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