STEP ePortfolio Workspace

A Web-Based Learning Environment Supporting Pre-

Service Teachers with Electronic Portfolio Creation, Reflection and

Online Collaboration

Jim Vanides & Keri MorgretStanford University Learning Design and Technology

2002

“…powerful education requires that teachers and principals be able to analyze and reflect on their practice. Individually and with others, they need to assess the effects of their work and to refine and improve their practice…”

Rachel LotanProgram Director

Stanford Teacher Education Program

“…powerful education requires that teachers and principals be able to analyze and reflect on their practice. Individually and with others, they need to assess the effects of their work and to refine and improve their practice…”

Rachel LotanProgram Director

Stanford Teacher Education Program

Key “Learning Problem”

How do we make the creation of electronic

portfolios easier and more meaningful?

What is an ePortfolio Workspace?

What is an ePortfolio Workspace?

• Community Discourse – asynchronous and synchronous discussion, faculty-student and student-student

• Community News – personalized• Document Management – organize and archive

digital work into “electronic binders”• Web Publishing – drag and drop simplicity

a personalized web-based learning space where I do my STEP work and an additional way to interact with my STEP community:

What is an ePortfolio Workspace?

• Assessment Portfolio – evidence of proficiency relative to Teaching Standards

a collection of digital works, organized in “electronic binders”:

• Formative Portfolios – work-in-progress, available for invited conversation and private reflection

• Employment Portfolio – shown to potential employers

• Course Binders – faculty-created, student appended

• Private Diary – index of reflections• Project Binders – personal or collaborative

Learning Cycle

Reflect

Experience

CaptureSharevideo

audionotes

photos

docs

selectcatalogorganize

annotate

peersC&I

supervisor

director

CT

prepare

friends

mentors

Learning Cycle

Reflect

Experience

CaptureSharevideo

audionotes

photos

docs

selectcatalogorganize

annotate

peersC&I

director

CT

prepare

friends

mentors

supervisor

Learning Benefits

• Scaffolds for deeper reflections related to teaching standards

• Facilitates collaboration, sharing and feedback• Increases learning productivity and organization

Save Time ~ Learn More

Design Method

• Informant and learner centric design• Scenario based design• Research review and key learning

principles• Reviewing existing tools & alternatives

Design Method

Informant Design: Engage STEP students, alumni, and faculty from the beginning of the design process …

Design Informants and Advisors

Rachel Lotan (STEP Director) Treena Joi (STEP ’02)

Margaret Krebs (PT3, Tech) Kara Mitchell (STEP ’02)

Alan Marcus (Social Studies C&I instructor; STEP supervisor)

Gloria Miller (STEP RA)

Jo Boaler (Math C&I instructor) Cory Maley (STEP alum)

Colin Haysman (STEP Instructor)

Katie Miller (STEP alum)

Teresa Cameron (STEP Tech) Anthony Gallego (STEP alum)

Decker Walker (LDT Faculty) Kristina Scott (STEP alum)

Cindy Mazow (Stanford Learning Lab, LDT alum)

Toru Iiyoshi (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching)

Existing Practices in STEP

• Face-to-Face community, with subgroups sorted by subject and supervisor

• Intense program with no “spare” time

• Docushare and web-server storage repositories• CD and Web deliverables• Assorted applications for processing

multimedia (PowerPoint, Word, iMovie…)

• Some web-design with Frontpage, Dreamweaver

Key “Learning Problem”

How do we make the creation of electronic

portfolios easier and more meaningful?What are other

teachers doing?

There’s no spare time!!

Reflecting is not very easy

Technology is a pain to learn…

How do I organize it all?

Proposed ePortfolio Workspace

• Web accessible anywhere, anytime• Asynchronous review and discussion,

synchronous chat• Dynamic, personalized website• Accepts varied multimedia objects• For formative and assessment portfolios• Supplements, doesn’t replace,

existing face-to-face community

Technology Infrastructure

Database

Web Server

Transcription Server

www

StorageArray

The Efficacy of Portfolios

“… a portfolio without goals (or standards) and reflections is just a multimedia presentation, or a fancy electronic resume…. [By] including reflection, direction (goal-setting), and connection (dialog with others about the portfolio), a teacher creates a foundation for powerful professional development.”Helen Barrett, University of Alaska Anchorage (2000) “Electronic Teaching Portfolios: Multimedia Skills + Portfolio Development = Powerful Professional Development”, SITE2000 Conferencehttp://www.electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/3107Barrett.pdf

Key Learning “Active Ingredients”

• Metacognitive Scaffolding• Community of Learners • Peer Review

Key Learning “Active Ingredients”

Metacognitive Scaffolding

“…learning is most effective when people engage in ‘deliberate practice’ that includes active monitoring of one’s learning experiences”.

