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Overview & Objectives
In 2003, the University of Vermont received a four year grant to study the comparative effects of implementing three discreet approaches to ePortfolio development across five colleges of education. The partners included pre-service teacher education programs that used traditional paper portfolios, highly structured online portfolio builders, and other less structured electronic portfolio development using a variety of technology tools and templates. The multi-level study seeks to determine how the process of using a comprehensive eportfolio tool during teacher preparation influences teacher candidates’ practices and use of technology in P-12 classrooms. The study seeks to establish the extent to which pre-service teachers using the various portfolio strategies:

• Use assessment tools and data to understand P-12 student’s prior knowledge and learning styles so they are effective and skilled in teaching all learners.
• Have a deep understanding of content and can organize information so that it can be quickly retrieved and connected to solve problems and foster new understandings.
• Engage in reflective practice about their teaching and learning and use these same practices with their P-12 students.
• Use a variety of communication tools to promote collaboration, mentoring, and sharing of ideas for social construction of knowledge and enduring understanding.

This session will provide findings from the first three years of the study, including data from comprehensive surveys of faculty and pre-service teachers, scored portfolios produced through a variety of means, and rubric-scored student performances. Insight into the efficacy of various approaches to portfolio development, including strengths and weaknesses for various (and often competing) desired outcomes will be discussed.

Funded in the highly competitive 2003 round of the U.S. Education Department’s Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) program, the University of Vermont’s Portfolio Connection project seeks to bring rigorous inquiry to a field where little has been evident: electronic portfolios. The project focuses on important teaching outcomes related to reflective teaching and complex instruction, and compares the effects on teaching and learning of multiple approaches to the development of electronic portfolios.

The University of Vermont is the lead institution for the study. Participating colleges also include Champlain College, Castleton State College, Lyndon State College, and Johnson State College. The study is being conducted by Arroyo Research Services, a research firm formed in 2005 by Kirk Vandersall, a founding partner of Metiri Group. Additional project partners include IBM, Apple Computer, and the Vermont Department of Education.

Participants in this session will learn:

• Key factors influencing ePortfolio adoption
• How education institutions choose an ePortfolio strategy
• Benefits and pitfalls of some of the leading ePortfolio strategies
• Teacher candidates’ perceptions of the benefits of creating electronic portfolios
• Effects of major ePortfolio strategies on key indicators of teacher quality
• Effects of major ePortfolio strategies on teacher candidates use and adoption of ePortfolio strategies with their own students
• Institutional conditions necessary for success with electronic portfolios
• Role of ePortfolios in the development of teachers’ technology skills

Outline
Brief overview of electronic portfolio strategies
Why focus on these outcomes?
Study questions
Study design
Description of the ePorfolio strategy taken at each campus
• Why adopted
• Prior assessment strategies
Effects on pre-service teachers, by strategy
Effects on institutions, by strategy
What K12 teachers and administrators can learn from the study

Supporting Research
Creating a Community and Continuum of Teacher Education. SITE, March 1-5, 2005, Phoenix, Arizona. Joyce L. Morris, Ed.D., University of Vermont and Jill L. Peck, Johnson State College.

2002 NCATE Review (2002). Conceptual Framework. University of Vermont College of Education and Social Services. (http://www.uvm.edu/~cess/ncate/standards/conceptualframework/cfvissionmissionbeliefs.pdf)

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Barrett, H. (2000, April). Create your own electronic portfolio. Leading & Learning with Technology, [On-line] Available: http://transition.alaska.edu/www/portfolios/iste2k.html

Bransford, J.D., Donovan, S.M. & Pellegrino, (Eds.) (2000). How people learn. Washinton D.C., National Academy Press

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Cambridge, B. (Ed) (2001). Electronic Portfolios: emerging practices in student, faculty and institutional learning. Washington, DC. AAHE,

Campbell D, Melenyzer, B., Nettles, D., & Wymann R. (2000), Portfolio and performance assessment in teacher education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Clark, R. & Estes, F. (1999). The development of authentic educational technologies. Educational Technology, 39(2), 5-16.

Cole, D. J., Ryan, C.W., Kick, F. & Mathies, B.K. (2000). Portfolios across the curriculum and beyond., Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press

Danielson, C., Abrutyn, L. (1997). An Introduction to Using Portfolios in the Classroom. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at: http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/books/danielson97/book.html

Delandshere, G., Arens, S. A., (2003, January/Febuary). Examining the quality of the Evidence in Pre-service Teacher Portfolios, Journal of Teacher Education, AACTE, Vol 54, No. 1 pp. 57-73.

