Teacher in Development

To continue my exploration into ePortfolios, I stumbled upon this:e-Portfolios@UBC Project Portfolio thanks to a post over at the elearnspace blog.

If you’re at all interested in ePortfolios, this is an amazing find. I know where I’ll be hanging out for a while.

One spot I really enjoyed was the Lessons Learned section. They suggest some great tips to help teachers help themselves and students get into “folio thinking.”

In my discussions with J.M., and watching his own pd blog roll out, we’ve been discussing some very similar ideas: the vital importance of modeling.

Dr. Helen Barrett comments on the importance of the teacher modeling portfolio development, where :

“If teachers develop electronic teaching portfolios, their students will be more likely to have their own electronic portfolios.”

I have been suffering from a lack of modeling. It seems that this is the only way to go if you want to introduce something new - specially technology related - to students or teachers. But modeling has been something I’ve not practiced, up until now. But not only modeling - where I show an example of how I’m doing it already, but also bringing in realia around ePortfolios and Reflective processes.

Show students more examples of e-Portfolios before they begin.

Show students more examples of reflection before they begin.

Wow. Show AND Tell. Not just tell. Thismorning I started telling my legal English group about portfolios. They were enthusiastic about our new direction, but I see now how vital it is to not only tell them about porfolios: what they are, what they do etc., but to also find and show examples [Teacher portfolio example, Web developer example, another teacher’s portfoli ] so they can see what they look like, what they could include in their own etc. >> Hello action step.

I also really agree with the idea of integrating ePortfolio work into course content as “a value added exercise, rather than just another assignment to complete.” - ePortfolio or portfolio work of any kind is valuable. But our students need to be aware of the value too. To me that means I need to take more time around educating my class on what a portfolio is, and how it can help development.

There must also be a fair grade assigned to portfolio development. Portfolios are complex and intensive beings, the grade should reflect that. (Assigning a grade could also help student motivation in some cases.)

What I’ve been ranting about for a while now: “Instructional Design 101: Know your learners!” Portfolios align to competencies, but are very much student centered development tools - they choose what to include and why. (Though there seems to be some negotiation around that between teacher and student.)

I know you’re out there: How have you been using portfolios in your work? Join the conversation…