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L2 Documenting Learning Presentation 2017 - Google Slides

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L2 Documenting Learning Presentation 2017 - Google Slides

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L2 Documenting Learning Presentation 2017

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4:3 Copy of Holly Copy of Ambassador Toolkit: Seesaw Interactive Teacher Training - Google Slides

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4:3 Copy of Holly Copy of Ambassador Toolkit: Seesaw Interactive Teacher Training - Google Slides

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4:3 L2 Presentation of Ambassador Toolkit: Seesaw Interactive Teacher Training

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Take Away:          Author challenges readers to create our own ePortfolios…if we are expecting it of our students, we should model and experience the process ourselves.  May be the most intense PD of our lives. 	

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Take Away:          Author challenges readers to create our own ePortfolios…if we are expecting it of our students, we should model and experience the process ourselves.  May be the most intense PD of our lives. 	

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5 Essential Questions About ePortfolios - Getting Smart by Susan Lucille Davis - EdTech

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5 Essential Questions About ePortfolios - Getting Smart by Susan Lucille Davis - EdTech

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You have - no doubt - tuned in to the buzz about ePortfolios. Digital portfolios certainly were the talk of ISTE 2012 in June. Although it was written in 2005, "An Overview of E-Portfolios," by George Lorenzo and John Ittelson for Educause, paints a pretty good portrait, even now, of where we stand with ePortfolios for students, especially if you skip the part about CD-Roms and DVDs. As I decipher the ongoing conversation (for an example, the Twitter #Edchat summary by Shelly Terrell from 2009), I get the impression that many educators view ePortfolios as the ultimate solution to our complex assessment dilemmas.

Others see them as an easy viewing station to showcase student work for college applications. Still others believe digital portfolios could be used as a "parking lot" (I heard this term used by Joyce Valenza at an ISTE Unplugged's Social EdCon session) for student's' collected accomplishments from the wide expanse of their entire educational experience - in other words, a place for gathering all of one's academic, artistic, athletic, or other achievements from kindergarten to twelfth grade. I have even heard some educators talk about ePortfolios in radically informal terms - as an ad hoc display of everything we produce on the web that comes up in a Google search, whether we choose to curate it or not.

Thinking Anew

As a classroom teacher, I have heretofore viewed ePortfolios as mere digital extensions of the work I have traditionally done with my high school English students. I have used portfolios, electronic or otherwise, primarily as a variation on the creative writing folders I put together for my own graduate courses - collected samplings of different approaches to writing assignments from which I drew to produce more polished work. Transferring this kind of "process writing" strategy to a shared digital space allows students to see and learn from each others' work, provide feedback, and offer reflections that extend their learning. It also provides means for students to explore multiple forms of media for self-expression.

Yet, in a recent conversation at SocialEdCon, I found that as ubiquitous as the conversation about ePortfolios may be, we are not all talking about the same thing. I worry that the result may be that students will receive mixed messages about what this most essential learning tool can mean for them. Students also risk losing control of a process critical to their success as adults if ePortfolios are co-opted by well-intentioned schools in the name of universal assessment. By the way, I can think of no better way to turn off students to learning skills that matter dearly for their futures. Not to mention my concerns about how our missteps as educators, controlling rather than guiding students as they develop their portfolios, may de-motivate them from ownership of this important task of taking responsibility for managing their own identities online.

Thus, I ask all of us to take a breather and consider a few essential questions before jumping onto the ePortfolio bandwagon.

1. Whose ePortfolio is it, anyway?

Who has ownership of the materials? Who will house them, arrange them, and direct them? Learn from them? Share them?

My teaching instincts tell me that this must be the students themselves, perhaps with their parents' help when they are in younger grades. Our students have the most to gain, the most to learn, and the most at stake. It is they who must own the experience of learning from the process of portfolio creation.

2. Who will read the ePortfolio, and for what purpose?

Will the portfolio be public or private? Is the purpose of the portfolio to collect artifacts of learning to share with teachers, parents, and others? To provide a means for educational assessment by schools? Should it be viewed as a way to speak to future colleagues (in school or work), display professional expertise or experiences, or showcase projects? Is the portfolio a learning strategy and a place for open and transparent reflection?

I believe our students should wrestle with these questions. Their portfolios - I use the plural here purposefully - may evolve in a myriad directions - perhaps a shelf of portfolios - depending on their answers and their growth over time.

3. Who will curate and organize the materials of an ePortfolio?

Who will decide what is important to include and what is better left out of this digital archive? Who will decide on the design and display of the work contained? Who will arrange, categorize, and label the pieces to be shared, ultimately making sense of the messy, eclectic nature of the learning that has taken place? Who will do the hard work of deriving meaning from the ePortfolio's contents?

