Tech Play 2

Eportfolio Tools

Stanford University says Folio Thinking is a reflective practice that situates and guides the effective use of learning portfolios, defined as a purposeful collection of artifacts that characterize the learning experiences of the portfolio owner.

  

Portfolio assessment and standard classroom tests are diverse ways to measure a student's academic progress. In a portfolio assessment, students may present essays, cases, projects and other work developed over a particular time period or the course of their grade school career. On the other hand, classroom tests require students to display what they have learned in a specific component or semester in a class.

Standard classroom tests are a common way for teachers to measure whether students have learned the material being taught in class. Portfolios allow students to have a more original way to showcase their experiences and academic progress than formal assessments. While schools and teachers occasionally trust a portfolio assessment to be better for their students, numerous still use testing to align with state and national standardized testing programs that assess school performance.

What do I choose?

Based on the short time I have been in the workforce I have noticed that what is on your resume’ is what determines if you are interviewed or offered any position. Companies look at different aspects to determine if you are a proper fit for their company/position. They may be looking for certain degrees, GPA, work history and/or knowledge of systems. A resume’ is somewhat a screenshot of a portfolio, you place every significant accomplishment on a sheet for someone else's review. With that said i see it more beneficial for an individual to want to be assessed by “articulating what you know and have learned about educational technology from your academic, professional, and other experiences and providing evidence of that learning with a collection of artifacts you’ve created.”

As a current graduate student I would prefer my knowledge to be assessed the same way (articulating what you know and have learned about educational technology from your academic, professional, and other experiences and providing evidence of that learning with a collection of artifacts you’ve created). Since I am older and have experienced different things I believe that if that my experiences should factor into how I am assessed not by what a test may say about me. What would be the point of my professional accomplishments if they are never looked at and given insight in my career goals?

Identify Technology Affordances

Physical portfolios and eportfolios deliver the same content quality. More time and effort may be spent with the development of an eportfolio rather than that of a physical portfolio.

Although, there are many options on the route you use to make an eportfolio I find that a wiki may work best for me. I’m new to blogging as well as creating an eportfolio and from my research I find that wiki’s are more user and beginner friendly for someone like myself. Like many individuals, I love for many to see my success and for less people to see my failures and wiki’s present the option for who I may allow to view my post/work. I would someday hope to create my own website (just to say I did it).

Shift context/perspective

For my students sake I would still choose for them to be assessed based on a portfolio rather than a test. I do understand that the test would possibly be best for right now however, they may do better in the future if they learn how to present their knowledge hands-on. Lets face it, it is hard to get any type of occupation with out hands on experience. Sometimes the workforce does not care if you’re a great test taker but rather can you do the job. If we teach our students early that they should be more concerned about perfecting their craft rather than using testing strategies they may be more prepared for the work force ahead.

Since, I work with students in a computer lab on the daily basis already, I see that many of them are on different technology levels. This makes the process difficult for choosing what tool would work best in my classroom. Some students already have their own websites created and blog daily. While others may not even know that they have the resources to create a website or anything close to it. As a teacher I don’t want to teach students or use tools that I myself am not familiar with as of yet. If I had the choice I would choose to start with wiki’s and gradually move towards something more advanced.

Personally, I recognized (fortunately at an early age) that you must be more than “book smart” to get a job. Occupations look for a well-rounded person. And despite a job that may ask for a “recent grad” or claim “no experienced needed” they always want you to bring something to the table that their company does not already possess. I teach my students to make sure they take every opportunity they can to learn everything they can whether they feel it will be useful in the future or not.

Until we meet again...