Journal Entry #11, Chapter 11: Engaging Students in Performance Assessment and Reflective Learning

Focus Question: How can teachers and students use digital portfolios as tools for learning?

For teachers, digital portfolios are helpful in two ways.  The first is that is allows them to save material that will help them with current and future classroom instruction.  Just as in this class, where we are saving website and bookmarking them for later use, teachers can do the same.  This enables them quick access to material that was helpful to them.  This makes lesson planning and information gathering much quicker, saving the teacher time, but not taking away from the quality of instruction.

The second way is that can show a sort of time-line of the growth of a teacher, not only for themselves, but for being evaluation purposes.  Anyone can see how far a teacher has come and how the quality of work has increased.  From their resume to their accomplishments, a digital portfolio will help in all aspects of teaching and evaluating.

Students also use digital portfolios for the same basic reasons as teachers do, to keep their work and show what they have done and to show their progress.  This helps with performace reviews and helps the teachers, students and parents work together to know what needs to be worked on and what the student has mastered. 

Tech Tool 11.2

Tech Tool 11.2 explains what Polls & Survey sites and Apps are available to use for educational purposes.  For instance, one of my recent Sunday School classes used a poll on SurveyMonkey to see if the students liked the lessons that had been taught that month.  Other sites such as Zoomerang can be used and offers so many different types of surveys and options to formulate the exact type of survey needed.  Sites like this can make it more fun and engaging for students.  Students can use these sites to do their own surveys and incorporate it in their projects and assignments using real data they collect from the surveys and their peers.

Summary & Connection

Chapter 11 goes over the topics of student assessments and the use of digital portfolios for both students and teachers.  I believe Performance based assessment is the best tool for evaluation as it allows for us to see the real application of the knowledge learned throughout the year.  Seeing what a student has learned through actual applied work and assignments shows how well they have grasped the concepts of the lessons. 

There are a lot of benefits for both teachers and students to use digital portfolios to enhance and showcase their work.  They have quick access to all their achievements later.  This can be used for evaluation or for help with lesson planning in the future as well.  For students, it can also be used as a tool for refreshing on a subject they haven’t worked on in a while. I have had my son save his work from previous grades in a folder on our computer and label them so he can go back when he needs help.  

Resources:

Textbook- Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

YouTube. “Teachers e-portfolio.wmv ”. Author: samispil. May 2010. Retrieved from Web.

YouTube. “Introducing SurveyMonkey, the World's Largest Survey Company  ”. SurveyMonkey. April 2013. Retrieved from Web.