Journal Post # 11

Chapter #11: Engaging Teachers and Students in Learning and Self-Reflection

Photo credit to Ken Whytock on Flickr

Focus Question #2: How can teachers and students use digital portfolios as tool for learning?

One of the most important parts of the educational process is to have the objective information needed to make a realistic assessment of its effectiveness. How much have the students learned? What skills did they develop? How effective were the instructional strategies, teaching methods as well as the technological procedures used for teachers? Where did they fail? As a teacher, what do I have to change to help  develop the capabilities of each student fully? What are the learning style, preferences and strengths of each of them? We need a realistic feedback to make the changes and improvements necessary to raise teaching-learning process to a higher quality level.

 In this sense, the digital portfolios are an effective way to assess teachers’ and students’ accomplishments. For teachers it is an individually prepared and personalized collection of their work, educational approach, philosophy about education, achievements, goals and expectations. For students it is a computer-based collection of their performance over time.

In my opinion, this tool not only shows students progress, but also increases their engagement; promotes a continuing conversation about learning between teachers, parents, and students; and extends academic lessons beyond school walls. It also offers an opportunity for students to showcase skills and kinds of intelligence that often are not measured on standardized tests and at the same time each of them has the chance to show their creativity and their own personal stamp.

One of the most important ingredients in a portfolio is the student’s reflection on their work. Student reflections help teachers discover and observe what the students are really experiencing, thinking about, questioning, wondering about, trying, and attaining. Therefore, a portfolio provides a more comprehensive view of each student’s learning. As students consistently gather and reflect on their work, educators develop a clear picture of the learning that is taking place and are better able to identify areas that need attention.

Tech Tool Link:  SurveyMonkey

This website offers the possibility to create templates for different surveys, compute the information, analyze the results and send them to wherever we need. This could be a useful resource to involve students in preassessment process and a way for teachers to determine what they know, what skills they have, what they would like to learn and what they think about important academic topics. In this way  teachers could make better decisions about the topics they will teach as well as the methods, procedures, resources and evaluative techniques they will used.   

Summary and Personal Connection: 

For me, a person who come from an underdeveloped country, where teachers still store the information in files, not exactly digital, and these at the same time on shelves made ​​of different materials, the word portfolio evoked the image of a huge folder full of papers, difficult to transport and in constant danger of being eaten by moths. That is why I appreciate so much the great possibilities offered by tools such as digital portfolios for both teacher and students.

I am delighted to know that I can count on these technological resources that support active roles by students in the learning assessment process and enrich their learning. While the paper is static, the digital format has the ability to be updated, improved and enriched constantly, so it is more interactive. In addition, the digital portfolio can identify me as a competent professional and become the key that will open for me new and better employment opportunities.

Photo credit to nathangibbs on Flickr

Reference:

- Maloy, R.W., Verock-O'Loughlin, R., Edwards. S.A.,&Woolf, B. P. (2011). Engaging Teachers and Students in Learning and Self-Reflection. Transforming Learning with New Technologies (pp. 310-313). Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.