Stoicoiu_ePortfolios





Overview:
With the rapid implementation of instructional technology practices, ePortfolios are becoming important tools for learning and assessment in the classroom. Before computers were wide spread in schools, paper-based portfolios were used among artists and other professionals to showcase their work. However, new technologies have enabled teachers and students to present their work in the classroom in a digital format that creates creative and innovative displays of student work and allows them to share their work across a broader audience. The website **Edublogs** is a great resource for students to create ePortfolios that allow for communication between students and the ability to develop technology and media literacy skills. This presentation focuses on the implementation of ePortfolios for assessment and learning, and how to use **Edublogs** to help students make creative and engaging ePortfolios.

I chose to present this topic for my presentation because it is a topic in educational technology that I have really become interested in during the IT Master's Program. My content area is art, so portfolios are a regular practice in art to present student artwork throughout a course, semester, or school year. Many students who wish attend art school also use portfolios during their senior year to select their best work that illustrates their skills and artistic expression. However, these portfolios are done after the learning has already taken place. Therefore, I wanted to learn how I could integrate ePortfolios in my content area so facilitate learning rather than just using them to assess student work. I hope you enjoy my presentation and the resources I have provided!

Introduction to ePortfolios
media type="custom" key="25132188"

**Implementing ePortfolios for Learning and Assessment **
media type="custom" key="25115244"

Developing ePortfolios
media type="custom" key="25115258"

How to Set Up an Edublogs Blog/ePortfolio
media type="custom" key="25133534"

=
Using ePortfolios that are based on assessment for learning is a pedagogical decision. ePortfolios provide students with unique opportunities for learning, encouraging active engagement in the reflection process and making meaningful connections to their work. Implementing ePortfolios is a pedagogical decision because teachers must decide why students are creating ePortfolios, what process they will use to create ePortfolios, and how students will use ePortfolios to improve learning. Because a large part of having students create ePortfolios is the development of 21st century skills, there are several ISTE NETS Standards for Students that align with the use of ePortfolios: =====

**NETS for Students (NETS-S) **
(International Society for Technology in Education, 2013)
 * =====Creativity and Innovation- Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology: =====
 * Integrating hypermedia and multimedia tools allows students to develop creative and innovative ways to present their work in a digital format.
 * By creating an ePortfolio and writing reflections, students are able to construct meaning between their work, knowledge they have gained, and the technology being implemented.
 * Communication and Collaboration- Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others:
 * Students use ePortfolio platforms such as Edublogs, Google Sites, Tumblr, etc., to share work and reflections. Tools that allow for blogging or discussion (such as Edublogs), allows students to communicate and collaborate with one another, providing each other with feedback to improve their learning.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Research and Information Fluency- Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Students have the opportunity to select their own ePortfolio platform that best suites their educational needs.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Students apply their knowledge of multimedia tools to choose the best way to present work in their ePortfolios.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making- Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Students use critical and higher-order thinking to create meaningful connections in their ePortfolio reflections.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Students apply their knowledge of multimedia tools to choose the best way to present work in their ePortfolios.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Digital Citizenship Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Students have the opportunity to learn how to safely share their work online. Many sites such as Edublogs allows students and teachers to control the privacy of the ePortfolios.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Technology Operations and Concepts- Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Students learn how to create and maintain their ePortfolios using a variety of digital portfolio websites and tools.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Content Uses of ePortfolios:
<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Because ePortfolios allow students to digitally record and present their work, they can be used in all grade levels and across disciplines. ePortfolios have a valuable component of interdisciplinary learning: written reflections. These reflections allow students to reflect upon their artifacts and make meaningful connections to the content. ePortfolios that are based on assessment //for// learning (formative) rely heavily on the reflection process to direct learning for students, and help them to improve learning in the classroom. Reflections provide students with opportunities to link language arts to all content areas while developing their writing and communication skills. The website **Edublogs** allows students to turn blogs into their own digital portfolios to share their work, reflections, and collaborate with their peers. With this resource, students are able to continuously improve their learning in any content area with constructive feedback from both teachers and peers.

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Creating ePortfolios provides students with technology and media literacy skills that allow them to create artifacts for any content area. Once students learn how to use ePortfolio websites and various multimedia tools, there are no limits to the types of artifacts students can include in their portfolios. The following examples of ePortfolio artifacts can be integrated in any content area to demonstrate learning:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">documents
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">images and graphics
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">videos
 * <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">audio files

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">A unique feature of the **Edublogs** site is allowing students to post comments to provide feedback for peers on their blog pages. This turns the static ePortfolio or blog site into an interactive discussion forum. Students can provide feedback to peers to help improve learning and progress in all content areas!

