Week 5 Reflection: E-portfolios

This week's topic was very interesting. While participating in the Maine Writing Project, I created a digital portfolio of my writing. I recall that I found including thoughtful reflection to be something I found a little difficult. Perhaps it was because by the time I completed a writing assignment I was "done" with the assignment. Perhaps it was because thinking retrospectively then articulating that reflection takes time and on occasion... perceivably too much time. I guess I mention this because reflection is an important aspect of e-portfolios and I can identify with the necessity of both offering time for students to reflect and with the necessity of taking time to reflect.

In Barrett's article on the relationship between reflection and e-portfolios, she discusses three forms of reflection focus on the past (through artifacts collected), the present (so what do these artifacts really show about student learning now), and the future (now what goals are needed for future learning).  Thinking about student reflection in this way helped me wrap my head around how I might explain this expectation/process to my students. She discussed how using e-portfolios as an assessment FOR learning is reflective in itself.

I found reviewing exemplars of student created e-portfolios to be very helpful. I reviewed quite a few before I chose two to discuss. Although there were numerous portfolios that included reflections to some degree, I found the design of some portfolios distracting and not particularly user friendly. I noticed that I spent less time exploring what those students had to say. Good to see first hand what works well and what does not work well.  Because most of the portfolios spanned two or three school years, I was impressed to see how a students' reflection skills improved markedly over time. This was encouraging to witness. The student author, of one of the portfolios I chose, often reflected quiet honestly not on the actual assignment/artifact itself but on how she performed and what she needed to do differently next time. I know that this is something I would need to work with my students. Currently, they would be inclined to reflect on whether or not the artifact was boring or easy and not how they interacted with the assignment.

The concept choosing artifacts to include in a portfolio was not as easy as I had planned. I teach remedial math and language arts classes and it is not that what I teach lacks substance but there are times when the projects I assign are geared to the functionality of the students within the class.  That said, what I liked about creating the spreadsheet was that it did in fact cause me to think about the goal/learning objective about projects that I have used in the past. Approaching it from a student's prospective helped create a tool that can be used as an exemplar for students.

Finally, November's article "Technology Rich, Information Poor" caused me to think about my students and how important it is that I continue to work to excite them about "owning" their work, taking pride in their work, taking responsibility for their learning.  I have been known to insist that "their education is not a spectator sport" and that they need to embrace it, be at one with it, jump in and take some control of it!  November asserts that being able to collaborate with people near and far, being self-directed, interdependent, and being a life long learner are skills that will emerge if we empower students to take more responsibility in their learning.  I get that  and I acknowledge this importance. I also acknowledge that these skills are difficult for the students with whom I work. It will take time for these skills to develop but a good first start will be with giving e-portfolios a baby-step try.