One of my graduate professors told us in a research class that we, as graduate students ought to select our research projects wisely because we will have to eat, sleep, and dream what we are working on. In other words, the message was that we should be committed to what we intend to study. I took those words to heart and am glad that I chose this endeavor. The development of the K-12 Electronic Portfolio Project has been and will continue to be my passion for some time to come. Because we live in California, the home of the silicon microchip (and earthquakes), I thought the research for this project would abound with information on how electronic portfolios are currently being used in K-12 schools. Surprisingly, I learned that the implementation of electronic portfolios is growing exponentially, but the research has not caught up with the usage. This is a wide- open field for educational researchers in particular classroom teachers.
To use an analogy of an earthquake, what I learned is that near the epicenter is where the earth shakes the least. The further one is away from the center the greater the magnitude. I found many of the schools further north and east seem to have gotten into the K-12 electronic portfolios well ahead of the west coast schools with the exception of some schools in Alaska, Oregon, and a small but growing number in California.
One can look at many variables such as size of state, demographics, or spending per student, and find we have much room for improvement in all areas in our own state of California. A focal point such as portfolio development to be followed by electronic portfolio documentation is a worthy endeavor and a way to capture the wisdom of the different ways students learn and reveal knowledge.
Electronic portfolio documentation is a student-centered activity that is an inviting way to engage students in higher order thinking, decision-making, problem-solving and cooperative education. One by-product is technological fluency, putting knowledge into practice while enhancing their learning. Living in a digital world, students are naturally inquisitive and savvy about computers when given the opportunity to learn. K-12 students can be given an advantage as they go up the grades by developing or participating in the selection process of their artifacts of their electronic portfolio. They also demonstrate their skills with cutting edge technological tools when used effectively in their education, students and their teachers show what they are doing right.
The main search for this project confirmed that there is a dearth of examples and literature on the topic of electronic portfolios at the K-12 level. However, as of this writing, electronic portfolio search engine "hits" seem to be growing exponentially. Much of the literature centers around the discussion of traditional portfolios that have been dormant or in slow development for many years are being resurrected with the arrival of the electronic portfolios. Digital or electronic portfolios currently in development seem to be geared more towards the student teacher, career placement or presentation purposes. The demand for accountability from elementary schools on up through university level is highlighting this as a useful tool to meet standards, gauge academic progress, and record the areas discussed in this thesis. More articles need to be written about K-12 through university level applications as the interest in this subject grows.
Presently, the market is becoming saturated with more of the "do it yourself" types of articles such as "how to create electronic portfolios." Again, this literature is geared for the working adult, professional development, or student teacher with technology background. Little information was found that precisely focuses on the development of the K-12 electronic portfolios and issues relative to curriculum applications and designs. One may extrapolate the information and design one's own K-12 electronic portfolio from the information in the literature, as it exists today, however, at the present time participants may be considered pioneers in this effort. Currently, there are interest groups developing networks. One recently started is an E-Folio News Group hosted by Yahoo. One may contact the moderator, Dr. Helen Barrett, and subscribe using the following e-mail address: efolios@yahoogroups.com.
A suggestion in designing ones'
own electronic portfolio from scratch would include the investment
of time in learning the software mentioned in Chapter III and
"factor in" the individual learning curves. Ideally,
there may be software on the horizon just as the ink on this paper
dries that will combine all of the tools into one easy to use
program that may be more intuitive, easy to understand and follow
than what we use today. Macromedia's Dreamweaver with Flash and
Fireworks is the closest product currently on the market that
combines all into one program. Many applications are integrated
with this software, although it has a steeper learning curve for
new or inexperienced users of technology. Newer designs are on
the horizon, however, until that ideal software comes along, there
are templates already designed and used by educators to meet their
individual classroom or school's curricular needs. There is a
wealth of knowledge and experience already collected that others
may draw from in developing their own electronic portfolios. For
that purpose I have collected some of the templates in this Electronic
Portfolio Web site, I found to be useful and believe helpful in
this effort
(http://webfolios.home.netcom.com/Templates/Templates.html).
Templates do save the users time from having to start from "scratch" if the templates meet their needs. Some of the templates are easy enough for savvy elementary school children to use from the first day. Students will have little difficulty transitioning from paper forms to computer templates that are essentially the same concept with the exception of keyboard skills and using a mouse.
With practice most students and teachers can have their electronic portfolios up and running in no time. Filamentality, one of the templates produced by Pac Bell, even offers Web space for schools that do not have servers. Of course, there is a supposition of students having a technology background. This can be approached two ways. (1) One can teach keyboarding skills and then give the students opportunities to develop their e-folios. (2) Students can learn computer skills while applying what they learn to develop their e-folios. I found that learning computer skills such as keyboarding has to be built in from the very beginning as much as possible or the skills will take longer to learn later, because of hunt and peck habits developed initially. To learn the keyboard is slow going at first but it is worth the effort in the long run. I gave my students a real size cardboard copy of their keyboard to take home and practice. Student that used it, reaped the rewards. The incentive comes in their fast typing, other students see the results and they too start to practice the keyboard.
