WHS in the Field: Science and Mobile Technology Merge

A few images from today's field science trip at the Boothbay Botanical Gardens: botany, iPads, cell phones!  Taking WHS into the region and field.  More soon.....

WHS May Professional Development Series

Learning in a Networked World  Add to Planner

Wednesday, 5/9/2011 2:30pm-3:30pm (CHANGED) Where:                    Mac Lab Prerequisites: Connection to the Internet/MLTI Laptop Theme: Digital-age Teaching & Learning online—Literacies for the Information/Creativity Age Audience: Admin, Teachers, iTeam and interested students Skill: Beginner to Advanced NETS•S: 3- 5 NETS•T: 2- 5 NETS•A: 1- 3, 5 Keywords: web20found, networkedlearning, lms, literacies E-mail: tsteelemaley@svrsu.org Primary URL/Discussion: online resource site coming online                Purpose & ObjectivesPurpose of this session is:  introduce faculty and admin to WHS Canvas LMS. to provide examples, techniques and online resources for teachers to use in the classroom and in online spaces through the creation of a Personal Learning Network (PLN). Introduce current research/resources on digital literacies and citizenship Supporting Research Introduction to Canvas: Canvas K-12 Site Introduction Video: Canvas PLN Personal Lerning Networks for Educators: Video via Dr. Skip Via Follow Richard Byrne http://www.freetech4teachers.com/  Join: Classroom 2.0: http://www.classroom20.com/ Twitter in Plain English http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter  Brief and engaging video look at how Twitter works. Twittering not Frittering http://www.edutopia.org/twitter-professional-development-technology-microblogging  Explanation of how Twitter can be used as a professional development tool. TwittGroups ADE and Teachers http://twittgroups.com/groups/ade and http://twittgroups.com/groups/teachers  Listing of many Apple Distinguished Educators and Teachers who are using Twitter  Alan November, Web Literacy  Howard Rheingold, Crap Detection 101  Bud Hunt,  Lie of Community  Internet literacy is a hot media/govt topic... a sampling: Digital Literacy is important

What part of connected learning do we do well?

Connected Learning

The Essence of Connected Learning from DML Research Hub on Vimeo.

We are living in a historical moment of transformation and realignment in the creation and sharing of knowledge, in social, political and economic life, and in global connectedness. There is wide agreement that we need new models of education suited to this historic moment, and not simply new models of schooling, but entirely new visions of learning better suited to the increasing complexity, connectivity, and velocity of our new knowledge society. Fortunately, we are also able to harness the same technologies and social processes that have powered these transformations in order to provide the next generation with learning experiences that open doors to academic achievement, economic opportunity, and civic engagement. Specifically, we now have the capability to reimagine where, when, and how learning takes place; to empower and motivate youth to pursue knowledge and develop expertise at a pace, to a degree, and on a path that takes advantage of their unique interests and potential; and to build on innovations across a growing spectrum of learning institutions able to support a range of learning experiences for youth that were unimaginable even 15 years ago. We propose a new approach to learning -- connected learning -- that is anchored in research, robust theories of learning, and the best of traditional standards, but also designed to mine the learning potential of the new social- and digital media domain. Connected learning is a model of learning that holds out the possibility of reimagining the experience of education in the information age. It draws on the power of today's technology to fuse young people's interests, friendships, and academic achievement through experiences laced with hands-on production, shared purpose, and open networks.

DML Central Connected Learning

Blogging: What would your day look like?

The inaugural Web 2.0 Foundations blog posts are due this weekend.  After participants looked over detailed directions and had some face to face collaborative planning time about blog basics we have moved on to understand blogs in a more conceptual sense while using blogs in learning context.  We use a comprehensive Blogging design sheet for our weekly reflection blog assignment:


At first I will give participants prompts, but in weeks to come their self organized research topics will guide blog posts:

Prompt 1 was given at the beginning of Week 2:

After viewing and commenting on the post above (http://whsii.blogspot.com/2012/02/networked-student.html) answer the following question in a new post on your blog "If you could get credit for school learning anyway you wished what would your day look like"? Remember to follow the Web 2.0 Blogging Assignment carefully and add images and or video in your post.