John Bransford, Ann Brown, Rodnye Cocking(2000) p 59 How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School; quoting Ericsson (1993)

Key Learning “Active Ingredients”

Community of Learners

“…based on the premise that learning occurs as people participate in shared endeavors with others…”

Barbara Rogoff, UC Santa Cruz (1994) p 209, 214 “Developing Understanding of the Idea of Communities of Learners”.

Mind, Culture and Activity Vol. 1 No.4

Key Learning “Active Ingredients”

Peer Review

“If we want portfolios to be more than an accidental sharing of experiences, if we want the portfolio owners to get involved in each other’s work we have to design for that. Peer assessment is one approach…”

Håkon Tolsby “Digital Portfolios: A Tool for Learning, Self-Reflection, Sharing and Collaboration”

•Thinking about teaching

•Discussing teaching plans & questions

•Being a Learning Community

A personalized web-space for:

my.STEP.stanford

Personalized STEP news and calendar

Community of Learners

Community Tools and Interaction

Community of Learners

Community Showcase of Best Practices

Community of Learners

Public Recognition

Discussion and Collaboration

Collaborative consultation has been found to improve teachers' problem-solving skills, facilitate teachers' understanding of and attitude toward children's problems, and promote gains in long-term academic achievement (Meyers, 1995)

Susan N. Friel UNC-Chapel Hill (2000) MaSTech: An on-line community to support preservice and new teachers of middle grades mathematics and science.

Discussion by Invitation

Discussion and My eBinders

Discussion and Annotation

Community Discourse andPeer Review

Peer Review

Reflection

“… portfolios [at UNCG] emphasize reflection that requires descriptive, analytical, and transformative writing about the evidence presented in these portfolios.”

“…the quality of portfolios has improved…commensurate with the focus we have placed on integrating the reflective cycle into our professional courses.”

Barbara Levin, University of North Carolina Greensboro (2002) “Reflection as the Foundation for E-Portfolios”, SITE2002 Conference

UNCG “Reflection Cycle”

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/pbl/pblreflect.htm

Designing for Reflection

“… learning is most effective when people engage in ‘deliberate practice’ that includes active monitoring of one’s learning experiences.”

“Transfer can be improved by helping students become more aware of themselves as learners…. Metacognitive approaches to instruction have been shown to increase the degree to which students will transfer to new situations without the need for explicit prompting.”

John D. Bransford, et al (2000) p. 59 & 67, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School

Organize learning artifacts with drag & dropSimplicity

Reflection and My eBinders

Reflect while you organize…

Reflection and My eBinders

Reflection and My eBinders

Scaffolded Reflection, when the learning is fresh and meaningful

Reflection Focused on Teaching Standards

My eBinders

Self Assessment Framework for Reflecting on Teaching Standards

Teaching Standards and Reflection

Private Reflection

“… [preservice portfolio authors] avoid the kind of critical self-exposure necessary for truly engaging with problems of practice. If portfolios do not provide a place for such reflective thinking, it doesn’t seem likely that they will result in the kind of improvements in teaching practice or continuing teacher knowledge development that advocates hope for.”

Joanne Carney, Mercyhurst College (2002) “The Intimacies of Electronic Portfolios: Confronting Preservice Teachers’ Personal Revelation Dilemma”, SITE2002 Conference

Personal Reflections, including audio notes and transcription

Private Reflection

My ePortfolio

The assessment (summative) portfolio

Initial Feedback

• “This would be a huge step… The time element [of the STEP program] won’t go away, but this gets rid of the busywork of technology…”

• “This simplifies the whole process”• “As an instructor, I’d definitely use it!”• “How soon can you implement this?”

Next Steps

• Conduct additional user feedback and test the “learning experience” (does creating an electronic portfolio this way result in a more meaningful learning experience?)

• Incorporate domain-specific standards (national, state, STEP-specific, subject specific)

• Build live prototype