These questions, for me, go straight to the heart of the ePortfolio debate. If a student does not learn to curate and make sense of his or her own life, then when will that student gain the necessary skills of sorting, evaluating, designing, and processing his or her own content that will ultimately lead to self-determination and agency?

4. What shape will the ePortfolio take, and where should it be housed?

Will the format of such a digital personal library reflect the nature of our students' experience with multimedia? Will students learn how to manipulate each medium to maximize its potential and to show off each document at its best? Will the format allow the subject to make connections across disciplines and connect with resources (human and otherwise) and tools outside the school's walls? Or will the ePortfolio look like a digital version of a checklist of graduation requirements (or human resources checklist) with documents arranged just so and in order by grade and subject? Will the documents die in a fixed platform housed by a "protected" environment that is ultimately dumped by well-meaning IT folks at the end of each school year?

Certainly in this age of personal and personalized instruction, we should look closely at the platforms and tools for creating such an important collection and ask how they deliver the message we hope they will project. How will students learn how to find the best way to present their best selves digitally if they can't experiment with the tools needed do so? If Google is creating a default portfolio for us, simply by means of its power to aggregate our online expressions, shouldn't students also master the art of the Google profile to take charge of their own digital identities?

5. What is the teacher's role?

Who will teach the skills required for curating one's passions, one's life's work? Who will provide meaningful and authentic practice with capturing projects as they progress, collecting and commenting on learning experiences, searching for themes and threads across the spectrum of one's experiences, sharing reflections that go beyond surface blather, and selecting and displaying one's best work?

These days I cannot think of a better or more important argument for good teaching than the urgent need to nurture students as they learn to communicate their own stories. Who else will teach the "digital portfolio skills" our students need to make sense of their lives and share it with others who will value, learn from, and evaluate their work? Who else will teach them how to produce and collect valuable artifacts of their learning, organize their online stuff, read and understand multiple audiences, manage their Google profiles, dive deep into themselves to reflect, and produce elegant digital archives of their steps towards mastery?

The Documenting Process as Self-Discovery: A Story

The first professional portfolio I ever created - required for my yearly review as a Writing Instructor at The American University back in the 1980s - consisted of my course syllabi, my best assignments, samples of student work, my course evaluations by students, and an end-of-year reflection. For this authentic exercise of curating my professional growth, I was given guidelines for what to include, or else I wouldn't have known where to start. I was required to put everything together in a 2" white binder; otherwise, I would have procrastinated or dabbled in some journal writing, but I would never have gauged the effect of pulling together all the pieces of what I'd done for the year. Imagine if a secretary in the English Department office had done the hard work of collecting these materials into a tidy bureaucratic document for me - I wouldn't have learned a thing. As it happened, I learned enormously from both reviewing the scope of my experience and from the practice of curating an archive of my professional accomplishments.

Now, jump ahead a few decades. Last winter, I set about the task of creating an online portfolio to represent my three decades of work in education. Boy, did I have some sorting and evaluating to do! I learned how to manipulate Google Sites in order to connect my online portfolio to my Google profile because I wanted professional colleagues and potential collaborators to find me. I thought about which themes were most important to my work and how I wished to represent my life's work. I selected photos, created Wordles, and hunted down documents. Quite happy with the result, I was even more profoundly affected by the process of pulling everything together and making meaning from my experiences.

This is the kind of meaning I want my students to discover. Yet, most teachers I bump into have never done created a digital portfolio of their own, so it's not surprising that they continue to think of ePortfolios only in terms of school assessments. (A quick show of hands at SocialEdCon last month revealed that only about a quarter to a third of those present had created a digital portfolio for themselves - and we were the geeky set!)

Thus, I challenge every teacher or administrator who reads this post to create a personal portfolio that captures in digital form his or her work as an educator - and I challenge them to share it with the world. As you curate your own identity, you may stumble upon the most authentic construct for teaching of your career.

Postscript

Over the summer I'm kicking around the idea of using Googlio as a place for my middle-schoolers to begin archiving their learning and accomplishments. Certainly one of our challenges is to find a suitable place for students to harvest and store their learning artifacts over time. Something Google-esque that serves this purpose seems as if it might be with us for the duration. In the meantime, I would be grateful to any readers who might share their practical experience or philosophical ruminations regarding ePortfolios here. We need to figure this out together.

Susan Davis is an education blogger, strategist, and consultant in Fort Worth, Texas. She also designs professional development programs for the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools. You can follow her on Twitter @suludavis.