One other feature that must be mastered by all learners navigating computers is the "save" feature, naming files, and accessing files, creating and/ or maintaining folders. To make it easy for all my students, I put their files on specific computers so they could see their name with an icon right on the desktop to access files or the main program being studied with ease. Generally, the computers had an animal beanie baby that sat on top of the monitor. Monitors can also have different screen savers to help students remember what computers they were working on. Younger students need reminders, if not the work ends up being saved on different machines. Another skill they learned was to save their work on a floppy disk that can be filed away and taken out when they were ready to work on their projects. In that manner they work on any machine and take responsibility for their work.
The next generation of computers has already made its debut, the wireless systems. No longer do teachers need to feel separated from their students with a large monitor in front of them tied to endless wires. We are seeing more and more schools going wireless with smaller unobtrusive devices like, laptops, electronic notebooks, such as Alpha Smarts and Handhelds like Palm Pilots, iPAQ, and other Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). Most teachers would prefer not to have something large like a monitor between them and their students. These smaller smart devices are increasing as the microchip becomes more miniaturized. Today it is possible to have "smart classrooms" with teacher monitored command stations that connect to every student's computer in the classroom. Teachers can direct attention to a specific item on monitors to a single student, a group of students without distracting the class or to the whole class with digital projection. We will see more computer desk systems with flat screens so the student desktops can be flat with nothing on them or have a system inside that can be adjusted and viewed with ease when preferred for instruction.
The possible uses and applications of electronic portfolio development in a classroom are limitless. They can be geared towards cross-curricular or a specific curricular area, such as literacy portfolios with examples of the different writing genres for specific grade level objectives. From the language arts curriculum, an educator can spiral into integrating the social studies, science, and math quite naturally while keeping language arts the main focus. Once a desired program is implemented integrating the rest of the curriculum will become easier to adapt into an electronic portfolio system. Start small and fine tune as the electronic portfolio process is mastered through scaffolding seems a wise course to follow. All of these forms appeal to the multiple intelligences of student's and supports the constructivist's learning model.
Another feature built into to this K-12 Electronic Portfolio Web site is that there are a number of very good examples of teacher designed Web sites that have been paving the way by posting their own students' digitized work on the Web. I have found these teachers very responsive and willing to answer questions concerning their process and product. Most of the teachers selected for this project can be contacted directly through their e-mail addresses on this Web site. http://webfolios.home.netcom.com/Who's_done_this/Who's Done This Before.html
I will continue collecting Web examples, as these examples will shed new light on the process of electronic portfolio development. By blending the low tech with high-end technology a synthesis emerges. Just as I used the low tech available many years ago, such as tape-recorded cassettes, newer technology can facilitate digitization. Technology can breathe life back to special learning opportunities from long ago that demonstrate the different ways of learning and knowing of students. Teachers are resourceful adaptors and will continue to blend the technologies available to them today to support and celebrate the learning experiences of their students. This process can bridge the theory of Multiple Intelligences and the constructivist's learning model that supports brain research of how we learn. All of these resources combined, may be useful to educators as they develop curriculum that acknowledges their students talents, and guide their students' education to promote and enhance their metacognitive skills (http://webfolios.home.netcom.com/Samples/Student Work Samples.html)
Today documentation can be interfaced with digital cameras, digital camcorders, and software that have built-in presentation designs like Kid Pix Studios, Hyper Studio, Power Point, Dreamweaver, etcetera. Current software like Adobe Acrobat 5, Microsoft Word, and other products on the market today allows for making document transfer right into a Web page with relative ease.
The iMac comes with iMovie already part of the computer's software bundle. One school's digital video camcorder can serve many classrooms in a school. Also the prices of digital camcorders are dropping as the technology is accepted and moves through the mainstream economy. This K-12 Electronic Portfolio Web site will continue to be developed and refined as needed to help educators develop their own E-folios. Hopefully, this will also inspire others to fill the void for further study, research, and share examples of what is working in their classroom. Inquiry-based classroom research is a growing field, and who would be better researchers then the teachers in the classrooms? Teachers are natural observers, and much can be gained in this field to develop software applications, and to address curricular needs and standards-based assessment while keeping the whole learner in mind.
