Digital Portfolio’s…From Audience to Community

October 28, 2008 * Comments(0)

I began digital portfolios with my Middle School art students this year. As is the case with any new goal of integrating technology, it has evolved a great deal from the original plan. (see blog post from 7/7/08)

I started the year with a plan to house student work on a  website I created using Google Page Creator. No sooner did I fall in love with this application then to find out that it was being replaced by Google Sites. “No big deal” I thought at first, until I investigated Google Sites and realized the layout templates are quite boxy, all look the same, and have the feel of a wiki template. Page creator allowed for a good amount of creative control, for an art teacher an attractive and dynamic feature. But, fearing starting the endeavor then having my site in Page Creator later be dropped by Google I went ahead with Google Sites and created a new class website.

Once the school year was underway and students began creating sketchbook drawings and art projects, I had them write short reflections on their work using MS Word and Powerpoint. I was very impressed with their insightful, personal, creative reflections and could not wait to post them to the class website and share with parents. Then a big reality hit me…TIME! Saving their work in formats that could not be easily uploaded to the site became time-consuming and tedious. I also realized that through creating reflections in computer based applications such as MS Word andPowerpoint I was not only adding to my workload, but I was denying my students an opportunity to connect and collaborate with an online community. My original intent was to use the site to share with parents and showcase student work. Essentially, I was seeking an “audience” for my young artists when what my students truly need to be learning is how to be artists as part of a broader “community” of artists .

So, now, I am embarking on a new endeavor. While I still plan to house student work through the Google site, they will be writing reflections in google docs and sharing them with each other through a class social network. They will also create slideshows of their artwork using Google Picasa. They will share them and generate dialogue through comment tools. (Creating slideshows and posting them to the class website is something that I have been doing myself…yes, the learning curve has been a little steep.)

As I strive to embrace the ideals of 21st century education in my classroom I am always learning, reflecting, stummbling, and trying again. Having an audience for student work wasn’t a terrible approach…but to have an audience AND community will teach them the skills of online sharing and collaborating, which is even more enriching.

The P.L.A.T.E. Conference

August 19, 2008 * Comments(0)
This summer, I was part of the planning and presenting of the P.L.A.T.E (Plymouth Leadership And Technology for Education) conference. This conference was presented by year 2 Masters of Educational Technology Graduate Students from Michigan State University, of which I am a member. We were 19 Michigan State University Graduate Students in Educational Technology who, in entirety, planned, advertised, and presented the conference which was held at the University of Plymouth in Plymouth, England on July 16th, 2008. Attendees of the conference were Michigan State University Graduate and Undergraduate students in Educational Technology, Educational Leadership, and Educational Curriculum and Instruction, MSU faculty members, and Plymouth University faculty members.
I presented two sessions: “Models for Integrating Technology” and “Translating Portfolios Into New Technologies”
In the “Models for Integrating Technology” session, I collaborated with two other cohort members. Our aim was to identify the issues surrounding technology in education, define various scenarios of technology availability within school settings, and present possibilities for integrating technology successfully in light of these “obstacles” to help students and schools meet learning goals. 

 

As an international teacher in a technologically rich overseas school, I am very fortunate to have access to laptop computers, internet, the most current softwares, and a staff of technology integration specialists who offer regular professional development to learn how to implement these tools successfully into the classroom. I realize that in most schools in North America where teachers attending the conference were from, this is not the case. We wanted attendees to walk away from our session with new ideas and new ways of thinking about how they can integrate technology into their own classrooms and school settings. All of the resources from our session, including the presentation itself were made available to the attendees on google through google docs. During the presentation, we invited attendees to participate in our presentation using a live “Audience Participation” tool in Google Docs. The live participation comment feed was projected alongside our presentation. This engaged the audience and encouraged collaboration of ideas…and it was just plain fun breaking down the wall between presenters and audience.
In the “Translating Portfolio’s into New Technologies” session, I also collaborated with two members of my cohort. This session was a presentation workshop. Our goal was to define different types of portfolios, show examples of digital portfolios used in the classroom, provide a framework for getting started, and then teach a workshop to get attendees started.
For the workshop, we differentiated our instruction by polling the audience to assess their interests and experience with digital portfolios. I then taught a group how to create a website to house portfolio work in Google Page Creator. One of my fellow presenters taught attendees how to set up an account and use Voicethread. The other fellow presenter worked with a 3rd group who were already using digital portfolios in their classrooms with a variety of online tools.
I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop format for this session. As an attendee to many conferences myself, I get the most of out sessions that provide something you take right back to your classroom. While time was limited, each attendee left with knowledge of a new online tool and how they could use it with their students.
I also led a job alike session with other members of my cohort. This allowed conference attendees to share what they had learned and provide presenters with feedback. We divided into groups by Elementary, Secondary, and Admin/Other Professionals. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive. This was the first time the MSU MAET program had included the planning and presenting of a full conference as part of the curriculum and I do believe we set the bar quite high.
Please view the conference website for information about all of the sessions, presenters, keynote, and planning. Please view the conference program which I designed using Adobe InDesign and the conference commercial which I created with two other cohort members on the home page.