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Hartnell-Young, E., Morriss, M.,(1999). Digital professional portfolios for change, Arlington Heights, IL:Skylight

Hatch, T. (April, 2000). A fantasy in teaching and learning: imagining a future for “on-line” teaching portfolios. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Paper presented at Conference of the American Educational Research Association. [Online] Available: http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/elibrary/docs/fantasyintchandlearn.pdf

Herman L.P.& Morrell, M. (1999). Education progressions:Electronic portfolios in a virtual classroom. T.H.E. Journal, 26(11), 86.

Jonassen, D.H., Howland, J., Moore, J., Marra, R. (2003). Learning to Solve Problems with Technology: A Constructivist Perspective, 2nd Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Jonassen, D.H. (2000) Computers as mindtools for schools: Engaging critical thinking. Upper Saddle River, NJ:Prentice-Hall.

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Olson, R., McKay, D.O., Wentwprth, N., Dimond, D. (2002) Electronic Portfolios in Evolution. SITE Proceedings, Available online at http://www.aace.org/conf/site/pt3/paper_3008_441.pdf

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Wright, C.H., Stallworth, J.B., & Ray, B. (2002). Challenges of electronic portfolios:student perceptions and experiences. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 10(1), 49-61.

Young, J.R. (2002, February 21) Creating Online Portfolios Can help Students See ‘Big Picture’ Colleges Say. The Chronicle of Higher Education) online at: http://chronicle.com/free/2002/02/2002022101t.htm

V-NECC-Virtually Extending NECC Over Time and Place
Findings as developed are being posted in brief articles and research briefs at http://www.uvm.edu/pt3 and http://www.arroyoresearchservices.com. Additionally, a blog is maintained at http://www.arroyoresearchservices.com that prior to the conference will discuss research methodology issues pertinent to the presentation.

Presenter Background & Qualifications
Kirk Vandersall is Director of Arroyo Research Services. Vandersall has over 15 years experience in leading and writing evaluations and policy studies at the federal, State and local levels. He is a contributing author on state education policy in Strategies for Equity: Creating Productive Schools in a Just Society, edited by Marilyn Gittell, and has published and presented at national conferences and seminars on assessing education technology, state education policy-making, state school finance, educational equity, welfare policy, and urban politics. He specialized in State and local policy studies at the Howard Samuels State Management and Policy Center in New York City, where he led state policy studies throughout the country.

Prior to forming Arroyo Research Services, Vandersall was a founding partner of Metiri Group, a national education technology consulting firm, where he was also Practice Leader for Metiri Group Research and Evaluation. In that capacity, he managed a three-year evaluation of the Ohio SchoolNet Telecommunity, was engagement manager for university and foundation initiatives in Vermont, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia and Iowa, advised the U.S. Department of Education and State Education Technology Directors Association, and provided research and evaluation services for state and national clients. For the Milken Family Foundation, Vandersall was research manager for studies of the Miami Dade County Public School System's Instructional Technology Program, the development of an on-line assessment instrument for school technology programs for the Florida Education Technology Corporation, and the development of the instrumentation behind the on-line Professional Competency Assessment.

Vandersall established an office of Assessment and Evaluation for a large urban school district in Los Angeles County, evaluated a major K-12 math and science initiative funded by the National Science Foundation, taught graduate-level policy analysis and evaluation, and has been a research and evaluation consultant for foundation, nonprofit and corporate projects in education, healthcare and urban policy.

Joyce L. Morris, Ed.D., is the Principle Investigator and Project Director of the Portfolio Connection A PT3 2003 grant examining the impact of eportfolio use with pre-service teachers and its impact on teacher practice. For two years she served as state representative in an initiative with IBM to construct and test a new portfolio tool for use with both the K-12 and pre-service educational community in Vermont. She serves as an Assistant Professor of Research at the University of Vermont and is Coordinator of the Master's of Education in Educational Technology, Curriculum & Instruction Concentration. Her former role as Professional Development Coordinator in a previous PT3 grant helped build technology capacity at the University of Vermont, so there was a strong base upon which to build eportfolio implementation. Professor Morris has presented at AACTE, SITE, NECC, and annual PT3 meetings to share and publish her experience and findings in developing and using eportfolios for assessment and learning.

Sandra A. Lathem is a Research Associate for the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont (UVM) and is the Professional Development Coordinator for The Portfolio Connection grant, a research initiative studying the impact of electronic portfolios on teacher practice. She is also actively involved in the creation of an online master's degree program in educational technology within UVM's Graduate College. Ms. Lathem has worked as an Educational Technology Coordinator and consultant in Vermont school districts, was instrumental in creating VITA-Learn, an organizational affiliate of ISTE, and has been an advocate for K-12 technology integration in Vermont since 1992. Ms. Lathem currently serves on the Vermont State Technology Advisory Board. She received her Masters of Education in Professional Development, Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Vermont in 1995. She is currently enrolled in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies doctoral program at UVM.

Prerequisites
n/a

Referenced Web Links (URLs)
http://www.uvm.edu/pt3
http://www.arroyoresearchservices.com