KIPP Schools Summit

Authentic Assessment with Electronic Portfolios
Workshop
August 3, 2006
Dr. Helen Barrett & Connie Hendrix

Agenda

Introductions - Your Questions
Overview of ePortfolios in K-12 schools (H)
REFLECT (H)
HS Experiences (C)
Nuts & Bolts - Tools (H)
Break
Hands-On Activity - MS Office or Think.com or TaskStream- Explore website links
Implementation Issues, Q&A - Return to questions

Hands-On Activity Handouts

Microsoft Office - Helen Barrett's "At-a-Glance Guides"
- Word
- Excel
- PowerPoint:
TaskStream
- Online Tour
Think.com
- Online Tutorial

Objectives - Participants will:

review several ePortfolio tools
become familar with authentic assessment using ePortfolios
practice using ePortfolio tools

Recommended Books (Amazon Links)

High School books
- Power and Portfolios: Best Practices in High School Classrooms (John Mahoney)
- The Portfolio as a Learning (Carol Porter & Janell Cleland)
K-8 books
- Multiple Intelligences and Portfolios (Evangeline Harris Stefanakis)
- The Power of Portfolios (Elizabeth Hebert)

When learning new tools, use familiar tasks; when learning new tasks, use familiar tools. (Barrett, 1991)

Planning issues when deciding on appropriate electronic portfolio tools

Purpose: For this workshop, the purpose of e-Portfolio development is for authentic assessment (formative feedback on student work), as well as showcasing best work and growth over time.
Tool capabilities allow interaction between teachers and students around learning activities and products:
- Students to create, store artifacts and reflections, and organize their work, preferably with hyperlinks
- Teachers to review the work and provide feedback in narrative form (based on a rubric, if available)
Internet access
- If you have slow or infrequent Internet access in the classroom, then try Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, an HTML editor or a multimedia authoring tool (choice depending on the skill level of the students), and publish portfolios on optical media (CD or DVD recordable disk). (see Dr. Barrett's 5x5 model (PDF) and article from 2000)
- If you have high speed Internet access in the classroom on a regular basis, then use one of the online software, services or strategies. In this workshop, we will demonstrate Think.com and TaskStream. There are many other options available, depending on whether you have your own server or need a hosted solution. See Dr. Barrett's Online Portfolio Adventure. Consider some of the Web 2.0 technologies for part of the system.

Pros and Cons for each type of tool

Tool	Advantages	Disadvantages
Microsoft Office (or OpenOffice.org)	On most personal computers, common toolset, easy to create hyperlinks. Does not require Internet access to develop portfolios (students work off-line).	Set up own system for storing and organizing files, and managing the feedback on student work (probably using Track Changes in Word or Comments in all tools) . Data aggregation must be set up by teacher with another tool, like Excel, not automated. Files should be translated into Web-compatible format before posting online (HTML or PDF). Better for publising on CD.
Think.com - a free service to K12 schools by Oracle	Free - School accounts only - Principal has to sign AUP - Integrated with Thinkquest resources. Protected site, teacher can manage e-mail recipients and senders. Stickies for provide feedback on student web pages.	Set up own system for managing the feedback on student work. Data aggregation must be set up by teacher with another tool, like Excel, not automated. More of a web page builder than a portfolio program.
TaskStream	Protected website, teacher can manage e-mail recipients and senders. Work flow manager that facilitates the interaction and maintains records of assessment based on rubrics (if using DRF) - data aggregation. Tie student work to Content Standards. Includes Instructional Design Tools (Lesson/Unit/Rubric Builder). Internal e-mail and IM (protected) tools that can be de-activated.	Cost (not free), learning curve (for teachers, not students) to be able to use the many features. Requires Internet access to create and organize portfolios.

Other Tools (not addressed in Workshop)

Tool	Advantages	Disadvantages
iLife06 (Mac only)	Seamless integration of video/audio into portfolios created with iWeb (or iDVD) and iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes and Garage Band. Use iDVD for creating DVD portfolios (primarily video or image/slide shows). Use iWeb to publish web-based portfolios (create off-line and then upload).	Cost (free on new Macintosh computers). Requires server to publish web pages (or .Mac account) or DVD writer (for iDVD)
HTML Authoring Software (Dreamweaver, Front Page)	Flexibility and creativity in portfolio authoring. Helps students build technology skills.	Requires web server (unless publishing on CD). High learning curve, difficult to support for all students.
Web 2.0 tools (see list and links below	Free, often open-source tools available on the WWW	Requires higher technology competency, mostly not secure websites
Open Source Portfolios (OSP, Elgg)	Free customized system, large community of users.	Requires a server and someone to maintain it. Volunteer developers often cannot respond to enhancement requests

Web 2.0 Tools for Creating Electronic Portfolios (Wikipedia definition of Web 2.0)

"Me" Publishing

Blogs (Blogger, LiveJournal)

Social Networking (MySpace, Friendster, Elgg)

Content Management Systems (Plone, Drupal)

Shared resources

Photo Sharing (Flickr, PhotoBucket)

Media Sharing (vimeo.com, ourmedia.org, youtube.com, video.google.com)

Media Creation: Video (BubbleShare, JumpCut) & Podcasts (audio): (odeo, podomatic)

Bookmarks (BackFlip.com, iKeepBookmarks.com, del.icio.us)

Shared writing

WikiSpaces (free subscriptions for teachers)

Writely

Revised July 30, 2006 - This handout (in PDF)