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5 Essential Questions About ePortfolios - Getting Smart by Susan Lucille Davis - EdTech

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You have - no doubt - tuned in to the buzz about ePortfolios. Digital portfolios certainly were the talk of ISTE 2012 in June. Although it was written in 2005, "An Overview of E-Portfolios," by George Lorenzo and John Ittelson for Educause, paints a pretty good portrait, even now, of where we stand with ePortfolios for students, especially if you skip the part about CDs.

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Embed for haiku deck portfolio philosophy

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Embed for haiku deck portfolio philosophy

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<iframe src="https://www.haikudeck.com/e/de0df29ce1/?isUrlHashEnabled=false&isPreviewEnabled=false&isHeaderVisible=false" width="640" height="541" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0"></iframe><br/><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"><a title="ISZL Portfolio Guiding Philosophy Presentation" href="https://www.haikudeck.com/p/de0df29ce1/iszl-portfolio-guiding-philosophy?utm_campaign=embed&utm_source=webapp&utm_medium=text-link">ISZL Portfolio Guiding Philosophy</a> - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires</span>

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A portfolio tells the story... - A Haiku Deck by ISZL HaikuDeck

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A presentation by ISZL HaikuDeck created with Haiku Deck, free presentation software that is simple, beautiful, and fun.

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Blogzilla Vs. the King of e-portfolios: how and why to best document student learning? | @MrTTattle

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Blogzilla Vs. the King of e-portfolios: how and why to best document student learning? | @MrTTattle

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...I had a great weekend, met some likeminded educators and had my eyes opened to a number of new apps, strategies and approaches. The Learning2 experience is worthy of a separate post and I will return to give it the attention it deserves but for now, I want to zero in on the focus of my pre-conference workshop - e-portfolios: and how we define, identify and implement them. Used incorrectly, these terms are perceived as digital mega-monsters out to force all learning online but in reality, whilst terminology matters, the most successful documentation of student learning is likely to rely on a hybrid of both.

"We define documentation as the practice of observing, recording, interpreting, and sharing through a variety of media the processes and products of learning in order to deepen and extend learning ... These physical traces allow others to revisit, interpret, reinterpret, and even re-create an experience."

Visible Learners" by Krechevsky, Mardell, Rivard, & Wilson,

The documentation of student learning is a vital part of the learning cycle and yet one that seems to be so easily overlooked. As technology replaces and reimagines established methods of knowledge curation (exercise book/journal/binder/writing tool), teachers are left chasing ways to ensure that the work their students create is stored appropriately. We also need to consider the life cycle of a piece of work because if we don't encourage students to collect examples of their best practise, to share with teachers, peers and parents, what message are we sending out about the importance and validity of what they create?

Kimberly House, EdTech specialist at the Bavarian International School ran a Learning2 pre-con session entitled DOCUMENTING LEARNING WITH PORTFOLIOS and in light of the questions above, I was quick to sign up. Here are some the significant questions and possible answers that I took from Kim's thought provoking session (a padlet overview of some key ideas can be found here):

What's the difference between a blog and portfolio? Do they have to be mutually exclusive?

port·fo·lio \pȯrt-ˈfō-lē-ˌō\ - a selection of a student's work (as papers and tests) compiled over a period of time and used for assessing performance or progress

I've had several experiences recently where discussion of the terms portfolio and blog has antagonised normally mild mannered teachers desperate to defend their students' right not to blog or share beyond the confines of a tightly walled virtual garden. These terms appear controversial and are certainly interpreted differently according to context and speaker. Personally, I've been sceptical of students using blogs as portfolios because, as the Merriam Webster definitions above indicate, they are different beasts. Key terms of distinction leap out in the form of 'work' versus 'reflections' and the phrase ' for assessing performance or progress'. As an English teacher, semantics matters and the devil really is in the detail.

With this in mind, a top takeaway from Kim's session was the role that categorisation and effective tagging can have in allowing students to differentiate between posts on a blog that are explicit examples of academic best work and those that may be more personal reflective pieces. Making students aware of this process could help to effectively embrace and reflect the complex nature of blogging rather than forcing an oversimplification that undermines its value.

2. If we expect students to put maximum effort into producing products and assessments, shouldn't we do more to respect and celebrate what they create?

I see connections here to another recent PD experience I've had with Dylan Wiliam talking about turning feedback into feedforward. At high school level and certainly in the English classroom, we are encouraging students to recognise that they are on a journey to become better communicators and writers over time. Encouraging learners to archive written tasks and review them again at key check points could be a meaningful way to engage them more directly in the learning process and to recognise where progress was actually made. Tanmay Vora explores this notion in a post on when does learning really happen? which goes some way towards supporting Wiliam's concept of helping students to close the gap in their learning by identifying themselves at a point in a fluid process.