To scaffold this learning we devoted time to brainstorming dream designs and experiences for learning.... and had our first Mobile Learning experience with a short "walking" tour of the science wing to ideate on the potentials of WHS architecturally. More discussion in class.... I have students take group notes via Google Docs with one volunteer scribe to capture the big ideas.... Now its up to them. A few examples of divergent and very successful learning environments will follow in the next posts for participants all.

Targets Met (Week One and Two) *:

The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•S)

and Performance Indicators for Students

1. Creativity and Innovation  

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:

a.apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.*

b.create original works as a means of personal or group expression.*

c.use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.*

d.identify trends and forecast possibilities.*

2. Communication and Collaboration  

Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:

a.interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. (Partial)

b.communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.

c.develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.

d.contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.*

3. Research and Information Fluency  

Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:

a.plan strategies to guide inquiry.*

b.locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.*

c.evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.*

d.process data and report results.

4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making  

Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students:

a.identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation. (Partial)

b.plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.*

c.collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.*

d.use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions. (Partial)

5. Digital Citizenship   Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:  

a.advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.*

b.exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.*

c.demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning. (Emerging)

d.exhibit leadership for digital citizenship. (Emerging)

6. Technology Operations and Concepts   Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students:  

a.understand and use technology systems.*

b.select and use applications effectively and productively.*

c.troubleshoot systems and applications.*

d.transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.*

PD Series: Using Canvas to Create Community

[1]

Over years of teaching I have used many different tools for blended learning.  From Moodle and Mahara, to Wordpress, Blogger, Netvibes, and wholly distributed systems of personal learning networks based on Networked Learning, MOOC and Connectivist movements in education and more. The purpose of all of these tools (and mine as a social studies teacher, tech integrator, and teacher of information studies), for online learning was to build a learning community that extends, enhances and amplifies learning while also allowing learners to build on interests, dreams and aspirations for their future.  In transition to blended learning it is important that all involved, both teachers and students, are appropriately challenged. A good way to accomplish this in the early stages, is through the creation of a learning management system.

Canvas

Canvas offers a learning management system that is intuitive to students and teachers while also being connected directly with Google Apps.  The result is a dynamic environment for course design, management, and communication. As an opening vignette to the professional development series tied to Web 2.0 Foundations we will look at opening a course with Canvas.

* As a reminder: I will set up faculty sites this year for all core courses in Canvas upon request.

Setting up an LMS (Canvas)

This process takes setting the stage for learning in a blended course environment. 

The email:
Students woke up on Monday to an email from me with a small course welcome and the indication that they needed to check a link with a detailed explanation about getting course material: 

The explanation:
http://whsii.blogspot.com/2012/01/welcome-web-20-foundation-participants.html

The outcome:
One hundred percent of the students in my course who where on my original course lists came ready to learn and understanding enough to ask good questions about how they could "catch up" with what I had set forth as expectations.  This is not in my teaching experience unusual.  I have spent up to 24/7 with high schoolers for five weeks as well as in classroom settings and one thing I have found is that they respond to appropriate expectations asking them to take charge of their learning.  Nothing special here. Hello, go to this link, this is what you should expect from me and this is what I expect from you.  Students who have come in later I have worked with to catch up.  Within 24 hours of the course start all students (across the spectrum) where in Canvas communicating with the Web 2.0 Foundations community.


What they found upon entry into OpenClass:
 Organization, simplicity in design, pathways of communication.

What they found in Week 1

 

This is What I found:

Almost 100 Percent participation in the online forums....At all hours

 

Within 48 hours the internal Twitter/Facebook "like" course wall becomes populated with community interaction and peer to peer learning.

