Supporting Reflection with Mobile Devices

I am doing a Poster Session at ISTE 2012 in San Diego entitled,  mPortfolios: Supporting reflection in ePortfolios with mobile devices. Here is the first draft of the document that I will eventually print out in poster size.  I think I will also try to create a Prezi document based on this diagram. Each of the icons can become links to the specific app website. A lot of this information is posted online in my mPortfolios Google Site.

The Reflection Cycle, which I posted earlier, is based on a theory of Self-Regulated Learning that was the underlying theory of the ePearl ePortfolio system developed at Concordia University. I have adapted the process to include suggestions for mobile apps with supporting websites, or those that include the ability to upload artifacts to Dropbox, GoogleDocs, YouTube, etc. I also identified the multiple portfolio processes that are identified in the JISC publication Effective Practices with ePortfolios: Capturing & storing evidence, Reflecting, Giving & receiving feedback, Planning & setting goals, Collaborating, Presenting to an audience. I also added indications of how the strategies fit within the revised Bloom's Taxonomy. I have placed the Evernote app under all three stages because of the impressive implementation by the teachers and students at Trillium Charter School in Portland. The blog maintained by Rob VanNood is a very insightful documentation of their implementation of Evernote within the self-regulated learning process.

I would love feedback on the diagram, including more suggestions for useful apps to include. A full size version is posted on my website, as well as a PDF version.

FETC Slides

Google Apps FETC2012

View more presentations from Helen Barrett

Last week, I spent two days in Orlando at the Florida Educational Technology Conference, doing a workshop on Tuesday entitled, Student-Centered Interactive ePortfolios with GoogleApps, and a presentation on Wednesday entitled, mPortfolio Development with Mobile Devices, where I used a version of the slides that I already had uploaded to Slideshare (my Powerpoint files have too many images to upload now!).

I learned a few new things at this conference:

• I can now edit Google Sites with Safari on my iPad and iPhone. I'm not sure when that change happened... but it is about time!
• The Richland2 School District, where I worked last September, was one of three districts that was highlighted in the Google Chromebook sessions. They made a very good case for adopting this device for 1-to-1 adoptions. (See Tom Vander Ark's blog entry in Huffington Post!)
• There are now at least two options for editing video online (which would include the Chromebooks): YouTube Editor and Stupeflix Studio. I will need to play with both of these options for digital storytelling.

Wednesday evening, I flew from Orlando to Anchorage (a difference of 90 degrees Fahrenheit!). I will write another blog entry about that trip, because I worked with the Languages department, and we explored a lot of strategies to help them capture student learning in their respective target languages. I am very interested in researching more strategies for documenting second-language learning.

Technology & Learning Question of the Week

Today, the Question of the Week on the Technology & Learning newsletter was:

Is your district using e-portfolios to evaluate student work?

• YES. These are great tools for assessing students and building individual portfolios.
• NO. E-portfolios are too hard to manage. 
• LOOKING INTO IT. Our school is evaluating the logistics of implementing these assessment tools. 

I find the statements following each response to represent a biased and narrow perception of the use of e-portfolios (for evaluation), but there is no way to add a comment or provide feedback on the survey itself. No wonder we have limited adoption of e-portfolios with this lack of understanding about the genre. E-portfolios are not just tools; they are a philosophy and a process to support learning!

Worldwide online class

I am pleased with the registration of my first public online class: Intro to K-12 ePortfolios. The participants are primarily from North America, although I have students from Europe (The Netherlands, Germany, Italy) and Asia (Hong Kong, Japan). In the U.S., I have several groups of 3, 4 and 10 from school districts! The majority have signed up as "singletons" so I will be developing some groups for collaboration. Any group of four or more will qualify for a private one-hour live teleconference via Skype or GoToMeeting. Deadline for registration in this cohort is January 16, so I will have the final number next week. The next cohort begins in April.