3. Can we do more to ensure that the 'display' of student work is an active process rather than a passive outcome?

Investing time in involving students in the effective documentation of their learning could positively influence how we report and interact with parents. Apps like ThingLink enable students to make photographs and documents come alive by linking in video and audio files. Tools like this could enable students to 'step inside' their work and unpack learning in a way that a standard google drive folder or work on the wall simply can't. When combined with padlet walls, ThingLink also becomes a hugely powerful tool for students to share work, reflections and assessment tips with their peers. Both situations provide examples of students having to go further to explain their learning and could be used at the centre of dynamic student led conferences. What I don't agree with is students' online portals being used for explicit task specific reflection or anything to do with referencing specific academic grades. For me, this is where English teachers can play a role in clarifying the audience and purpose of a blog in order to discourage it from being used as a place to publicly share academic concerns. Working with our Tech expects and considering models like SAMR could help to evaluate the best steps to take.

Our session also explored a world in which e-portfolios replace the need for student reports but I think this requires really careful curation and could only happen in conjunction with a open online grade book.

Ultimately, I think that terminology matters and that we should talk more about effective documentation that we should about blogs and or as portfolios. Selecting platforms and methods suitable for the stage the students are at is also really important and a great reason to encourage more cross divisional collaboration because the platform may change but the language should stay constant.

Thanks to Kim & Co. at Learning2 for an awesome session and the chance to really drill down into a an issue that could and should be relevant to us all. Online tools offer great potential to document the narrative of student learning but it does depend on which story you want to tell...

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Blogzilla Vs. the King of e-portfolios: how and why to best document student learning?

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I had a great weekend, met some likeminded educators and had my eyes opened to a number of new apps, strategies and approaches. The Learning2 experience is worthy of a separate post and I will return to give it the attention it deserves but for now, I want to zero in on the focus of my pre-conference workshop - e-portfolios: and how we define, identify and implement them.

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Include, Inquire, Inspire | Inquiry into Tech Integration in the Early Years

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Include, Inquire, Inspire | Inquiry into Tech Integration in the Early Years

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The Learning 2 Europe conference hashtag and catchphrase have been running through my mind since it finished two days ago. The conference may have ended, but the ideas generated and connections made will hopefully last beyond the 3 day event.

A Chance to Play with AppleClips:

I had very high hopes for this year's conference at ASW in Poland after an unforgettably high energy L2 conference last year in Milan. Last year's learning curve was steep-I was not yet in my current role as Ed Tech Coach, and so much of what I learned and took in was brand new (to me). I attended a wide range of sessions, joined every social opportunity and networked like crazy. I was in awe of people's experiences, connections and skills.

This year, as part of my Personal Learning Plan to challenge myself, and to support my final project inquiry into e-portfolios, I volunteered to lead a teacher workshop on Seesaw.

The conference started with a great session on ePortfolios and documenting learning by Kimberly House. Now, I have been living and breathing e-portfolios this last year and a half and what was brand new and inspiring last year, was more like review and affirmation this year. It was great to be in the session with my colleagues from the High School and the benefits of the opportunity to hear their perspectives and to develop shared language and understandings cannot be understated.

Learning 2 has the fabulous tradition of hosting its 'extended session leaders' on the stage over the 3 days to deliver a series of Ted-style key note talks. A-mazing. One talk was given by a High School student, Nico who explained delved into Einstein's quote on why ' imagination is more important than knowledge.' Josefino Rivera, who specialises in training students to deliver Ted Style talks, insisted we teachers must 'walk the walk' we expect of our students. John Mikton convinced me of my moral responsibility to model responsible device use in front of my students and children.

Another great aspect of the Learning 2 conference is the cohorts. I joined a technology leader cohort (there were 3!) to find like-minded people to learn with and from. This year, L2 challenged us to come up with cohort hashtags and memes. At our first session, we discussed the sometimes random and confusing nature of our job titles and tasks. This resulted in our never-ending ticker tape response to #WhatIDoAllDay, encapsulated in film, and 360 degree camera:

My extended sessions (' Change Makers' with Sonya terBord and Hosting a Ted Ex Club/Event with Josefino Rivera) were thought provoking and informative, although perhaps not as hands on as my sessions last year (physically re-arranging a classroom and learning to program a variety of robots are hard to beat in terms of immediate, hands-on learning.) I don't think I walked away with as many new tools or skills or 'I'm gonna do this Monday" kind of thing as I did last year. Although I do plan on using this animation lesson using TED ed: lessons worth sharing one of these Mondays (I host a Digital Design After School club on Monday.)