 Setting up a blended learning environment takes work.  But more importantly it takes a realization that young people can, will and prefer to learn in part by the digital spaces that their lives revolve around.  In Web 2.0 Foundations first week students exhibited the core of 21st century learning.  They found, validated, leveraged, analyzed and synthesized information and problem solved and collaborated in dynamic spaces.  I hope you see how using an LMS might be a first step to blending your coursework and empowering your students to learn in new ways. For those of you using LMS now,  you already know the benefits and I hope you will find specifics that might help or inspire....(and yes, you can upload your Moodle courses directly into Canvas).
 

PD Series: Creating Blended Learning With Google Apps and Canvas

Web 2.0 Foundations is off to a healthy and inspiring start.

The course introduces students to Web 2.0 Foundations (learning and technological environments) through the experiential based pedagogy of networked and mobile learning. Web 2.0 Foundations utilizes a blended learning design to create a virtual and face to face community that promotes ubiquitous learning for WHS students.

According to Colis and Moonen (2001), "blended learning is a hybrid of traditional face-to-face and online learning so that instruction occurs both in the classroom and online, and where the online component becomes a natural extension of traditional classroom learning." [1]  Blended Learning is an essential step toward readying young people for 21st century living.  As a learner, seeing the school classroom as a part or the learning process and not the whole is vital for success today. Likewise, Young people have the world at there fingertips and are using it:

The worlds reality illuminates the fact that old models are not working or preparing students.  What conversations should K-12 Educators have with Universities....




How educators facilitate and find confluence with the world and adapt or bypass current educational systems will determine in many ways the relevance of the teaching profession and schools.  Colis and Moonen, Bonk and Graham (2006) [2] , Jacobs (2010) [3] agree that embracing blended learning is essential for 21 century learners and is a solid step forward for educators.  According to the 2010 Horizon Report [4] (one of the most respected K-12 indices of research back learning trends):

Technology is increasingly a means for empowering students, a method for communication and socializing, and a ubiquitous, transparent part of their lives. Technology is impacting all of our lives, and especially the lives of students, in new and expanding ways. Once seen as an isolating influence, technology is now recognized as a primary way to stay in touch and take control of one’s own learning. Multisensory, ubiquitous, and interdisciplinary, technology is integrated into nearly everything we do. It gives students a public voice and a means to reach beyond the classroom for interaction and exploration.

We have the tools at WHS to move in the direction of prescient change without that change feeling radical.  Blended learning starts with empowerment. Learners take control of their learning through participation in scaffolded online and classroom communities. The first step toward learner self determination comes through expectation and assistance in weaving a world of learning with your students by creating a community both public and semi-public that is with learners twenty-four hours a day seven days a week.  Using a learning management systems (LMS) creates a link between face to face and virtual learning worlds without exposing the teacher or learners to the wilds of the public for core learning community interface.

Web 2.0 Foundations is using Canvas as an LMS platform.  Canvas weaves with Google Apps and provides a "cloud based" solution for moving your class into the 21st century.  Your content becomes fluid, your teaching opened to the wealth of resources on the internet and your communication/pedegogy amplified in a space that an overwhelming majority of students find comfort in navigating.

Posts dealing with Blended Learning will be "labeled" with blended learning canvas, lms and pd at the end of the post so you can easily find the series as more posts come in on other topics.

Thank you for your vision.  Please comment and start a conversation below!

The Networked Student

Over this term you will be completing a Personal Learning Network (PLN). Being a networked student is vital for success in the 21st century. Please view the following video and read the basics of our assignment below. What are you looking forward to and what may be difficult? What will be your first topic of research?

   

Creating a PLN (Networked Learning Project)
Objective: develop and use networked learning to create a personal learning environment/network for 21st century research and design.

Preparation

• Each learner selects his or her topic of study, (what you know, what you want to know), and establishes a research question.

• Acceptable/Responsible Fair Use policy is discussed.

The project is positioned within the following perspective.

What if your teachers disappeared and you had to learn on your own? Would you give up on learning? Where would you begin? Why would learning be important? You are an empowered learner. You have the power to learn anything. How much you learn is up to you. How you manage your learning is up to you. How you manage your time is up to you. A big part of your success will depend on how well you are organized.

