pursued, and even their grade point average."

What does this mean for high school students? If colleges are looking at putting more students in internships themselves...will they recruit students who already have some level of experience in an internship during high school?

"We are moving away from the model in which learning is organized around stable, usually hierarchical institutions (schools, colleges, universities) that, for better and worse, have served as the main gateways to education and social mobility. Replacing that model is a new system in which learning is best conceived of as a flow, where learning resources are not scarce but widely available, opportunities for learning are abundant, and learners increasingly have the ability to autonomously dip into and out of continuous learning flows."

Traditional summative functions. This is using badges to indicate that the earner previously did something or knows something. This is what the educational assessment community calls assessment of learning. Newer formative functions. This is where badges are used to enhance motivation, feedback, and discourse for individual badge earners and broader communities of earners. This is what is often labeled assessment for learning. Groundbreaking transformative functions. This is where badges transform existing learning ecosystems or allow new ones to be created. These assessment functions impact both badge earners and badge issuers, and may be intentional or incidental. I believe we should label this assessment as learning

"A badge is a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, quality or interest that can be earned in any of these learning environments. Badges can support learning, validate education, help build reputation, and confirm the acquisition of knowledge. They can signal traditional academic attainment or the acquisition of skills such collaboration, teamwork, leadership, and other 21st century skills."

Great exploration of types/kinds of badges and badge characteristics/skill set indicators.

"Like diplomas, credentialing is a market signalling activity -- credentials tell the world what you know and can do. With all of the new learning options, it is becoming more important to have widely recognized means to show what you know and can do."

This is the evolution of education. Certificates of Focus, online learning, competency-based learning, internships, ELOs...the signs are everywhere. It is just going to take a school with the guts to blow up the system and make real and deep changes.