Another fabulous aspect of L2 are the unconferences-random meetings of like minds interested in discussing what is immediately relevant and of interest. My first unconference I joined the Maker Space in the library and 'hacked' my conference badge by figuring out how to complete a circuit in order to light up an LED. The next day I discussed the addictiveness of the new Serial produced podcast series, 'S town' (I half wrote this post and half listened to the podcast on my journey home) and compared and contrasted our respective school's tech integration model with someone sitting next to me on the couch. Fabulous.

I think ultimately my biggest learning was leading my own workshop on Seesaw. Public speaking/presenting is the single most dreadful experience in my #firstworldproblem kind of existence. I'm terrified of it-but this terror was what made me skip lunch, lose sleep and work extra hard to make sure I knew my s-. My session had a great turnout and people had great questions and I actually knew the answer to most of them. Many were self-proclaimed 'converts' after my session. My Seesaw ambassadorship and Coetail forced me out of my comfort zone and insisted that I give back and share.

One of my main conference take-aways, however was actually not from any of the sessions/unconferences/workshops or speeches, but simply the connections made (and hopefully maintained and kept...) Madeline Brookes' #BaconNumber talk alludes to the power of connections.

There is so much value that comes from the opportunity, time and space to connect with colleagues from around the around the world (and from my own school!) The power of meeting your teaching idols is great, but one can't beat those conversations with emotional impact on the path to 'finding your tribe.'

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Inquiry into Tech Integration in the Early Years

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The Learning 2 Europe conference hashtag and catchphrase have been running through my mind since it finished two days ago. The conference may have ended, but the ideas generated and connections made will hopefully last beyond the 3 day event.

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-post portfolio vision/agreements on all computer/ipad carts
(Visible for students, parents, teachers.)

How to best share this w parents--
Seesaw? Blogger? VLE? School website?

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COETAIL Online Cohort 6 | Course 5: Alive in the Classroom

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COETAIL Online Cohort 6 | Course 5: Alive in the Classroom

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Inquiry into Tech Integration in the Early Years | Playing and learning alongside digital natives

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Inquiry into Tech Integration in the Early Years | Playing and learning alongside digital natives

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twitter

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-an on-going look at our progress

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PD in Your PJs: Seesaw Blogs and Digital Citizenship - YouTube

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PD in Your PJs: Seesaw Blogs and Digital Citizenship - YouTube

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PD in Your PJs: Seesaw Blogs and Digital Citizenship

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Blogging has never been easier than with Seesaw blogs! Seesaw's Emily V will show you how to set up your Seesaw Blog, how to connect with other classrooms, and share digital citizenship resources.

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Evidence of Sustained online connections:

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Become Seesaw Ambassador
-done!

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Staff PD:Copy of Staff Meeting Reports and Portfolios from January 2017 - Google Slides

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Staff PD:Copy of Staff Meeting Reports and Portfolios from January 2017 - Google Slides

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--staff feedback is on-going as of Feb 13

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Copy of Staff Meeting Reports and Portfolios January 2017

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-make the most of being in the Seesaw Ambassador G+ community--exploring Google + as a sharing/learning/collaborating platform

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My own PD towards making the most of e-portfolios/Seesaw:

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My own PD towards making the most of e-portfolios/Seesaw:

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E portfolios session with Kimberly House

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Seesaw's limitations ...comments aren't copied when sharing a post -only captions

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but could be more...

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Tricia Friedman on Twitter: "@BevansJoel @horofraser You've been quoted in my #Storify story "#Learning2's 1st ever #L2chat!" https://t.co/KIyGdqxyxc"

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Tricia Friedman on Twitter: "@BevansJoel @horofraser You've been quoted in my #Storify story "#Learning2's 1st ever #L2chat!" https://t.co/KIyGdqxyxc"

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Embed Code for future use:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/BevansJoel">@BevansJoel</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/horofraser">@horofraser</a> You&#39;ve been quoted in my <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Storify?src=hash">#Storify</a> story &quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Learning2?src=hash">#Learning2</a>&#39;s 1st ever <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/L2chat?src=hash">#L2chat</a>!&quot; <a href="https://t.co/KIyGdqxyxc">https://t.co/KIyGdqxyxc</a></p>&mdash; Tricia Friedman (@FriedEnglish101) <a href="https://twitter.com/FriedEnglish101/status/825267720010752000">January 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
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@BevansJoel @horofraser You've been quoted in my #Storify story "#Learning2's 1st ever #L2chat!" https://t.co/KIyGdqxyxc

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@BevansJoel @horofraser You've been quoted in my #Storify story "#Learning2's 1st ever #L2chat!" https://t.co/KIyGdqxyxc

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Don’t miss what’s happening

People on Twitter are the first to know.