Introduction of Tools

Web applications are introduced one at a time to give participants the chance to master the tool within the context of the study topic. Digital literacy is integrated into these lessons as needed. The essential questions of digital literacy are presented.

• Where can you go for good information?
• How do you know if you can trust what you find?
• How will you find subject matter experts you can trust to help you learn?
• Why is reflection important when you are learning something new?
• Why is it important to share what you’ve learned? How will you share?

Web Application (Components of the Networked Learning Environment for Research)

Social Bookmarking (RSS) "Delicious"and/or "Pinboard"

• http://delicious.com/

• http://https://pinboard.in/

• Explain Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and evaluation of Websites

• Set up the account

• Subscribe to each others accounts

• Bookmark, read and annotate at least 5 reliable websites per week that reflect the content of chosen topic

• Add, annotate and read at least 3 additional sites each week.

Note Taking (Information Management) "Evernote"

• http://www.evernote.com

• Create Evernote account

• Begin content collection

News and Blog Alert (RSS)"Google Alert"

• http://www.google.com/alerts"

• Create a Google Alert of keywords associated with selected topic

• Read news and blogs on that topic that are delivered via email daily

• Subscribe to appropriate blogs in reader

Personal Web Aggregator (RSS, Information Management) "Google Everything", "Symbaloo" and "Netvibes"

• http://www.google.com/intl/en/about/products/index.html

• http://www.symbaloo.com/

• http://http://www.netvibes.com/en

• Introduction to Google, Netvibes and Symbaloo for Learning

• Customize choice

• Start by creating a Homepage

• This will build as participants learn new tools

News and Blog Reader (RSS) Google Reader, Reeder RSS Feeds

• http://www.google.com/reader/, http://madeatgloria.com/brewery/silvio/reeder

• Search for blogs and newsfeeds devoted to chosen topic

• Subscribe to blogs and newsfeeds to keep track of updates.

• Set up gadgets in Symbaloo

Personal Blog(RSS)/Mobile Blog "Blogger"

• Create a personal blog

• Blogger

• Post a personal reflection each day of the content found and experiences related to the use of Networked Learning Research Environment pertaining to project topics

• Find bloggers with similar topics subscribe to blogs in reader

Internet Search (Information Management, Contacts, and Synchronous Communication)"Google Scholar"

• http://scholar.google.com/

• Conduct searches in Google Scholar and Fogler library databases for scholarly works.

• Bookmark appropriate sites

• Consider making contact with expert for video conference"

Video (Research, Fun) "Vimeo"

• http://www.vimeo.com/

• Create and Account.
• Create a Channel.

Photo Sharing "Flikr or Picassa"

• http://www.flickr.com/
• http://picasa.google.com/

• Create and Account.
• Upload Photos.
• Share Photos.

• Interest of Participants

Video Conferencing (Contacts and Synchronous Communication) "Skype"

• http://www.skype.com

• Identify at least one subject matter expert to invite to Skype with you, group, family, community for your project.

Daily research, reflection, sharing (Ongoing during project)

Once the personal learning environment is constructed, the learner will continue to conduct research and navigate new content on a daily basis. Activities will be divided between introducing a tip or offering a research theme for the day, actual time spent conducting research will vary.
Synthesis- (Suggested at 1 to 2 weeks) "Google Site or Blog Page"

• Craft a final synthesis of your work.

Other Networks

Covered with time remaining or interest.

Podcasts (RSS) "iTunesU" "Academic Earth"

• http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/ or http://academicearth.org/

• Search iTunesU or Academic Earth for podcasts related to topic

• Listen or view to at least 4-10 podcasts or lectures

Microblogging "Twitter"

• http://twitter.com/

• Create and Account

• Follow 10 Individuals or organizations you found during research.