Portfolio’s in the Visual Arts…

July 7, 2008 * Comments(0)

As part of my Michigan State University Masters in Educational Technology (MAET) I created this blog as a forum for reflection on my teaching, creative, and technological practices in education. Currently, I am reflecting on the use of Portfolio’s in the visual arts. Specifically, I am implementing the use of digital portfolio’s in my middle school visual arts courses to improve on challenges that I have with traditional types of portfolios.

The voice thread below briefly outlines my approach to investigating potential formats for digital portfolios. For a deeper reflection, you may read my blog post below. Please visit the “iPortfolio” google page that I created for use with my middle school visual arts students as a result of my reflection process.

Portolios are an integral component to visual arts education programs. They represent both content knowledge and skill development mastery of the person to which they belong. The content of a visual arts portfolio may include drawings, paintings, prints, photographs, graphic designs, sculpture, jewelry/metalwork, ceramics, video art, and other media. A written reflection of the work within the portfolio is often included.

There are different purposes for the creation of portfolios in visual arts courses. Most often they serve as evidence for assessment by the instructor. The artwork within a portfolio is traditionally put on display for public viewing.

As a teacher in the visual arts for over 10 years now, it has always been a pedagogical practice of mine to require students to maintain a portfolio of their artwork. At the end of a course, students write a self assessment on their body of work. While a valuable practice in terms of student reflection on their growth and understanding, and visual evidence of their technical skills, there are aspects of the traditional portfolio method that I consider a hinderance to their purpose.

In reflecting on these challenges, I came up with the solution to have students create “iPortfolio’s”, a digital image portfolio to replace the original artwork and also include their self reflections. Before investigating possible technologies through which to create them, I developed outcome criteria that iPortfolio’s should meet.


I investigated possible technologies that I could use as the format for the iPortfolio’s.

The first technology that came to mind was the all familiar PowerPoint presentation. This format lacked the potential to reach a public audience, so I disregarded it as a possibility. The next possibility I explored were wikis. I compared and constrasted the variety of formats provided through wikispaces, wetpaint, and pbwiki. The problem that I encountered in each one was that they didn’t provide me complete control over design, layout, and navigation. There were pages such as “To Do’s” on wetpaint that would have no relevance to the content of the iPortfolio’s. Additionally, I would have to decide how to best maintain the content if students were set as contributors to the site with the potential for content to be overwritten accidentally. The use of a wiki became a “possible” format. I next considered a blog hosted on blogger or edublogs. These would provide an appropriate framework for reflection, but may lack the formatting capabilities desired for the images.

Not knowing what else was “out there” I consulted with my school tech coordinator. He introduced me to voice thread, an online application for importing media, commenting on it through voice, text, and video and sharing the image and commentary with others. It seemed I had found my solution, until I investigated the application further and realized that viewers would either need to join the site themselves or I would need to embed the content created into another format.

I decided that voicethread would be a great way to display a gallery of images with descriptions and a blog would be an appropriate format for students to reflect on their creative process. However, I wanted a format that would allow me to house these two technologies together and provide my students with tutorials on how to use the applications and outline expected learning outcomes in the same location.

Google page creator, introduced to me in my Michigan State University MAET coursework, was exactly the format I was looking for. It allows one to create a webpage with extensive control over content and format without needing to know HTML code or having to purchase an application such as Adobe Dreamweaver. Another application that was introduced to me through my coursework is Photoshop express. An online photo sharing and editing application.
After weighing all the options, it was clear which technologies would best provide a framework for the iPortfolio’s. A google page creator would allow me to create a website with multiple pages for oulining student assignments and learning outcomes, include links to voicethread, blogger, and Photoshop Express, and other pages to highlight content from class. I then moved on to the task of building the iPortfolio google website to house the content, assignments, and tutorials for student learning.

The implementation of iPortfolio’s into the visual arts curriculum will address the challenges associated with traditional portfolios. However, there will be new sets of challenges in students learning the technologies to create their iPortfolio’s. To address the challenges that I anticipate students will encounter, I have created an “assignments” page within the iPortfolio that includes directions for creating an iPortfolio, tutorials through voice thread and screencasts through jing that step students through challenging tasts such as setting up user accounts, learning to use digitial cameras, and navigating the tools of the online applications.

I look forward to implementing iPortfolios into the visual arts curriculum beginning in August. It is my hope that the technologies I have chosen and the creation of iPortfolios will enhance student learning and reflection while providing them an authentic and realtime public audience. Please visit my blog again for progress reports throughout the school year or subscribe to my RSS feed.