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@BevansJoel @horofraser You've been quoted in my #Storify story "#Learning2's 1st ever #L2chat!" https://t.co/KIyGdqxyxc
— Tricia Friedman (@tricia_fried) January 28, 2017

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@BevansJoel @horofraser You've been quoted in my #Storify story "#Learning2's 1st ever #L2chat!" https://t.co/KIyGdqxyxc

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@BevansJoel @horofraser You've been quoted in my #Storify story "#Learning2's 1st ever #L2chat!" https://t.co/KIyGdqxyxc

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@BevansJoel @horofraser You've been quoted in my #Storify story "#Learning2's 1st ever #L2chat!" https://t.co/KIyGdqxyxc

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link to storify

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#L2chat on Portfolios (with images, tweets) · FriedEnglish101

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A conversation for #Learning2 participants past and to be!

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Kindling for the Campfire | Sowing ideas one post at a time

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Kindling for the Campfire | Sowing ideas one post at a time

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Blogfolios: The Glue that Can Hold it All Together in Learning | Silvia Tolisano- Langwitches Blog

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Blogfolios: The Glue that Can Hold it All Together in Learning | Silvia Tolisano- Langwitches Blog

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Digital Portfolios are so much more than a digital versions of a paper portfolio, a folder sent home at the end of the week, semester or year or an online version of someone's writing journal. In addition, I am talking about Blogfolios, which are digital portfolios on a blogging platform. These blogfolios are:

not behind a password protected wall to encourage authentic feedback and a global audience

not only sharing the "best" work of someone, but the process of learning that it took to get to the "best" work in this moment in time

the platform to allow open discussion to have one's work be critiqued, influenced, re-mixed and built upon by others

If I had to create a "pitch" for Blogfolios, I would say:
Blogfolios are the glue that can hold it all together!
Blogfolios are a pedagogical tool/platform for the teacher to facilitate learning and at at the same time can become in critical component for a heutagogical (self-directed/ self-motivated) process for the learner. Blogfolios are the glue that can hold all curricular content, goals and objectives as well as support school initiatives, observations, assessment and accountability requirements or personal passions, interest and projects together... you can insert other education related programs, theories, taxonomies, methods, etc. and we can find connections HOW blogfolios could help support it.

Literacy

We know that the notion of literacy, reading and writing in order to communicate in our day and age has expanded from traditional reading and writing via text and analog paper sources. The world around us has significantly and is continuing to change exponentially. We read and need to comprehend multimedia messages, follow hyperlinked, non-linear content and need to be able to write on different platforms. We need to know how to take into consideration their collaborative and connected nature and a potential global audience. How do we take advantage of different media and platforms to effectively address copyright considerations and requirements, search engine algorithms and network characteristics to engage potential readers, collaborators, curators and thought partners? To be considered literate, we need skills beyond basic reading and writing and extend into the world of "reading and writing" in a networked, global and different types of media environment with the ability to not only consume information, but find, evaluate, analyze, curate, remix, and create new types of information.
...Blogfolios can be the platform to expose learners to the skills, dispositions and habits of mind to amplify basic reading and writing into the world of an extended notion of literacy. Blogfolios give learners the chance to not just hear about these new literacies, but they are actively experiencing and working with new skills to become fluent in them.
Heutagogy

Pedagogy is about the techniques, methods and strategies teachers use to facilitate learning for their students. Heutagogy is centered around self-motivated and self-directed learning. Webucation is about taking advantage of the fact that anyone with access to the internet and a device is capable to access information, tutorials, mentors, coaches, materials, videos, text, images in order to literally learn anything they wish to learn. The only thing that is required to bring is the MOTIVATION to learn the skills to find, evaluate and use what is available for their own learning. There is a shift away from learning for grades, credentials and other extrinsic factors towards learning for the desire to learn and intrinsic motivation.
... Blogfolios can support learning and teaching ourselves. Blogfolios should not belong to a particular teacher, professor or the school, but to the learners themselves. Taking ownership of their blogfolios is crucial versus having entries to the blogfolio be by assignments and deadlines only. Blogfolios are not strictly meant to be for "school work", but should include documentation of any learning (in and outside of school).

Documenting Learning

Documenting our learning serves as a heutagogical tool. Capturing artifacts that demonstrate the process of learning as well as a product, need to be able to be stored, archived and displayed somewhere. Blogfolios give the self-directed learner a hub to document their learning and to make it visible for others. Where have they been? What steps did they take along the way? How are these learning artifacts connected with each other? Documentation OF learning can grown into documenting FOR learning and documenting AS learning, when strategically embedded into the learning process.