• Advanced use as interested

References|Attribution

• Steele-Maley, T (2010). Networked Project Design
• Drexler, W. (2008). YouTube - Networked Student. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Retrieved February 24, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA

• Portions of this Project Design have been adapted from the work of Dr. Wendy Drexler with permission. 

Web 2.0 Foundations: A Course in Participatory Technology

"So the coin of the realm is not memorizing the facts and figures their going to need for the rest of their lives; the coin of the realm will be, do you know how to find, validate and leverage information; do you know how to analyze and synthesize that information; and can you problem solve, collaborate and communicate with it...." - Ken Kay [1]

Hello all,

Web 2.0 Foundations: A Course in Participatory Technology

An Opening Vignette:

Technology is a word we often confuse with computers, programs, and myriad gadgets only.  If you dig deeper I think you would agree that humans have utilized technology in very innovative ways since the Middle Paleolithic (or for those numbers folks out there c. 200,000 years ago+-).  Be it friction fire, basketmaking, agriculture, irrigation, warfare, in-door plumbing, radio's or iPads there has always been a human driving the social use of these tools.  Elders, leaders, wise people....yes teachers have always enabled and proliferated technology at the core of cultures.  We need to never loose site that the young people before us are entering a radically different world than the one we came from.  Though pockets of traditional life ways exist (and may proliferate in terms of localization of food and economies), the connections young people have to the world and what the world needs are fundamentally shifting the narrative of their futures. We need a learning design that helps young people prepare for a world without borders.   So how are we responding? In 2008, Pearson put together this short video to make a few suggestions:



"We have to develop a narrative that sustains 21st century learning."

The 21st century imperatives for learning deal with information.  Do we enable our students to find, validate, leverage, analyze, synthesize , problem solve and collaborate with information on a regular basis?  What does this look like? 

Web 2.0 Foundations is designed to be a participatory venture between our school, teachers, learners and the community that moves students into spaces of dynamic individualized learning with new technologies while also helping the whole faculty move toward creating spaces (mental, physical and online) that enable these 21st century learners.

Over the semester I will post my designs for Web 2.0 Foundations: setting up an Learning Management System and expectations for networked learning, designs for extensive networked research, mLearning (Mobile Learning), project based learning, 360 degree assessment and more.  You will also see and be asked to view and give feedback on  student research and online creation.  In the end, via a capstone project I will ask students to take an assignment (two....) from a teachers class and transform it using Web 2.0 Foundations.  This experience is meant to make learning at WHS ubiquitous for the participants of the course and our school community. I look forward to working with you all and look forward to your comments and support!  Before the course "officially" starts here are a few important organizational tips for following this process.

We will tag everything we create with the following:

web2.0found (Social Bookmarking, this blog (Called Labels), student blogs (Called Lables))
#web2.0found (Twitter Hashtag)
web2.0foundtools (for specific tech tools used in the experience)
web2.0foundreading (for specific readings and research findings we like)

More on how to follow this tag stream soon!

I look forward to participating with you all in network!

Coming soon:

Step one: can our students find a syllabus, schedule, updates, discussions and expectations in asynchronous spaces online?.....

Google In Education: A New and Open World for Learning

Please  view and download this document.  It is worth your time.

Apple iBooks Author and Textbooks

Transition Education: 

See More here: 

 
http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/

ePortfolio Presentation January 11, 2012

The Data Frame Map

The Data Frame: We live in a world clothed in data, and as we interact with it, we create more. Welcome to the 2011 edition of the Web 2.0 Map. This map showcases the incumbents and upstarts in our network economy, gathered around various territories that represent the Web 2.0's Points of Control.- The Web 2.0 Summit Map - The Data Frame. (n.d.). Retrieved January 02, 2012, from http://map.web2summit.com/

Go to http://map.web2summit.com/ to see the interactive version!

