This idea -- the students need to take ownership, sift through their learning and make sense of their triumphs and challenges. We feel that this is a VERY meaningful learning experience.
One of the most important aspects for us about portfolios is that reflection happens - putting portfolio together is not just making a checklist - it is thinking about your learning - the metacognition.
Holy Cow! Now I think that I need to create my own digital portfolio! Yikes. This may cause some marital strife ;) I tend to dive into these things and then not come up for air until I am done and it is perfect.
That is great! I kept my portfolio from ETEP and have often shown them my own portfolio. But perhaps creating my own writing portfolio would be helpful and show that this is something that writers do -- not just students.
in other words, a place for gathering all of one’s academic, artistic, athletic, or other achievements from kindergarten to twelfth grade.
As a content area teacher, I use e-portfolios in place of lab notebooks. All the students lab reports are housed in a digital setting. So my goals and vision for e-portfolios are much more singular.
Some students will take the bull by the horns and make the most of the features of the portfolio process and program. Of course others will just go through the motions to get it done. Either way, the process of creating is what's important - the generation of a body of work that the student will consider and the process of accomplishing the task as well.
This is my concern with moving in the direction of an ePortfolio. I've seen this happen with "paper" portfolios time and time again. Lots of work is put into it and when it's finished parents see it as a "keepsake" and still want a "grade". How do we change this culture? How do we assist parent and administrators.
And here’s the thing: He wrote that at the age of 14, in his spare time, at a point when the longest assignment he ever had in school was maybe 500 to 1,000 words. What motivated him? Other gamers. He had written a little bit of the guide and put it online – when he started getting e-mails saying how much other players liked it, were using it and asking when he was going to complete it.
Part of what makes the online environment so powerful, as Prof. Lunsford says, is that it provides a sense of purpose: “[Students are] writing things that have an impact on the world – that other people are reading and responding to.
workshops should begin and end by having people think and write about their learning goals. Workshops and series should be named after learning goals rather than tools.
involves introducing tools not by the unconscionably boring "click-along-with-the-presenter" method, but by giving participants a logical series of steps to perform and having them figure out how to do them through play, exploration, peer and facilitator support.
professional development plans ultimately need to build towards creating environments where teachers are coaching, guiding, supporting and inspiring one another.