This session will provide participants with access to Web 2.0 tools (including, GoogleDocs and Apps) available for free on the Internet to facilitate assessment FOR learning (classroom-based assessment) in electronic portfolios. A special emphasis of this workshop will be to focus on creating ePortfolios that demonstrate the new ISTE NETS-S and the 8th grade technology literacy.

An electronic portfolio provides an environment where students can: collect their work in a digital archive; select specific pieces of work (hyperlink to artifacts) to highlight specific achievements; reflect on the learning demonstrated in the portfolio, in either text or multimedia form; set goals for future learning (or direction) to improve; and celebrate achievement through sharing this work with an audience, whether real or virtual. When used in formative, classroom-based assessment, teachers (and peers) can review the portfolio document, and provide formative feedback to students on where they could improve.

In implementing portfolios, artifacts are selected by students to tell the story of their learning. The portfolio is maintained throughout a class, term or program. The portfolio and artifacts are reviewed with the learner and used to provide feedback to improve learning. The primary audience for a formative portfolio is the student and often their parents in student-led conferences. The focus is on formative assessment. What are the learning needs in the future? How has the learner improved over previous work? When used for formative assessment, these types of portfolios have the potential to improve student self-esteem.

I have come up with a new look at ePortfolios from the framework of Web 2.0, which I will call ePortfolio 2.0. Just as Web 2.0 changed with the architecture of interaction, we could say that portfolios have the potential to change with the pedagogy of interaction, especially as used within a paradigm of assessment for learning. With these new tools, we can post work and invite feedback; we can post work and invite co-authors. Fortunately, most of these tools keep track of the changes, so that authorship can be tracked, if that is important for accountability.

The use of technology can motivate students to use portfolios, especially if we make the process engaging for the learners. We must give them an opportunity to express their own voice and leave their own mark in their portfolios. As schools implement electronic portfolios, it will be important to do more than replicate their paper-based predecessors or adopt a database-type portfolio system that only allows students to fill in blanks on a Web-based form. Where is the individuality, creativity, and ownership, as identified in the NETS-S? To truly engage learners, schools need to incorporate emerging technologies that motivate and engage adolescent students.

We have seen how much students are motivated to use online social networking sites, such as MySpace and FaceBook. If we capture that level of motivation while furthering the goals of learning in formative electronic learning portfolios, then we may realize the real promise of using technology to both improve and showcase student achievement.

At the end of this workshop, participants will:
- become familiar with creating an interactive web-based portfolio using Web 2.0 tools that demonstrate the ISTE NETS-S
- have experience providing feedback on work posted to a Web 2.0-based portfolio

Outline

Outline

Introductions and Needs assessment – 15 minutes
Overview of the pedagogy of Interaction:
What is the Interactive Web (Web 2.0)? – 15 minutes
What is an Interactive Portfolio and how does it differ from a paper-based portfolio? (ePortfolios 2.0) – 15 minutes
How do Interactive Portfolios support Classroom-Based Assessment for Learning to improve student achievement? (15 minutes)

Learning to use the tools:
What are blogs and wikis, and how can I use them for classroom-based assessment? – a tour of the best options for schools (60 minutes)
What are GoogleDocs? How do they work? – a tour of the tools (30 minutes)
Hands-on session: Creating an electronic portfolio demonstrating the ISTE NETS for Students using GoogleDocs or your favorite blog/wiki (90 minutes plus lunch break)

Hands-on experience implementing the pedagogy of interaction with Web 2.0 tools:
Commenting and discussions in blogs and wikis (15 minutes)
Providing feedback to others’ GoogleDocs Document with comments and collaborative editing– (30 minutes)
Providing feedback to others’ GoogleDocs Presentation in live online chat and feedback– (30 minutes)

Conclusions and questions. (30 minutes)

Supporting Research

The research conducted in the United Kingdom (Black & Wiliam, 1998) provides firm evidence that "formative assessment is an essential component of classroom work and that its development can raise standards of achievement" more effectively than any other strategy.

The existence of an accessible archive of authentic student work can provide valuable data for school improvement. For the students themselves, the effect of maintaining a reflective portfolio has the potential to support deep learning and ownership of the learning process. The use of technology-based productivity tools has become widespread; most of the work of students now passes through or is finalized in electronic form or can be converted easily into digital documents. This development and the availability of web-accessible portfolio tools and secure web-based storage of data, create the dual opportunity inherent in the design of interactive portfolios.

By adding interactivity to ePortfolios, teachers and students have a powerful tool to facilitate communication about student learning, providing the feedback that Black and Wiliam found to be essential to improve student achievement.

The presenter recently published the preliminary results of her nation-wide study of the implementation of electronic portfolios in high schools in the peer-reviewed Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy published by the International Reading Association (March 2007), and a final report is under development. This research validates the importance of creating online environments where students can showcase their work to support reflection and learning.

Presenter Background

The author is a recognized international expert on Electronic Portfolios, having researched the topic since 1991. She has made presentations at numerous national and international conferences on this topic, and publishes an internationally-known web site on this topic: http://electronicportfolios.org. For four years, she worked with ISTE under a federal Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to use Technology (PT3) Catalyst grant to support technology and assessment in Teacher Education programs. For the last two years, she has been conducting research on high school e-portfolios. She conducted an informal research project since the fall of 2004, recreating her own professional portfolio using over 30 different online systems, services, and strategies. She has published refereed journal articles on her research, chapters in several books, and a new chapter in the revised version of the online book, Coming of Age: Web 2.0 in Education. She is currently providing training and consulting for the state of New Hampshire on implementing electronic portfolios to demonstrate the 8th grade technology literacy requirement.