...A blogfolio allows for all types of media (text, images, video, audio) to be inserted and embeded into a post. Through linking of blog posts or individual artifacts, a timeline of the learning process can be created and reflected upon. When documentation happens over a period of time, the blog with its chronological postings facilitates a timeline of the learning process. The blogfolio becomes the showcase to use documentation FOR learning (our own as well as the learning of others who visit and engage in our blogfolio. When we use documentation as a vehicle of learning, the blogfolio becomes the tool and the process at the same time.

Reflection & Metacognition
...A blogfolio allows for the support of that framing of reflection and metacognition. Activities, projects, curriculum units, assessments, etc, don't stand on their own, in isolation, but they become part of a process. How can I tell the story of my learning? What does my learning mean to me and to the world around me? Why is my work important and how is it related to other people and other work? How is it related to my own work from last week, from last month/year and to my other areas of interest? What are cross-curricular relationships, patterns? Where do trends in my knowledge, learning emerge?

Reflection is not an add-on to the learning process, but a critical component. Thinking about your thinking (metacognition) reflecting on one's own cognitive processes and stresses the awareness and flow of our thinking as strategies to help us learn. We can, of course, reflect and think about our thinking in paper journals, in verbal conversations, in our own heads, but there is a depth to our learning added when we reflection in public and in writing (not only in text necessarily). Jackie Gerstein says "If we don't create a process of reflecting and framing them, then we are leaving learning up to chance,"
...A blogfolio allows for students and teachers ("the learners") to collect and demonstrate over time their goals, process and growth towards these goals and other objectives. The ownership rests with the learner to present evidence of steps towards and accomplishments of their goals. The ownership of looking for this evidence does not lie with the teacher or supervisor.

Student (and Teacher) Led Conferences

Many schools are embracing student-led conference to give students a voice and ownership when reporting on their process and progress. Why should teachers and parents talk ABOUT the student? Why shouldn't the student take ownership, know what the goals are, how to accomplish them and how to articulate the journey and process towards these goals. In addition, Andrea Hernandez asks why not teacher-led conferences as the next step to complement or replace teacher high-stakes, model lesson observations?
...A blogfolio can give us insight HOW we and our students are learning (if properly framed to embed reflection and metacognition), not just WHAT was learned. We learn how students will use what they learned and apply it in authentic situations. We could replace weekly spelling tests of 10 random words or grammar quizzes and see how students are USING the assigned words and grammatical forms in authentic context in a blog post.

Assessment

As educators, we are responsible to assess our students' learning. We assess to fulfill requirements of accountability and we assess to tell us, as teachers, more about our students. We assess to know what our students know, what they have learned and how that will affect what we will and how to teach next.
...A blogfolio supports choices for learners. Blogfolios are not prescribed, with a one-size-fits-all appearance, matching content, assignments, and media format. Learners are to take responsibility and creativity to show evidence of their learning. Ron Ritchard worries about how too much instructions can inhibit genuine thinking in students. Blogfolios are a platform and a framework that encourage learners to make their own thinking and learning visible on their own terms.

Differentiation

We don't all learn the same way. We don't all come with the same background content knowledge nor the same abilities and skills to make sense of the content we are presented with. In Wikipedia, differentiation is described as "a framework or philosophy for effective teaching that involves providing different students with different avenues to learning (often in the same classroom) in terms of: acquiring content; processing, constructing, or making sense of ideas; and developing teaching materials and assessment measures so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively, regardless of differences in ability." John Spencer asks himself: What happens when students have choice in the way they learn and show evidence of their learning?
...A blogfolio supports that process of inquiry/project/problem based learning by encouraging documentation and reflection. The inherent chronological sequencing of a blogfolio adds to a timeline for unpacking content/learning/phases/results. The ability to hyperlink different posts/content and documentation artifacts on your blogfolio encourages the creation of connections on multiple levels. Blogfolios also strengthens the learner's capacities to articulate, visualize and present their thinking, reasoning and decision making skills behind their work.

Project/Inquiry/Problem Based Learning
...A blogfolio allows us and our students to build an academic digital footprint. It gives us the space to upload, store and archive our work to build content that will develop and become part of our footprint and seed, grow and maintain our digital footprint. Through blogfolios, we can take advantage of opportunities that develop skills to strengthen our identity, connect our content to an audience and become aware of the interconnections and flow of networks. Blogfolios give learners an opportunity to create (positive) content, attached to their name, that when someone googles them, they will be found among the search results. It becomes part of our digital identity to strategically be search engine friendly (keywords) and create content that will associate ourselves within a desired content area.

No matter if you are implementing project based, inquiry based or problem based learning with your students, all stress the importance of the thinking process and the cognitive awareness of the learner.

