BELOW IS MY FIRST EMBEDDED POWERPOINT VIDEO THAT I DID ALL BY MYSELF! :)

For my Wicked Problem Project I chose to focus on our school problem of paper portfolios. I see this as a need and an opportunity for our school to move ahead.

The following is a list of several problems with our paper portfolios.

• First each child in each class has two portfolios.
• There is a lot of work involved in keeping these up-to-date.
  
• There are also a lot of papers for them to get hole-punched, organized, and put into their binder.
• One of the portfolios goes with the children from JK through 5^th grade. We are finding that they are too small, even though we have specific agreements on how many pieces of work can go into each grade’s section. We are looking at buying bigger binders to house these. This will result in more bookcase space required in each classroom.
• Another problem with them being so full is that many times the papers fall out because a child drops it or doesn’t close it properly. It takes awhile to put back work from a number of school years
• Some of the children have a hard time opening and closing the binders…especially when they start to get full.
• Another problem with these static portfolios involves the work the children are doing with technology. Right now I am making sure each of the projects the children have completed throughout the year in their computer file are printed and placed into their paper portfolios. This is not easy and is a lot of work! The more I think about it, the more I wonder why we are doing this.
  
• Paper portfolios are also limited…they only give one copy of the student’s work.
  
• As we think about the environment and excessive use of paper and ink. We are an Emerald Green School, so we are very concerned about the environment and our carbon footprints. Our school works hard to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Along with this we really try to use the least amount of paper possible. Printing each child’s computer work for their portfolios does not go along with our green efforts. Also, using all that ink is expensive.

My school had discussed using ePortfolios a few years ago, but it never got off the ground due to lack of teacher support. I think now is the time for us to check these out further!

My solution to the problem is ePortfolios!

The technology I've chosen is to incorporate e-Portfolios into my class and eventually the entire school. The technology will ease the content problem, making it more accessible for the students by teaching them to organize their work on the computer and to use blogging for reflections. My technology coordinator and I will model using ePortfolios and then we will be guides on the side.

Helen Barrett is an assistant professor and educational technology coordinator for the School of Education at the University of Alaska and is very knowledgeable about ePortfolios. She said, "The power of a digital portfolio is that it allows different access to different artifacts. The user can modify the contents of the digital portfolio to meet specific goals. For example, a student can link a piece of work to a statement describing a particular curriculum standard and to an explanation of why the piece of work meets that standard. That reflection on the work turns the item into evidence that the standard has been met.

“Barrett also points out that a paper portfolio is static and goes further by saying " a paper portfolio usually represents the only copy of portfolio content. When the portfolio is in digital format, students can easily duplicate and transport it." I would like to say Good-bye to the cost of printing so many papers and using paper portfolios.

I found a great video on You Tube that shows an elementary school using ePortfolios. Most of the ePortfolios are being used in High School and College, so when I discovered this, I thought it was perfect. It’s a short video, but very good. They even had the students and parents talking about ePortfolios. The link to this video is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOW0AbDcLWc&feature=youtu.be
My colleagues really enjoyed watching it!

During my presentation we discussed how there are 3 types of portfolios, the working portfolio which we already have on our computers, and the display and assessment portfolios. We would integrate these two portfolios onto their ePortfolio.

My tech coordinator and I came up with the idea to have a portfolio site with each class having their own page. Through the class page, each child would have their own sub-page. Then they will be able to keep their documents and reflections on their own page. We may still do it this way for the younger children. For my class we decided to try each child having their own site with different pages for them to put their work, blogs, photos, etc. We set this up through Google Sites, so each child needed to have their own email through school. I was a little worried about this with 3^rd graders, but I have been proven wrong! We did sit down with them and explain how to use it and be responsible with it. It also is secured. The 3^rd graders absolutely love having a school e-mail. They have even gotten into the routine over the past few weeks of e-mailing their spelling homework to me! I’m enjoying it and so are they!

As Helen Barrett says, an ePortfolio allows access to different artifacts. They will be able to put all their work into their portfolio. They will not only be using computers to research and create using all kinds of different tools, but also to organize and reflect. The children will be learning how to save, capture, and eventually scan work from across all content areas into their e-Portfolios. This will be an authentic way for them to use computers. It will be an area of organizational growth from where they are now.

The presentation went even better than I had hoped with the teachers. They are excited about using e-Portfolios next year. Many of them had the same feelings I did about too much paper being used, binders getting too full, not being able to share the work the children do on the computer authentically, and only having one copy to share which is always kept at school. Our first grade teacher even got up after my presentation and shared a site she had made for her class that showcased some of the work her class had done. She was very excited about using e-Portfolios. In fact I didn't get any negative comments at all!