This online class has many new elements for me: using Edmodo instead of threaded discussion in a course management system like Blackboard or Moodle; posting the course content online in Google Sites; doing live conversations in Google+ Hangouts. I team-taught an online course last fall using Edmodo for student discussions, and I have been using Google Sites for years. I picked Edmodo because it was a social network that can be used in schools, and has some features that make it more user friendly than a CMS. Maybe in the future I will use Google+ Circles for asynchronous conversations in the class. However, using Google+ Hangouts is new for me. I have the option to use GoToWebinar, but that tool is very instructor-centered. I really want us to have more of a conversation.

XO 3.0 at CES

The One Laptop Per Child Foundation is showing its $100 tablet, the XO 3.0 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. It looks different from the design announced in 2010, but is now closer to production.

While it won't be available under a "give one, get one" purchase at this time, the technology is very interesting, especially the solar panel/cover, giving two hours of power for one hour of charging. According to TGDaily, here are some other specs: 8-inch display with 1024x768 resolution, 512MB RAM, 4GB of internal storage, and a 1GHz Marvell Armada PXA618 processor. Under the hood, the tablet will run either Android or Linux (Sugar) operating system and can be charged using a solar panel cover or a third-party wind-up handle mechanism, as well as a standard wall plug. I can hardly wait until this tablet goes into production, and we can order one under the same charity arrangement.

VoiceThread iOS App

I just read a Tech & Learning blog entry from teacher Bob Sprankle, about using the mobile version of VoiceThread. Here is a VoiceThread he put together with his students, that "was captured almost entirely by walking around the room and having students reflect as they were learning/working." The blog post was entitled, "What's Your Favorite Transformative Tool of 2011?" I have been following the VoiceThread tool for several years, and am excited that they now have a mobile app that can be used on an iPod Touch device. The app is free, but there are a limited number of voicethreads that can be posted per email address. There are educator accounts, where a teacher can set up 50 student accounts (email addresses not required) for $60/year or $15/month. This is an interesting discussion of ed.voicethread.com:

Webinar scheduled

I will be conducting a 90-minute webinar for School Leadership 2.0 on February 15, 2012, 7:00-8:30 PM EST (4:00-5:30 PST). The title of the Webinar: Balancing the Two Faces of ePortfolios. Registration page: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2721575305 Description:

This presentation will focus on the two different approaches to e-portfolio development: workspace vs. showcase, process vs. product, portfolios-as-assessment-for-learning/improvement vs. portfolios-as-assessment-for-accountability. Learning portfolios focus on reflection and strategies to support metacognition: "capturing the moment" with mobile devices, blogging/reflective journals for in-depth reflection, and digital storytelling. We will also discuss how to use of electronic portfolios as part of a comprehensive assessment management system supporting both paradigms of assessment for continuous improvement and assessment for accountability. 

 

We will focus on maintaining student-centered e-portfolios with Web 2.0 and mobile tools across developmentally progressive levels. Educators can select a minimal level of implementation (ARCHIVE: electronic storage of artifacts); a secondary level (PROCESS: documenting learning over time using a reflective journal/blog with linked artifacts); or a higher level (PRODUCT: organizing reflections and artifacts thematically in a showcase/presentation to demonstrate specific outcomes/goals/standards).

Online course announcement

The course content of the first course of the E-Portfolio Academy is online as both a self-paced and facilitated course:
Introduction to E-Portfolios in K-12 Schools
https://sites.google.com/site/k12eportfolios/

The facilitated course is open for registration through Paypal or school purchase order: http://electronicportfolios.org/academy/register/intro.html

The content of the two versions of the class is the same. There are three differences between the self-paced and facilitated classes:

1. The facilitated class has a cohort of students who go through the content together and carry on a facilitated asynchronous discussion.
2. I will be directly involved in the private discussions and will lead the cohort through the content, including live events.
3. The self-paced class is free; there is a charge for the facilitated class.

The discussion schedule will be provided only to members of the facilitated class through the Edmodo group. The discussion will be asynchronous, so there are no specific times to be online, but I will be scheduling some Google+ hangouts which will be synchronous (live), but not during the first couple of weeks.