Technology Integration Matrix

The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells as illustrated below. - Florida Center for Instructional Technology. (2009). The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM). Retrieved from http://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/matrix.php

I encourage you all to peruse the TIM site and start a comment discussion. Where are we on this continuum? What is interesting? What seems impossible? What seems vital to address?

ePortfolio with Google Apps Series: Introduction

Google Apps ePortfolio Step-by-Step Process

In this post you will find a basic introduction to the ePortfolio process using Google Docs.  The hard work WHS has done in designing Portfolio assessment will have an easy and effective framework to use through this process.  This first post is the conventional view of ePortfolio development.  How we choose as a community to add to this process is up to us.  I will be offering a series of these posts with each step picked apart for training purposes.  In each of those posts I will give live examples from our ePortfolio Template for 2011-2012.

We all acknowledge that there are serious competing interests for our time this year.  That said, this is attainable! The hard work is done.... as a community you have aknowledged that Portfolio assessment is an integral part of learning at WHS.  Framing portfolios as ePortfolios takes accepting that 21st century skills are a cornerstone to our mission at WHS and some effort.  We are an amazing and versatile faculty and administration that has talents in technology that far surpass so many in Maine. Using this community, asking questions and supporting the young people we teach and learn with is second nature here.  I will work hard to support the progression to uniform digital ePortfolios with my all and am looking forward to it! 

Glossary: Primary Responsibility for ePortfolio Component 

All School (AS)

Teacher (T)

Student (S)

Advisor (A)

Steps for using GoogleApps throughout the Portfolio Development Process

1. (AS) Purpose. Decide on the purpose for the portfolio. What are you trying to show with this portfolio? Are there outcomes, goals, or standards that are being demonstrated with this portfolio? In this example, steps 2-4 represent an interative process, using a blog to provide formative feedback on student work on a regular basis.
   • Teachers, Admin and (eventually) Students: Set up templates for student work in GoogleDocs organized around outcomes, goals and standards?
   • Students: Customize a Google Sites page that will serve as the opening page/Introduction to the portfolio and to the portfolio developer (see Section 6 below). This page will include a section entitled, "All About Me."
   •  Students create a Google Sites Announcements page type, to use as a reflective journal (blog). Call the page "Journal" or "Blog." Create a first post that describes the purpose for developing this portfolio.
     OR: Students create a blog in Blogger (included under the GoogleApps domain)

2. ---

   (S) Collection/Classification. What artifacts will you include in your portfolio? How will you classify these entries?
   
   • Students: Create a digital archive of work Using GoogleDocs. Offline, this archive would be on a hard drive, flash drive, iPod or local area network server.
   • Students: (Optional) Use a simple table or GoogleDocs Spreadsheet to list the artifacts, and assign (classify) each one to the outcome/goal/standard that the artifact will demonstrate. Use the table to keep track of artifacts that might be stored on one of the many Web 2.0 sites that you could use to store your work. See Dr. Barrett’s portfolio for an example (Artifacts in GoogleDocs Spreadsheet).
     
     Students will: convert all attached artifacts into web-compatible formats (JPEG or PDF) so that the potential reader will not need to own the original software in order to read it (i.e., Microsoft Office, Publisher, Inspiration documents could easily be converted into PDF and attached to a blog entry, or link to GoogleDocs).
     Web 2.0 storage: Video files can be saved on one of the video sharing sites, and use the Hyperlink or Embed code to include in your blog entry. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files could be uploaded into GoogleDocs. Other free websites that allow you to store documents: SlideShare, Scribd. Most of these Web 2.0 sites use an email address as the log-in name, so it will be easy to remember.

3. ---

   (S, T, A)Reflection. Reflection is the heart and soul of a portfolio. Reflection provides the rationale for why these artifacts represent achievement of a particular outcome, goal or standard. Blog entries provide an opportunity for reflection "in the present tense" or "reflection in action."
   
   • Teachers: Provide students with resources to support their reflection activities. For each learning activity or artifact, what should be the focus of the students' reflections? (See Dr. Barrett's Google Site on Reflection for Learning)
   • Students: Write a blog entry (using Journal set up using GoogleSites Announcements page type, or in Blogger--Step #1 above) with a reflection on each learning activity or artifact (what is the context in which this artifact was developed? What did you learn?).
   • Students: Add your own classification using Tags
   • Students: Add appropriate artifacts (through hyperlinks) or as an attachment to the journal entry.
     