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">TPACK:
<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Effectively integrating technology into instruction is a complex process. As teachers, we must be able to understand the interaction between our content, pedagogical, and technological knowledge, and how it influences technology use in the classroom. When integrating technology it is important to know what pedagogical techniques use technologies to effectively teach content to students and how to choose the right technologies to fit instructional and educational needs. When implementing the use of ePortfolios, it is essential for teachers to use the TPACK model to inform them on their technological and pedagogical decisions when teaching content to students.

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">As I mentioned in the presentation, using ePortfolios with students is a huge pedagogical decision. Before choosing ePortfolios as a means to teach students, teachers must determine the learning goals they wish students to achieve. Once teachers are aware of the learning goals, they can better make decisions about what method of teaching (pedagogy) they will use to teach students. ePortfolios offer students with opportunities to develop not only technological skills, but skills that will benefit them in every subject area such as communication, reflective, writing, collaborative, and critical thinking skills. Teachers who are knowledgeable of their content areas should be able to identify these skill building opportunities to identify ePortfolios as their pedagogical choice to integrate technology with their students.

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">In addition to knowing how pedagogical and content knowledge interact when choosing to implement ePortfolios, teachers must posses technological knowledge to help them make decisions about the appropriate technologies to use. Creating ePortfolios is a dynamic process that requires teachers to know about various ePortfolio websites and platforms, media tools, and internet privacy and safety. Teachers can then use this knowledge to choose how students are going to create their ePortfolios so that the technology chosen will help them achieve the learning goals established by the teacher. The website **Edublogs** is a great way for students to create ePortfolios, because it meets the learning goals listed above and adds a special element of allowing students to interact and continually maintain their ePortfolios.

=
<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Edublogs is a friendly, supportive online community for students, students, and schools to share ideas and learn from educators in the field of instructional technology. Edublogs allows for teachers to communicate and collaborate by sharing their blogs and participating in the Edublogs Teacher Challenges. These teacher challenges offer free and ongoing professional development for teachers, taking them through weekly professional learning challenges that increase their skills while being supported by mentors. Topics included in these challenges include student blogging, personal blogging, building you PLN, and free web tools, providing teachers with knowledge and resources that enable them to integrate blogs and other technology learning tools in their classroom. =====

=
<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Searching the teacher blogs in the Edublogs Community page also provides beneficial learning for teachers. This section of the Edublogs site includes a category of teacher created blogs specifically for educational technology topics. Browsing through the teacher blogs, I found endless resources and information that teachers can use to learn best practices for integrating technology. Below are links to some great educational technology blogs I found while searching the site: =====

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">This blog offers a variety of resources for educational web tools and educational mobile apps for teachers and students
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Educational Technology and Mobile Learning **

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">**Teacher Reboot Camp** <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">This blog provides free resources and professional development for teachers. The creator of this blog provides reflections on the technology resources she has used in her own teachers and shares ideas about technology integration.

**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Why choose Edublogs? **
<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">media type="custom" key="25132054"

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Here is a list of great websites and articles I can across while researching ePortfolios!

**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Electronic Portfolios - A chapter in Educational Technology **
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">References:
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Barrett, H. (2006, October). Using electronic portfolios for classroom assessment. //Connected Newsletter//, //13//(2), 4-6. Retrieved from http://electronicportfolios.org/portfolios/ ConnectedNewsletter.pdf Barrett, H. (2003). //Electronic portfolios in education//. Retrieved from http://www.electronic portfolios.com Barrett, H. (n.d.). //ePortfolios: digital stories of deep learning// [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from http: //www.electronicportfolios.org/portfolios/SJSU2.pdf// //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Barrett, H. (2001). //Electronic portfolios - a chapter in educational technology; an encyclopedia//. Retrieved from http://electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/encyclopediaentry.htm// //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Sherman, G. (2005). Electronic portfolios in the k-12 classroom. //Virginia Society for Technology Education//,// 2//(4), 1-7. Retrieved from http://www.vste.org/documents/ve_0204_all.pdf// //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">(2007). Iste standards students. //International Society for Technology in Education//, Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-S_PDF.pdf