Digital Identity
...A blogfolio removes many of the barriers to accessibility. Student blogfolios give parents and teachers a view of learning anytime and anywhere. Parents don't have to wait until a teacher calls them or invites them to a conference meeting. They can review blogfolio entries with their child, deepening the conversation and going beyond the typical interaction of "What did you do in school?"... "Nothing". Teachers will gain valuable insight into their current students' thinking and learning outside of their own classrooms and times together as well as future students at the start of a new school year. When educators share their own thinking and learning, their experiences and best practices, blogfolios become a rich source of professional development for other educators around the world. No longer do we have to wait to go to a conference or workshop, but we are able to access new learning opportunities 24/7.
How do you see blogfolios as the glue that can hold all the puzzle pieces together? What are some of your puzzle pieces and how are/can blogfolios support them?
is our online that we claim in cyberspace. Digital identities are not reserved for companies or organizations, but are increasingly important for individuals as well. It is a fallacy to believe that, if we choose to NOT be online and worry about building and growing a digital identity consciously, that we do not have a digital identity. Not finding a digital footprint of a person online speaks volumes about the "lack of the work" that their are sharing and contributing to the field. Also, even though someone might choose not to create a digital footprint, others might/will for them. Our Digital Identities are becoming increasingly more important in our digital world! Our digital identity Will Richardson in his book " Why School? " challenges every school: "How can we make sure that every student who walks on graduation day is well Googled by his or her full name?"

Accessibility

The traditional school system can be very rigid. There is a daily school schedule to follow that dictates us when to be in class and with a certain time for a specific subject area. Teachers and students are siloed within the school and from the outside world. Parents are dependent on phone calls or annual parent/teacher conferences to learn more about what is academically going on in the lives of their children. Teachers, who teach the same students, usually have no access and insight to the work and thinking of their students in other academic areas, unless they schedule specific meeting times with their colleagues. Professional Development opportunities offered at the school are scheduled for specific days and times and conferences or workshops are in different locations.

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Blogfolios: The Glue that Can Hold it All Together in Learning | Silvia Tolisano- Langwitches Blog

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Digital Portfolios are so much more than a digital versions of a paper portfolio, a folder sent home at the end of the week, semester or year or an online version of someone's writing journal. In addition, I am talking about Blogfolios, which are digital portfolios on a blogging platform.

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responding more to community queries...
short screencast using (new to me) Snagit :)

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On-going staff discussion regarding portfolio agreements:

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On-going staff discussion regarding portfolio agreements:

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We looked critically (not criticising) at each other's posts (using the above framework and questions)

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Involving the children more in making posts, reflecting on posts and sharing parent comments (EY-1

-Helps if all classes have permanent projector station...EY1 ?

-Offer to come in and model a reflection session? (KG/Grade 1)?
-print more 'Seesaw/wow work' posters? (KG-Grade 1)

More communication/workshops with parents about portfolio purpose, philosophy

Make intro/emphasis) to portfolios part of Parent conferences --all new parents/blogs are created and invited by then --Ed Tech on stand by to help if parents are not yet connected...??

revisiting the purpose of portfolios and eportfolios to help developed a school-wide shared understanding  ?? (all--staff meeting followed up by teams to revisit agreements)

More direct teaching of skills (taking photos, videos, recordings) so students can make better quality posts with EdTech leading this

(Grade KG, 1, 2 :Reviewing posting to Seesaw Steps. Go over headphone use, finding quiet place to record--or demo/setting up a permanent recording spot? Basic camera app features; Review 'Wow work' /Class 'best of feed.'..)

On-going (digital citizenship instruction) & support from Ed Tech when students are posting, commenting, reflecting (Grade 1, 2)

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Thinking critically about posts: Where is the learning?

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sample emails

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On-going training and Reflection with Teaching Assistants

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SEESAW SLC resources collated for Staff

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Copy of ISZL Portfolio Agreements Feb 2017

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Copy of ISZL Portfolio Agreements Feb 2017

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Holly's Copy of ZP Portfolio Agreements Updated February 2017

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When creating and reflecting on posts, teachers and students are encouraged to ask the following questions:

How has the teacher or student shown the context for the learning? (What? Where? When? Why? How?)

What would help you to understand more about the context for learning? (What questions do you have?)

Is the individual student learning evident?

In what ways has the teacher scaffolded the post?

Is there evidence of teacher voice? Is it necessary? Is there evidence of student voice? Is it necessary?

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Delivering Seesaw PD as part of Ambassador program

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Delivering Seesaw PD as part of Ambassador program

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-workshop proposal sent to L2
TB D?

Approved! :)

Done and dusted!

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google doc

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Seesaw Ambassador Checklist and Resources