Day 12: Going on the Road

As teachers it is important to remember that you should always adjust your presentations depending on your intended audience. For example, if you are going to present to a young group of students you may want to keep your presentation relatively short and simple. Also, you may want to consider including some type of small or whole group activity that they can complete to get a better grasp of your message.

Day 11 Readings: Portfolios and Assessment

I found this article on portfolio assessment to be really interesting and full of useful information. For example, it was interesting to learn that there are three different types of portfolios that can be used for assessments. Documentation portfolios are used to highlight development over time; Process portfolios document all stages of the learning process, like reflections and higher order thinking skills. Product portfolios mainly focus on showcasing the student portfolio with the student’s best work and can be used as a summative assessment of student mastery. I also liked finding out that there are basically five stages for portfolio development. They include the planning, collection, selection, reflection, and connection stages. I saved the URL to this information in my delicious account because I plan on reviewing at a later time. :)

Day 10: Electronic Portfolios for Students

I really like the idea of storing student progress on a digital portfolio and using it as an alternative assessment. I have always thought that alternative assessments provide much more accurate information in regards to where a student is academically. I especially like the idea for my special education students because you can visually see the growth that has taken place over the course of the school year. I also think that ePortfolios could even be used instead of the current AIMS test. One test, taken for one week out of the school year does not give clear enough data on student progress. Yet so the scores for that one test can make or break a school
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Day 9: Electronic Portfolios

I am really interested in creating an electronic portfolio that I can keep all of my important things in and I was thinking about using my own personal Web Site as the glue, but it seems that many ePortfolios are created with some type of online software. The ePortfolio Web Sites that I have visited all seem to charge a little bit of money to create and host the portfolio.
I was really amazed to see the large selection of ePortfolio articles linked in this article. Unfortunately, it seemed that many of the links were old and no longer in use.
I also read the article written by Dr. Helen Barrett and I was really surprised to see that she wrote it because she is the one who is doing to Google docs portfolios. I think that ePortfolios will become easier and easier to create because more and more companies appear to be in the business of creating ePortfolios.

Day 8: ePortfolios: a portal site

I have never really thought about creating an ePortfolio for myself until today. As I was reading all of our day 8 readings I began to explore the resources available on the ePortfolio portal and found several companies that make it easy for people to create and manage their own ePortfolio. However, most of them were fairly expensive and a little difficult to navigate through. So, I began to look on my own and wouldn’t you know it, Google now has something called Google Pages and you can now author your own ePortfolio using your Google Pages and it’s free!

Day 8: Professional/Teaching Portfolios

ePortfolios are effective tools to record student growth over a period of time. They can be used as an alterative assessment in which students work is assessed from an individual perspective. ePortfolios are also becoming more and more in demand as an admissions process for college applicants. College officials can trace student progress and determine student potential based less on standardized test scores and more on interview, portfolio, and essay submissions. In addition, teachers are now being encouraged to create and maintain an ePortfolio of their best lessons. Such a portfolio could include video footage, lesson plans, classroom management plans, and several other useful artifacts that could be used to determine teacher growth and progress. Typical ePortfolios are constructed with a five-stage process, they include, the conception stage, the collection stage, the selection stage, the reflection stage, and the connection stage. ePortfolios are important because they have emerged during a time when information and knowledge of information is collected, constructed, stored, and assessed in a manner allows people to reflect on learning together.

Day 7: Tips for Different Types of Presentations

In my eyes, the number one rule for any presentation is to be prepared. If I haven’t practiced my presentation through and through I will get nervous, rush through it as fast as I can, and eventually not get my message through in an effective way. In addition to one being prepared, I think the next thing that really tires me out when viewing a presentation is that 98% of them are all lecture. I wish that some presenters would allow time for more interaction with their audience or include the audience in a learning activity. I know that I always learn more by having the opportunity to get hands on practice, not by listening to someone talk about it for an hour. So, perhaps presenters should also work on developing a group activity, or introduce yourself to the person your sitting next to activity. My students appreciate it when I do.