The course interaction will be facilitated through an Edmodo group (private educational social network), Google+ Hangouts, and email group. Be sure to sign up for Google + and an Edmodo (teacher) account. Right after the New Year, I will also send invitations for the private groups to all registrants. The first facilitated course cohort will begin between January 2 and January 16. The next cohort is scheduled to begin in early April.

I was asked about the approximate number of hours per week that one can expect. Here is my response:

There are six lessons in the course. In the facilitated course, we will have a slow start: the first lesson will last two weeks (January 2-16) to give everyone a chance to get used to the course tools and the course process... and some are just getting back from their Christmas Break. To answer your question, this facilitated course is not your traditional academic course measured by "seat time." You will get out of the course what you put into it...within the schedule with the other course participants.

In each lesson, there are four process elements:
Inputs: Readings and videos
Outputs: Discussions/Group Reflections
    Implementation Plan Component(s)
    Personal Reflections (your blog entry)

How much time each person takes will be highly personal... some people will skim the readings, some will read them thoroughly plus all of the supplemental readings. Some will write extensive discussion posts and responses, some will write brief entries, and no responses. Some will write extensive blog entries, others won't write much each week. The weekly discussions and blog posts are only "required" for those taking the course for college credit (and there is a rubric in the course content that outlines the credit course requirements). If you are not taking the facilitated class for credit, you can get caught up on readings and reflections once your other class is over.

I realize most participants are teaching full time. I will be posting the schedule for the discussions for the facilitated course in the Edmodo discussion group. We can take the "fast track" or the slower approach to covering the course lessons. In other words, we can take one week or two weeks per lesson (7 to 12 weeks). My preference is to let the participants make that decision, although I need to finish the course by the end of February. 

Downloaded Google Sites

I received an email today from an educator in China who cannot access my Google Sites. I found the software from Google to download my Google Sites, and I uploaded a few of my sites to my own web server:

• Introduction to ePortfolios in K-12 Schools
• Implement ePortfolios with Google Apps
• Implement ePortfolios with WordPress
• Implement ePortfolios with Mobile Devices
• Reflection for Learning

At least I now have a backup of these Google Sites as of the end of 2011. The content of the sites is alnost all there, but the navigation is not quite what appeared on the original Google Site. Any sub pages must be accessed from a link at the bottom of the main page, not from the navigation bar. Of course, most of the CSS formatting is missing. Access the Google Sites Liberation User Guide and download the software.

Mobile Year in Review

This video is fun...and points out the impact of mobile technologies this year!

High School Portfolios revisited

I received the following email recently:

At ___, we're just around the corner of requiring a portfolio from every student. I'm asking, as both a teacher and a parent, whether your thoughts in your 2005 blog would still be your same thoughts. Years have passed; have colleges really accepted portfolios in a meaningful way? Are some schools who have tried e-portfolios now reconsidering? What is a school that would be a "model" for how they work with portfolios and where the students see the work as meaningful and not just a "hoop" or "graduation requirement"?  One administrator told me this morning, "They passed courses. That should be enough." I know the way to respond (similar to your post http://electronicportfolios.org/blog/2005/02/high-school-inquiry.html) - but I need to know the research. HAS the e-portfolio proven to be worth all the work? I don't want our school and community to go down a path that has already been blazed and people are walking back towards us without sharing what they have learned from their experiences.

Here is my response: I think the real problem is the general assumptions about portfolios...especially when they are a graduation requirement or for college applications. I am not an advocate of high stakes portfolios, or to use them to replace standardized tests. What about using portfolios for learning throughout the educational experience, to avoid the idea of a "hoop" to jump through? I like a different metaphor: mirror (reflection) or map (goal-setting/direction). I really like this model of self-regulated learning, and portfolios can support all phases of this reflection cycle. I also see portfolios as both process and product (see my latest paper published by the British Columbia Department of Education: http://electronicportfolios.org/balance/balancingarticle2.pdf

I recommend you look at High Tech High in San Diego, where all students maintain a DP (digital portfolio) throughout their high school years. The portfolio is used to document learning and support their Presentation of Learning (PoL) that they do three times a year. I am using that high school as a case study in my book. I don't know if their experience has been documented in a formalized research project, but they have been using digital portfolios since the school opened in 2001. Here is my blog entry: http://blog.helenbarrett.org/2010/10/high-tech-high.html
When I talked to a few students in the school about their DPs, their eyes lit up and I could tell they were very proud of them.

