Electronic Portfolios

Many of us are familiar with the concept of a student portfolio where student work is kept and archived for evaluation, reflection and future reference. For the last few years, many schools and educators are now starting to look at electronic versions of the “paper” portfolio. The implementation of computer-based portfolios for student assessment is an exciting educational innovation. This method of assessment not only offers an authentic demonstration of accomplishments, but also allows students to take responsibility for the work they have done. In turn, this motivates them to accomplish more in the future. Electronic portfolios allow for the capture and storage of information in the form of text, graphics, sound, and video. Students can save and organize writing samples, solutions to mathematics problems, samples of artwork, science projects, and multimedia presentations in one coherent document.

1. Developmental - A teacher who is interested in documenting a student's improvements in for example writing or mathematics throughout a school year can have the student keep a developmental portfolio. This portfolio would contain samples of the student's work along with self-evaluations of specific assignments. Such a portfolio provides specific documentation that can be used for student evaluations and parent conferences.

2. Proficiency - A proficiency portfolio may be used to prove mastery in a subject area. A school could use a proficiency portfolio as a means for assisting in assessing a student’s grade level ability. The students could have a portfolio, which demonstrate competence and performance in a variety of areas from math and science to language arts. The portfolio would become a vital part of the evaluation process.

3. Showcase - A showcase portfolio documents a student's best work accomplished during a school year. It could include everything from research papers and artwork to science experiments and copies of spelling tests that best represent the student's skills and abilities.

4. Teacher Planning - Teachers may use an existing portfolio system to acquire information about an incoming class of students. The teacher may gain a better understanding of the ability levels of his or her students prior to the start of the school year and plan accordingly. A teacher may find that the existing portfolios have little to do with problem solving and critical thinking tasks, and may therefore design their lessons around the development of these skills...

prospective employee's work readiness skills. Skills and processes used to create a portfolio that are developed in early and middle years will only enhance our student’s ability to compete in a global market, whether that be in the local inland grain terminal or applying for a job with IBM.

An electronic portfolio has the potential to be more than an organized collection of student work. A portfolio should also indicate areas of proposed future growth based upon assessments of past performance and current strengths. These assessments are exhibited in the portfolio as reflections, and they are an essential element of the complete portfolio. Portfolios reveal an in-depth look at our students’ accomplishments and abilities. Unlike other evaluation instruments, a portfolio is as unique as the student that produces it. Although we teach our students the goals and objectives in our curriculums, all of our students achieve and accomplish those goals in different and unique ways. A portfolio allows students to display their individual “learning personality”.

Reflection is more than getting our students to add their best work to their portfolio. Reflection is a process that allows students to better understand themselves as learners. The process of deciding which individual items were selected for the portfolio reveals important indicators as to what is important to the student and the values they place on their work

The process of developing an electronic portfolio is not very different from that of developing a paper portfolio. Three key questions should be asked, before an item is placed in a portfolio. The three key questions are - What did I do? - What did I learn? - What will I do next? Inspiration, the concept mapping software that we use in the division, is a perfect tool to help students answer the three questions. The inspiration document/web that the student produces can be easily linked to the actual “item” in the student’s portfolio, which allows the student’s own reflection to become part of the item, entered.

For students answering the question "What did I do?" involves collecting and selecting work to be included in their portfolios. Collecting is an ongoing process of gathering all materials that the student feels (with teacher support) should be in their portfolio. It does not make sense to select all of the work that a student has done. The electronic portfolio should not only contain the best “work” that exemplifies their skill and expertise, but it must also be of a sufficient size, to accurately reflect the scope of the student’s abilities and accomplishments.

What did I learn is a crucial aspect of portfolios that is often overlooked? The reason it is over-looked, is that it is one of the most difficult questions to answer. Reflection gives the student the opportunity to place each item in their portfolio within the context of their total learning experience. A student who places something into their electronic portfolio should also be able to reflect upon the skills and concepts that they have learned or developed. Once again, Inspiration is the perfect tool for a student to use to “brainstorm” what they learned.

Considering the question "What will I do next?" carries reflection into the future. It is a critical aspect of reflection because it indicates how a student will use what they know about their past performance, to influence how they see themselves growing and developing as learners.

The technology used to produce an electronic portfolio is an intrinsic part of the portfolio, but we need to guard against inflicting ourselves with the burden of learning numerous or difficult new skills in an attempt to make the portfolio more technologically sophisticated than it needs to be. Presentation and production are important elements, but content should remain the primary focus. It is also important to consider the technological skills of the audience and the capabilities of their equipment. In order to be successful, the portfolio presentation must work flawlessly and easily.

At this time the best way for us to create/develop electronic portfolios in the Park West School Division, will be by having students create and maintain an EPORTFOLIO directory on their school network account. Older students will be able to organize their work through an index page that will be hyper-linked to the various projects etc. they have put into their portfolio. Once E-Pearl is on-line, students will very easily be able to post their projects on-line for archiving/sharing/viewing with their parents.