My one bump in the road was the survey. I made the survey without any problems. I found it extremely easy. However, when I sent it to everyone, it ended up in their SPAM. Dave, our computer technology coordinator, thinks it was because I sent it from my school e-mail through Survey Monkey to other school e-mails. He thinks the SPAM detector thought someone was trying to get through. So, because of that and having Good Friday off, I didn't get as many responses as I would have liked. As you can see, I only got 5. Luckily I got the verbal response from the meeting, and I was very excited to see NO one marked Not Yet! The survey showed they were also open-minded enough to try putting a variety of student's work into the ePortfolios.

The more children use computers in an authentic way to get something done, the more they will learn, and the more knowledge and skills will remain with them. Showing growth during the year and over the years is a state and national standard. The students and parents will be able to view this growth on a regular basis by visiting the school site or by having their child copy their e-Portfolio onto a zip drive and bring it home. I believe parents don't get the full impact of what we are doing at school until they actually see it...especially with computers. This will give them a wealth of information. I am very excited for this new opportunity of change at our school!

• Formative: Did the project get implemented as planned? Yes! Actually, I got farther than I thought I would. We actually got my class started on creating their ePortfolio and I didn't think this would be ready until next year.
  
• Summative: Evidence of success in addressing the problem of practice Yes! The teachers are excited, my tech. coordinator, Dave, is excited, the children are excited...and we think we've figured out a way for it to work, and we've gotten it started!
  
• How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here? This worked so well, I would do it this way again!
  
• What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about? I think one lesson is to take the time to do the research and know what you're talking about, and then make a presentation, hopefully with some proof or ideas that what you're proposing will actually work and the benefits of it. Also, it helps if they can see the problem and agree with you that it is a problem...much easier to want to fix it.
  
• In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do If there is a need, I would do it again! I would probably try the presentation in Prezi.
  

Group Leadership Project

Group 1 Movie - click here


What tool did your group use to deliver the PD tutorial? Why?
What did you learn during the development process of the final product?
What would you do differently if you had to develop a similar product again?

Our group used Google Presentation for our slides and comments. One group member even did his in Power Point and downloaded it into Google Presentation. He said this was very easy. We picked Google Presentation because it was very simple to use and it worked well for us to use as a group and edit, both individually and in real time. We used Audacity to record our parts of the video. I think Audacity is also very easy and straightforward to use. We used iMovie to put it all together which worked very well, but only one of us had a Mac to do this. Getting the voice recordings timed just right was a little bit of work, but not too bad. The timing was really good actually, until I loaded it into my blog. When I went to look at it, the timing is all messed up. :( I think it is fixed now. :)
I learned a number of things through this process. One was that it was extremely difficult for us to get together and discuss things. We had some technical difficulties, all had very busy schedules, and on top of that we had a huge time difference to work with. I did use Doodle a couple of times for us to set up a time to meet, and this tool proved to be VERY HELPFUL! I will definitely use this again! We did have some difficulties having two group members using Windows and one using a Mac. When we met in real time, the Mac user could not always do things we could, for example share his screen. Next time I would like to try something other than Google Presentation. I would use something that allowed us to put action in our slides. I searched all through Google Presentation, but I could not find a way to transition between slides or have movement on a slide. This was very disappointing to me. I'd like to try using Power Point and then downloading it into Google Presentation to see how this works. I am wondering if the transitions and movement would come with it. The one thing I learned during this project, was about all the Apps Google has. I think it is an important thing to keep updated on because Google keeps adding to them! :)

Personal Learning Plan

Professional Learning Plan on Prezi

Here is my Professional Learning Plan. I had a lot of fun making it on Prezi and learned much more about using it. Just click the arrow through the presentation. :) Enjoy!

I do want to add here that I had such a great experience at school with Prezi. After we had done the lab where I played around with it and made a simple presentation for my class, I was meeting with a group of children I am mentoring. They are working on an exhibition project that they will present to the entire school community. They are 5th and 6th graders. We were discussing ways they could present information, and I showed one of the 6th graders my Prezi presentation. She loved it! She went home and used it that very night to make a presentation she was working on for her social studies class. To me that shows authentic learning and EXCITEMENT! She also made a very nice Prezi for our group's table at our Open House today. Students just take off with technology! :)

As I said in my Prezi above, when I keep learning about different tools to use, and different things that can be done with technology, the children will have more authentic learning and I will continue to be an effective teacher!












"Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com"

Mobile Learning

• What tools did you try?

I used Poll Everywhere which I really liked. Although it was a little difficult to have the kids use it at school because they all, as 3rd graders, have the same sign in. So they each had to be on a different computer to use it. It worked, its just that we had to go to the lab rather than use the computers in our room. My Poll Everywhere is here on my blog page.

I joined Classroom 2.0 and asked a question.
I think there are many good discussions on Classroom 2.0. However, I just have a difficult time with the concept of younger kids, like my 3rd graders using cell phones in the classroom. First of all, most of them don't have one. I read someone's message where their school was buying them for classes. I sure don't see that happening at my school.

Then I checked out podcasts. I really want to check these out more. Most of the podcasts I listened too were way too advanced for 3rd graders unless you paid for them. I will have to check around some more and see if I can find some appropriate ones for younger children.