There is some research that shows that how a portfolio is introduced to students has a huge impact on their acceptance (and intrinsic motivation) and the effective use of the portfolios to support learning. If students see the portfolio as just another assignment or a hoop to jump through, they will be ambivalent; but if they see this online space as their personal learning environment, as their space to explore their future, to show off what they are really good at, then you will get much more acceptance. Ownership, Choice and Voice are major issues for me. I did a TEDxASB talk in 2010 that outlines the blurring boundaries of electronic portfolios and social networks, along with intrinsic motivation. I published the script on the MacLearning website:
http://www.maclearning.org/articles/48/blurring-the-boundaries-social-networking-e-portfolio-development

Good luck! And let me know if I can help.

I was also sent a link to a video on an ePortfolio project in a high school in the Boston area: 

ISTE 2012 Sessions Scheduled

Today, I received notice of approval of these sessions for the 2012 ISTE Conference in San Diego:

• Create Interactive ePortfolios using GoogleApps: Docs, Picasaweb, Blogger, Sites [Workshop : Hands-on] Scheduled: Saturday, 6/23/2012,  8:30am–3:30pm PDT.
  GoogleApps provides a comprehensive ePortfolio system: Store artifacts in GoogleDocs/Picasaweb; maintain reflective journals using Blogger; create showcase/assessment/presentation portfolios with GoogleSites; manage domain with Teacher Dashboard.
• Student-Centered Interactive ePortfolios with GoogleApps [Concurrent Session : Lecture] Scheduled: Monday, 6/25/2012,  12:45pm–1:45pm PDT.
  Create a comprehensive student-centered system supporting all three levels of ePortfolio development: Create/collaborate/store/share artifacts in GoogleDocs; Reflection/Feedback using blogging; Presentation Websites with GoogleSites.
• mPortfolios: Supporting reflection in ePortfolios with mobile devices [Learning Station Session : Poster] Scheduled: Tuesday, 6/26/2012,  10:00am–12:00pm PDT.
  Mobile devices (iOS, Chrome or Android) can support reflection through regular planning & goal-setting, capturing the learning moment, and metacognition (reflecting on change over time).

I've never done a poster session before, so it will be a challenge to present a complex topic like reflection and mobile devices in this format. But my presentation on GoogleApps is a reprise of my 2011 presentation that I thought was on of my best! The full-day hands-on workshop will give me an opportunity to provide an overview on my online Introduction to K-12 ePortfolios class with GoogleApps supplement. I'm pleased!

RCAC 2011 Keynote & Workshop

I just returned from London, Ontario, where I gave the Thursday afternoon keynote for the Western [Ontario] Regional Computer Advisory Committee (RCAC). I also did a short breakout session to have a conversation about ePortfolio implementation. There were representatives from the Ministry of Education, so the questions tended to focus on policy, privacy, parents, and permissions.

RCAC Dec2011

View more presentations from Helen Barrett

On Friday, I gave a full day workshop to help technology consultants plan for the implementation of electronic portfolios in their boards/school districts. I used the planning process that I outlined in my online class, where the components are linked to the different course lessons. Here is a sample of the tweets from the conference:

• @Gill_Ville #rcac11 this year the theme is storytelling!
• @thecleversheep Storytelling... the unofficial theme for the day. Love it! #rcac11
• @lisaneale (e)Portfolios are dynamic celebrations & stories of deep learning = choice & voice of the individual recognizing lifelong learning. #rcac11
• @harryniezen #rcac11 Very moving examples of ePortfolios ... via @eportfolios
• @markwcarbone @eportfolios: blogging for a public authentic audience makes a +ve difference to student learning - nice connection to my FBk w/shop today
• @sadone #rcac11 @eportfolios Keynote slide show available for you at www.slideshare.net/eportfolios
• @harryniezen #rcac ePortolios as a vehicle for students to share their passions (via @eportfolios )
• @harryniezen #rcac11 Going deeper with @eportfolios (Dr. Helen Barrett) on the value and implementation of ePortfolios as a tool for student learning

