Teachers+and+Students-Performace+Assessment+and+Self+Reflection


 * TEACHERS AND STUDENTS-PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT AND SELF REFLECTION Part II **

The process requires energy and time, and may be expensive with the purchase of computers, software and other equipment. In addition, not everyone (for example, principals and superintendents involved in hiring new teachers) will view a digital portfolio or have the equipment or the skills to do so. Finally, builders commonly spend more time fashioning the “look” of their portfolio than highlighting the substance of their work as a teacher.

More than a decade ago, curriculum theorist Lee Shulman (1998, pp. 34-35) foresaw five potential dangers of portfolios: These dangers, argued Shulman (1998, pp. 35-37), can be more than counterbalanced by the strengths of portfolios as a teacher assessment approach, including the following five major advantages:
 * “lamination,” where the portfolio becomes an elaborately constructed collection of materials whose appearance dominates its substance;
 * “heavy lifting,” where the time needed to make the portfolio distracts and discourage the portfolio maker;
 * “trivialization,” where unimportant materials dominates the collection;
 * “perversion,” where a quantitative scoring system used by evaluators minimizes the process of personal reflection, resulting in the portfolio becoming another test-like measure of performance; and
 * “misrepresentation,” where teachers include only their best materials rather than those that truly show what happens everyday in the classroom.
 * First, portfolios permit the tracking and documentation of longer episodes of teaching and learning than happens in supervisory observations.
 * Second, portfolios encourage the reconnection between process and product.
 * Third, portfolios institutionalize norms of collaboration, reflection, and discussion.
 * Fourth, a portfolio can be seen as a portable residency. . . . [it] introduces structure to the field experience.
 * Fifth, the portfolio shifts the agency from an observer back to the teacher intern.

The Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University describes the major differences between a paper and electronic portfolios:
 * Differences Between Paper and Electronic Portfolios **
 * 1) ** Increased Accessibility: ** Teaching portfolios are intended, in part, to make teaching public. Distributing a portfolio on the web makes it even more accessible to peers and others.
 * 2) ** Multimedia Documents: ** Technology allows for inclusion of more than just printed documents. For example, you can include video footage of yourself teaching, an audio voiceover providing context and reflection on the portfolio, or instructional computer programs or code you have written.
 * 3) ** Nonlinear Thinking: ** The web facilitates nonlinear relationships between the components of your teaching portfolio. The process of creating a portfolio in this nonlinear environment can help you think about your teaching in new ways (Citation).
 * 4) ** Copyright and Privacy Issues: ** While examples of student work can be compelling evidence of your teaching effectiveness, publishing these examples online presents legal copyright and privacy issues.

The American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) and Stanford University have assembled a coalition to research and design the Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA),a national movement that includes over 100 teacher preparation programs (citation). The TPA aims to gather data to support evidence of teaching competence that includes a reflective approach to practice based on a collection of teaching artifacts that include journaling and video clips to support effective practice.
 * For Students and Teachers **

As with creating your own teacher website or Blog or Wiki, your digital portfolio building choices range from pre-made, but more limited in scope templates to do-it-yourself, more complete design programs. You can also choose between products that are free with limited design options, those that charge a modest fee and offer more ways to present your material, or specialized versions that are both more expensive and more expansive in style and scope.
 * Choosing the Right Tool **

[|**//TASKSTREAM: Tools of Engagement//**] is a popular digital archiving tool used for web design and portfolio building (Figure 11.1). TaskStream software provides users with a variety of design options including presentation portfolios, learning/work portfolios tailored to document one's learning process and resource portfolios that can be accessed by both the world and a specified closed community. Other features include a Standards Manager, Lesson Plan and Unit builders and customizable measurement tools. P

[|**//iLife//**]//'11// is software created by Apple for Macintosh computers. After importing photo images into the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, and GarageBand, you can add text, titles, keywords, and sound effects to your photographs and digital video files. Combining a variety of print and digital archives, you can manipulate your portfolio with sound effects and professional quality cinematography features. P

[|**//EduTools//**] a website sponsored by the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET), provides online reviews, comparisons and consultations for teachers and schools interested in using e-learning tools, including e-portfolios. They also provide reviews of online college, Advanced Placement, and high school courses. EduTools (2007) has posted reviews of seven widely used e-portfolio products: ANGEL e-portfolio, BB e-portfolio, e-Folio, e-portfolio.org, LiveText, Open Source Portfolio/rsmart, and TaskStream. You can consult these listings for detailed information about different portfolio delivery systems. F

[|**Epsilen**] is a distinct blend of social networking inside an eportfolio system. Epsilen invites users to promote, demonstrate and collaborate within a global network while using a suite of web 2.0 tools to organize portfolio data. P

[|**Edublogs**] Blogging for educators made easy including easy to customize interface allowing for discussions, podcasts, video, and community wiki spaces. F

[|**Maharah**], meaning 'think' or 'thought' in the [|Te Reo Māori] language of New Zealand, is an open-source e-portfolio builder platform that combines blogging, resume creation and other web 2.0 tools for data archiving. A special viewing feature gives the creator a chance to control the types of pages and artifacts that various audiences can access inside the teacher’s portfolio system. For example, school district hiring committees might be granted access to data that differs from what, state and licensure administrators, students, and families view.

[|Inter/National Coalition For Electronic Portfolio Research]: A collaborative website granting the reader access to the latest research available from a coalition of practitioners and academics studying the impact of e-portfolios on teaching and learning.

CR