This Web site can serve as a virtual meeting place for teachers with similar interests or who simply want to learn what other educators are doing in this arena. This can take the form of Listserve groups like the E-Folio Group mentioned earlier designed with the student teacher in mind. Another option can be an E-Folio Listserve geared towards specific K-12 electronic portfolio design questions, answers with shared experiences. This cyber E-Folio meeting lounge through Yahoo Groups or any other educational groups would be an ideal place for exchange of ideas. Teachers that specialize in technology are sharing what software or strategies are working for them. The E-folio Yahoo Groups and related listserves are a good place to problem solve and learn from more experienced users.
As most teachers are busy throughout the school year, it is very hard to get out and network with teachers of like-mindedness; sometimes it can be lonely not to be able to share great ideas or get new ones. Sometimes the anonymity of the Internet makes it easier for teachers to take a risk and share thoughts that they may not feel free to do so in their own staff lounge. This electronic portfolio can afford teachers many possibilities and the shape it takes in the future will come from the teachers that participate in this effort. Participation helps teachers to network thus promoting-teachers helping teachers.
This K-12 Electronic Portfolio Web site designed for this Master's action project is what may be considered a prototype for electronic portfolio development. The information about electronic portfolios development for K-12 students is based on the selected materials found within this project, however, the potential inherent resides with its users. The search for implementation of an electronic portfolio system has lead me to the realization that electronic, or digitized K-12 students' portfolios are at best in an embryonic stage and have a great potential for growth and development. As more educators experiment with electronic portfolios, develop and apply software with a user-friendly "wysiwyg" (what you see is what you get) interface, then so will the usage increase.
For the more technically inclined software developers that are not educators, there needs to be more articulation and dialogue about what are the educational needs and uses in the classroom. There is already an abundance of software that is designed to attract but not deliver substance. In addition, educational software designers should perhaps observe and work more closely with students and see what works for them. The best of all worlds would be teachers working with students to design electronic portfolios for their own classrooms, school sites, and districts.
For those less technically inclined the best recommendation would be to attend technology conferences and workshops in their districts, county offices of education, communicate with technology teachers. Summer institutes of technology are one way to immerse oneself in the process. National conferences like the National Educators in Computing Conference or NECC, Association for Computing Machinery or ACM, Computer Users in Education or CUE, and Classroom Connect all offer educational programs geared for the classroom teacher. Sometimes we need to look outside of our parochial environment to understand and affect change. It is never too late to learn. Currently, more professional conversations include how portfolios are being used in the schools. In the near future the term "electronic portfolio" will probably be a redundant term because the term portfolio will mean it is already electronically captured material.
What parent does not want the best for their child? We too as teachers want the best for our students. The interpretation of what is "best" sometimes gets confused with all the choices that come across our path. There is no question that the saying, "it takes a village to raise a child" is taking on a new meaning in our media-centric world. Our children look to us for guidance and inspiration. We are no less being challenged in our way of thinking and viewing the different ways of learning, knowing, and teaching. We can avoid change for a time, but change cannot avoid us. We are being affected by the growing technology and its applications. We can put our heads in the sand, but we cannot stop change. Change is inevitable, but growth is optional.
Someone once said, "rarely is change initially embraced." Initially, there was skepticism about the telephone, the television, and no less for the computer and, of course, its applications. Fortunately, we have many talented educators who have a vision and see the positive ways of looking for and showing the many talents our students possess. Our village has to support all the students. How are we supporting the budding Thomas Edisons, Albert Einsteins, Duke Ellingtons, Martha Grahams, Picassos, Tiger Woods, Mahatma Ghandis, Julia Morgans, Jonas Salks and the ordinary students that will do the extraordinary things?
Children are in our midst right now that will lead the way for what we all hope will be a better world regardless of what their occupation, or station in life. They need guidance and support, for a new way of looking at and thinking about our world, as well to be given the tangible and intangible tools to work with. Besides becoming educated, contributing citizen of a global community, students will be expected to have technological fluency because it is the way of the future. However, teachers in the classrooms need support of administrators, to have the tools to prepare our students. Besides the modern day pencil and paper they need the training to keep abreast of not only how students learn, but also adjusting to the educational revolution of integrating technology into the curriculum. Administrators need support too. They need support from parents to ensure that their children get the very best education possible, alongside trained teachers, and materials. This means that parents must be informed of what the educational requirements of their children including their neighbor's children are in the schools. They need to be mindful of what is expected of their children and what is on the horizon that affects educational policies. These are no less important as what they can do to help their children at home. It does take an entire global village to educate a child.
Education is being challenged
by a new paradigm. We need to continually examine our pedagogies,
look forward to how we are teaching and preparing ourselves as
well as our students for the new millennium. The early 21st century
will assuredly go into the history books as a revolutionary turning
point in the practice of education around the world. We have
gone from "fire, pointed sticks, printing press to Internet."
Technology within the topic of electronic portfolios is just
another tool to change our environment. The electronic portfolio
will undoubtedly become an increasingly important asset to schools,
teachers, students, and many individuals as we head into the Digital
Age.
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