The provincial government has established E-Learning Ontario and is providing the Desire2Learn platform to all schools in the province. Recently included in their D2L implementation is a portfolio tool. One adaptation that will be made to their D2L portal will be inclusion of GoogleApps, and they will also incorporate the WordPress blog. It sounds to me like this integrated platform will provide educators in Ontario with a broad choice on cloud-based tools, that can be a powerful combination for ePortfolio development. I am looking forward to following schools in Ontario for some exciting learning with ePortfolios!

iPadio for recording audio artifacts

I am experimenting with applications to record oral evidence of learning, and interested in recording audio from my iPhone. I quickly recorded a short audio clip with the iPadio app on my iPhone. This process has a lot of promise for web based portfolios, especially demonstrating competence in speaking a new language!

The image on the right is the form to complete when uploading the recording. The title could be an assignment, and the description could be a short reflection! These recordings have a unique URL and can automatically be posted to the following social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogger, Posterous, LiveJournal, WordPress.

Frameworks for ICT & ePortfolios

THE UNESCO ICT COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHERS - Version 2.0 has just been released.

	TECHNOLOGY LITERACY	KNOWLEDGE DEEPENING	KNOWLEDGE CREATION
UNDERSTANDING ICT IN EDUCATION	Policy awareness	Policy understanding	Policy innovation
CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT	Basic knowledge	Knowledge application	Knowledge society skills
PEDAGOGY	Integrate technology	Complex problem solving	Self management
ICT	Basic tools	Complex tools	Pervasive tools
ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION	Standard classroom	Collaborative groups	Learning organizations
TEACHER PROFESSIONAL LEARNING	Digital literacy	Manage and guide	Teacher as model learner

This new matrix provides another framework for training teachers. I have been working with a university in Vietnam to develop a proposal under the State Department's English Language Specialist Program. We have developed a project for me to work with English teachers in Vietnam to use ePortfolios to demonstrate English Language Learning. (I am keeping my fingers crossed, that I can spend the month of March in Vietnam!)

I just read an interesting post in the ePortfolio Conversations Google Group (Australia), on how to "help those students who feel they need some preparation before the bigger tasks ... a set of intro skills could help them feel better prepared and equipped to tackle e-learning and having a presence online":

• Step 1 without a doubt - Email and how to use it effectively as a communication tool and an organisational tool
• Step 2 - Social Networking in SOME form (Forums / blogging / Facebook / Twitter - establishing themselves as a resident - or at least a regular visitor SOMEWHERE online)
• Step 3 - blogging - the why, where, how and when (also what a learner can expect to receive in return for their investment of learning how to blog)
• Step 4 - Eportfolios.

Coach Carole responded with a more elaborated version in a follow-up post:

1. Communicate and Network online (include gmail and how to make that work for you smartly) (include skype and BbC for real time communication) (include disussion forums for anytime discussions)
2. Learn and collaborate online (include access and share learning resources in cloud based learning spaces, accessing and navigating learning spaces online, learning to be self-directed/self-managed learners)
3. Reflect and Connect online (include blogging and other online writing skills, curating and researching online, reflecting on learning, connecting with wider cohorts of online learners)
   Then after 3 short courses like these (maybe a month each) - engage learners in something like the epcop mooc over 2 months. 
4. Collect and Present online (focussing on e-portfolio approach to learning)

This looks like a logical progression, although I have been writing about the role of blogging in ePortfolio development. As I am putting together my book, I am incorporating some great examples of K-12 educators using blogs as portfolios.

Wes Fryer interviews Kern Kelley

This is Wes Fryer's interview with Maine educator Kern Kelley about how students in his school district use iPod Touches, email, and Picassa Web albums to digitize content for their digital portfolios on Google Sites. Kern Kelley's school also gives students their own domain names when they graduate.

Earlier this year, Wes also posted a great article on how his 5th grade daughter digitized her writing folder with a microphone, iPad2 and Audioboo.