     Privacy Features: Students can limit who can read the Google Site through the More Actions ->Share this Site menu item.

4. ---

   (AS) Connection/Interaction/Dialogue/Feedback. This stage provides an opportunity for interaction and feedback on the work posted in the portfolio. This is where the power of Web 2.0 interactive tools becomes apparent.
   • Teachers and Peers:  Use the feedback features of Google Sites or GoogleDocs, such as comments, to provide feedback on the work posted in the ePortfolio/blog entries. Guidelines should be provided to support more effective feedback.
   • Teachers often provide exemplars for different levels of achievement, and provide a rubric for evaluation.
   • Students should be given the option of updating the work, based on the feedback and the rubric.
     
     REPEAT steps 3-4 for each learning activity or artifact.

5. ---

   Summative Reflection/Selection/Evaluation. At the end of a course (or program), students would write a reflection that looks back over the course (or program) and provides a meta-analysis of the learning experience as represented in the reflections stored in the blog/journal entries.
• Students: Review the blog/journal entries for that category, and write a last "retrospective reflection" about the learning represented in the artifacts, selecting one or two examples that best represent achievement. This self-assessment should be the first part of a page set up in Google Sites.
• Students:  Prepare a GoogleSites Page for each Outcome, Goal or Standard, and link to the selected "best" blog entries, writing a reflection on each page (by outcome/goal/standard) which should also have the artifact attached or linked.
• Teacher/Advisor: Provide feedback and/or evaluation of the selection of work and rationale, using a WHS rubric.

6. ---

   Presentation/Publishing. The portfolio developer decides what parts of the portfolio are to be made public.
   • Student: Create a set of pages that highlight the best components of the portfolio, linking to specific entries in the blog. Add the evidence (through hyperlinks to blog entries or artifacts) to the appropriate sub-pages in the portfolio.
   • Students: Customize your Introduction page, which should contain an overview of the portfolio. It serves as a “letter to the reader” and provides an explanation of the overall goals of the portfolio. Provide links to other pages developed in the portfolio. Advertise this Introduction page as the initial access point in your portfolio.
   • Students: Create a page with Future Learning Goals (reflection in the future tense).
   • Teacher: When used for summative assessment, submit final evaluation of portfolio (assessed using a quantitative analytic rubric or a holistic rubric).
   
   Adapted under Free and Cultural Works with attribution to: Dr. Helen Barrett

ePortfolio Series

One of the things that makes WHS amazing is the work done already to integrate Portfolio assessment into the school culture and curriculum.  The work towards shifting portfolio assessment to ePortfolio assessment is not that difficult once the hard part of integration is understood.  In the next series of posts I will outline the ePortfolio process using our Google Apps instance.

Most of our work ahead in ePortfolio development is based on the deep research of Helen Barrett.  Dr. Barrett's work on  ePortfolios span two decades and she has become the preeminent voice in using Google Apps for ePortfolio development.  Many of the frameworks used before my time and those that I have built since are rooted in Dr. Barrett's thought. I will credit her many times over our time of integration.

In the next series of posts, I will start to outline the Google Apps ePortfolio Framework we hope to employ here.  Some of the posts will be big picture and some proscriptive and I hope all will be useful As always, please ask questions via comment here, in email or stop by 107 any afternoon for a f2f discussion.  

Mobile Learning, Study Skills and Questions

An app for using smartphones....to study.

• Would your students use this app? 

• Why? 

• What makes learning important/relevant enough for all students to dedicate significant time? 

"They can't afford smart phones"....Well if we gave a group of students smartphones with the stipulation that they needed to use them half of the time for study, what do you think the outcomes might be?

Musical Theater at WHS!

An amazing final product was released today in Molly Winchenbach's  Music Theater class! Molly and the students in her course worked hard over the last week as editors, critics, and technologists to realize this final product.