Posts
Wow, what a busy summer you've had! Time to showcase all your hard work!
- Share a link to your Google Site ePortfolio within this comments area.
- Within your Google Site ePortfolio, include at least one artifact and one reflection for that artifact. Note: Your ePortfolio itself can be your main artifact and the subject of your reflection if you are building an ePortfolio to show professional growth. Please upload another artifact either way so you can practice the mechanics of that process.
- Elaborate on why your artifact was selected and its meaning and value in your portfolio.
- What is the artifact's value to Loyola Academy?
- Thinking more broadly, what does your ePortfolio show about your learning and how you have grown professionally from this summer online course?
- What more can you learn on the topic of ePortfolios?
- What suggestions do you have for improving this learning environment?
- Magis: Check out the work of one of your colleagues' posted herein, if any. Comment on one aspect you found valuable and/or interesting and why.
https://sites.google.com/a/loy.org/ms-smycz-s-e121-porfolio-site/
ReplyDeleteI created two tabs - one where students will submit samples of work and comment on it individually, and then one for bigger, more cohesive reflections. I think these are the most important components I want students to think about, so they are the most valuable to me in terms of them keeping a portfolio. I also think this can be a very healthy way for them to track their growth as readers and writers in my class. They can look at this far after they've left my class as well. For that reason, I think this could be a very valuable tool for LA, in that students (and teachers) could longitudinally be looking at student growth and progress. And this is a more authentic way of doing it than standardized testing.
In a more broad sense, the one thing I'm still thinking about is how to add more reflection into the portfolio before and during writing. Perhaps they can brainstorm in their ePortfolios and then make some comparisons between first thoughts and final drafts in their reflections?? I think this professional development, while teaching me the ins and outs of Google Sites, has also reminded me to think about the way I teach writing in order to focus on all steps and parts of the process. With regards to the format, I loved being able to do things at my own pace. If I have any other questions about ePortfolios, I feel like I've been guided to the places that can give me more help. Overall, very helpful PD!
Sandra, thank you for your comprehensive and kind feedback!
DeleteI like how you created two subpages: one, for individual and one for bigger, more cohesive reflections. That is a good way to use the commenting features in Google Sites to fit your needs. If you wanted something more formal, a Blogger class blog is also a consideration.
You're right that the longitudinal view to measure student growth is beneficial. Not only that, it is a great way to align to Jesuit education! Students can definitely take their ePortfolios with them upon graduation, even if their loy.org Google account is deactivated. The mechanics would need to be completed before that happens, of course.
Some more practical thoughts to build on your ideas: For brainstorming during pre- and during-action activities, how about using iPad concept-mapping apps, such as Quizlet, Popplet, Corkulous, or MindMeister?
Something more private? How about students keeping a Notability journal of their work, which they can share with you through Google Drive and ultimately can be posted on the ePortfolio site, as desired? Notability is very versatile because it allows for adding audio notes, photos, drawings, and links, which may be helpful to students.
Something quick & dirty? How about Twitter for collecting the more succinct-type thoughts? Include a #hashtag to keep track of discussion threads. Mike & Teri used it during their research project 4th quarter last year and would also be good resources for more information.
Finally, if you’d like to experiment with Google+ and Hangouts, that is a way to create communication groups, aka circles. I’m playing around with that and could use some daring souls to test it out more fully. What is nice is that is all part of our one loy.org Google account log-in.
I'm glad you found the self-paced format and resources helpful for learning over the summer. Thanks for playing!
Here is the link to the portfolio:
ReplyDeletehttps://sites.google.com/a/loy.org/photographyportfolio
My goal is to have each student use this template. It is still a work in progress. Would I just share the link and they copy it? I have included a section for them to post the finished pieces of each main photography assignment and then reflect on that work. I also included a section to reflect on other photographer’s work. There is a section for them to add resources and a rubric area. As far as the value to Loyola, perhaps some of the best eportfolios' could be shared on the Loyola Web or on the Fine arts web page? I have definitely learned more about how to use this technology. At first this summer workshop looked difficult, but I did finish! It is good to work at my own pace, especially with kids at home. I still have questions, which I assume I can ask in my ipad group. The only other work up so far is Sandra’s. I found it interesting that her goal was also to use eportfolios for her students in a similar way to mine. Maybe we can compare notes as the school year starts. Thanks for posting this online workshop Jan!
Leslie, I'm loving your site! You certainly are making great use of pages & subpages! I also like how you're playing with the page layout. Of course, I'm not surprised, being the artist you are! Once you have some content, the columns will look nice.
DeleteAs for your site being a template, that is possible as well. Part of the value is students will have a common format to follow, and that will help get them going faster. They can also change the colors of the template, to make it a bit more of a creative endeavor, while still preserving the desired content.
For more on making your site a template, available for all of Loyola Academy's Google Apps domain, I might add, please see the instructions here:
https://support.google.com/sites/answer/156651?hl=en
Posting a link to the ePortfolio sites on goramblers is another great idea! Will have to think about the best way to do that, as more content is added.
Congratulations on finishing your summer project! I'm glad you liked the self-paced format, especially since you have young ones at home.
So far, Sandra is the only other to have finished the race. Please reach out to her when you return so you can compare notes. Also, should you have questions about any of this, feel free to contact me.
Thanks for participating in this summer online professional development! Glad you found it useful!
Great thanks Jan! Thanks for all your work on this.
DeleteHere is the link to my super preliminary ePortfolio page, https://sites.google.com/a/loy.org/lopezeportfolio/.
ReplyDeleteGranted, I started late in the game with the creation of an ePortfolio, but my goal in creating this preliminary one was to become familiar with the process so that I can adopt it in my Spanish 3 class. Spanish 3 is where all skills of Spanish language learning collide and gel; lots of reading, writing and speaking. My goal for an ePortfolio is to have a location where students can revise work, reflect on the Spanish writing process and display their efforts. We do a variety of projects, most notably, an artist research project after an intense artist chapter, which will lend itself well to the creative process of maintaining an ePortfolio. I want a place for students to feel proud of their work and come back to in the future. When I was in college, I had to create a webpage using Microsoft FrontPage (I think?) for a Puerto Rican history class, using work and reflections from the semester and I looked back at that page for many years. Also, since this is what I consider to be the hardest year for Spanish, perhaps participating in an ePortfolio would be fun for some while providing real time reflection and assessment.
I'm still learning the ins and outs of the ePortfolio. I somehow deleted my navigation sidebar and couldn't get it back right away, but after some fiddling, I got it back. It's not pretty, not yet, but eventually, if I decide to commit to it fully for the Spanish 3 year, it will come together. The information provided in this course, especially the tutorial videos, were extremely helpful. I added the Artists page and links as an example of a resource page for my students to be able to see other artists work outside of the artist they will choose to research and reflect on.
I'm hoping that the simple act of having to post work online will initiate thoughtfulness in students in their writing process, in that it can't be so last minute and all the world will see. The skills the students and I will be using here will lend themselves to comfort of website creation, the catharsis of personal blogging and making a more interactive relationship with my and other students. My concerns are personal, pedagogical and technological- How much time will I put into maintaining this ePortfolio in comparison to preparing and prepping my other courses? Will I be able to keep up? Will I be spending hours online reading work versus the hours of back and forth on Notability collecting, reading/commenting and returning work versus collecting papers? Is this the most beneficial/efficient way to show student work and for students to reflect? Will the little issues of including Spanish characters become an issue online?
Although late, I did enjoy the information provided and my brief experience with creating ePortfolio. Thank you!