Intro to Electronic Portfolios in K-12

The first self-paced course of the REAL ePortfolio Academy has been completed and is posted online:
https://sites.google.com/site/k12eportfolios/
By January, there will be supplemental modules available for Implementing ePortfolios with GoogleApps Education Edition, WordPress/Edublogs, or iOS/Android Mobile Devices.

Any non-profit/educational institution is free to use this open courseware content with colleagues in a school and and teachers are encouraged to become a member of the free Google Group for open/free discussion:
http://groups.google.com/group/eportfolioacademy

I am starting the first facilitated version of this class in January 2012. If you want to be part of this first facilitated class, register on this website in December:
http://electronicportfolios.org/academy/register/intro.html
I am in the process of getting approval for professional development college credit through Seattle Pacific University for those who need it, and registration information will be available upon receipt of the facilitated course enrollment.

Rather than using a highly structured course management system, we are going to use social networking strategies to facilitate interaction in the facilitated class: email through a private Google Group and collaboration in the Edmodo or Google+ social networks.
https://sites.google.com/site/k12eportfolios/syllabus/facilitated-course-communication

Review of Commercial Tools...and my response

Trent Batson just published an article in Campus Technology entitled, "A Survey of the Electronic Portfolio Market Sector: Analysis and Surprising Trends." He discusses the variety of commercial and open source eportfolio tools; many of the commercial providers are members of AAEEBL. My response:  

You reviewed the commercial and open source market here. However, in my experience, the largest growing category of student-centered ePortfolio tools are so-called Web 2.0 tools: blogs (such as WordPress and Blogger), wikis (such as Wikispaces and Google Sites), and web site authoring tools (such as Weebly and Yola). Next month, Seattle Pacific University will receive one of four 2011 Sloan-C Effective Practice Awards for its use of Wordpress.com as bPortfolios: Blogging for Reflective Practice --http://bit.ly/pamT5d 
Worthy of special mention is the GoogleApps Education ecosystem, providing a variety of tools for authoring, storage and data transferability. When looking at portfolios across the lifespan, it is important that portfolio data not be locked into silos, but exportable into open formats. I have also spoken about how the boundaries are blurring between social networking and ePortfolio development. The new Facebook Timeline is an interesting platform for lifelong and life-wide learning, reflection, storytelling, & meaning-making. As asked in a comment on my blog, "How will those of us using ePortfolios in higher education compete with a social network that already dominates (and in some cases defines) our students' lives?" http://blog.helenbarrett.org/

Mix and Match: Creating a Blended Learning Environment with WordPress and Google Apps

Mix and Match: Creating a Blended Learning Environment with WordPress and Google Apps

This is a great post by Kim Cofino about how the teachers and students blend these two tools at the Yokohama Independent School.

SPU bPortfolio process wins award

Sloan-C will formally recognize SPU's work as an effective practice award winner for 2011 at a featured session at the 17th Annual Sloan-C International Conference in Orlando on November 11, 2011. The award acknowledges SPU for advancing learning, access, scale and student and faculty satisfaction.

The project description that won one of four 2011 Sloan-C Effective Practice Awards: bPortfolios: Blogging for Reflective Practice - Seattle Pacific University    http://bit.ly/pamT5d

It is so great that these efforts have been recognized by such a prestigious organization. It is important to gain more recognition for the benefits and outcomes of supporting student reflection and ownership of documenting their own learning, whether in teacher education, or in K-12 classrooms. SPU's Teacher Education Program should be proud of creating an environment that balances learner-centered reflection with institutional assessment. Students are also experiencing a model of electronic portfolio development that can be adapted to K-12 students using widely-available and free online tools.

I appreciate the opportunity to add my very small contribution (and my name) to the application. Since my ideas were credited as part of their initial decision to adopt a blogging platform and move from their previous commercial system, I am very proud that these efforts have been recognized.

UPDATE: Blog responses to this award:
‘ePortfolios’ are out, ‘bPortfolios’ are in (apparently) 
At Last – Recognition for Blog-based Portfolios