Then I went and looked at flip cameras. I have a flip camera, which I use to record different things in the classroom. I never thought about having the kids use them! We do interviews of different people throughout the year and they could certainly video them with the flip camera. I will definitely be doing this in the future.

Flash drives are something I could definitely use. I think this is a great way to show parents what we are doing at school, plus the children could work on things they didn't finish at school. They can also be used to showcase 3-Portfolios. I wish I would have thought of using these sooner!

• What ways are you thinking about integrating mobile technology into YOUR classroom? As I said above, I think I will try using flash drives and my flip camera for sure. I will check out more podcasts to see what I can find in this area. I will also continue to look at Classroom 2.0.
  
• What challenges (or inspirations) do you foresee? I worry that the kids may lose the flash drives! Any suggestions for ways to keep them safe?
  I think it will be a challenge to find appropriate free podcasts, but I'm sure they are out there!
  

PART B - Storyboard and Script

Our group has gotten together a few times. Most recent was this morning and we used Adobe Connect. It worked really well! Since our last recording session didn't work, here is the link to our recording session this morning.
http://remc.adobeconnect.com/p37126398/

It just truly amazes me how I could be sharing my screen and making changes to the storyboard as we talked. When I take the time to stop and think about how Reaz is in Bangladesh and we are collaborating together on a project, it shows me how global our world is becoming and how different our world will be for the children we are teaching.

That being said, we have had our difficulties, but we are overcoming them! :)
One tool that has really helped us is using Doodle to find times when we can meet. It is a great concept and I find it very easy to use. I also like how you get an e-mail message each time someone has replied on it. There is also a place at the bottom where you can make comments. I know I will use this again in the future for school as well as for personal use.

We actually started out thinking we would be doing this Group Leadership Project on Google Apps. We soon discovered how big Google Apps was, and there was no way to share this with you in any depth. Google Apps is very big, and if you haven't explored all of the tools it has lately, please take the time and go do that. There is a place just for educators! Anyway, we had to pick on part of Google Apps so we chose Google Docs.

We broke it up between us. Tom looked into Google Forms, Reaz did Google Presentation, and I did Google Drawing. We used Google Presentation to make our storyboard and script. It was very easy to use. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that Power Point has, but it has just enough. Reaz actually did his on Power Point and then merged it into Google Presentation. Tom and I used Google Presentation the way it was.
Here is the link to our storyboard.

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AUDTy9j6FhYdZGR6cjlnZ2ZfMWZ3eDR2ZmNo&hl=en&authkey=COSg2-gD


Now the plan is that Tom and I are going to record our notes using Audacity and send it to Reaz. Reaz is going to use our storyboard and recordings and make an iMovie. Reaz will be updating us with links as he is putting it together. We are also meeting again on Wednesday evening using Adobe Connect again to make sure everything is set.

PART D - Findings and Implications

I am very excited with the results of my WPP from this past week.

First of all, the 3rd graders each got their own school e-mail address. I wasn't sure how this would work, but it is actually working very well! They are absolutely loving it! We went all through it with them and had them practice with it. That night I got a question from one student e-mailed to me, spelling words from another student, and the next day a student e-mailed me that they were sick. Talk about authentic learning - wow!

Then we shared with them the first page of their e-Portfolio. Here is a screen shot from one of my students.

This week they will be doing more with the site. I am planning to have them do the Learner Profile and Attitude pages next.

I showed the Power Point I made to our faculty this past Wednesday. It went even better than I had hoped. Teachers are excited about using e-Portfolios next year. Many of them had the same feelings I did about too much paper being used, binders getting too full, not being able to share the work the children do on the computer authentically, and only having one copy to share which is always kept at school. Our first grade teacher even got up after my presentation and shared a site she had made for her class that showcased some of the work her class had done. She was very excited about using e-Portfolios. In fact I didn't get any negative comments at all!
My one bump in the road was the survey. I made the survey without any problems. I found it extremely easy. However, when I sent it to everyone, it ended up in their SPAM. Dave, our computer technology coordinator, thinks it was because I sent it from my school e-mail through Survey Monkey to other school e-mails. He thinks the SPAM detector thought someone was trying to get through. So, because of that and having Good Friday off, I didn't get as many responses as I would have liked. I will probably get more next week, I hope. :) Below is the link to my survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/MySurvey_Responses.aspx?sm=B64pb3%2fNAyjQfK94ao3JRA0PmjQy4XkfCDj%2f0mGtguQ%3d

So far,

• 80% gained more knowledge about e-Portfolios from my presentation
• 100% said they are currently doing things that can be transferred over to an e-Portfolio
• 60% said they would absolutely want to use e-Portfolios next year, 20% a definite possibility, and 20% maybe
• They are willing to put a variety of work into the e-Portfolios, i.e. photos, links, computer work, scanned work, reflections, and videos
• Answering the questions "Have you done anything with Google Sites before?" 40% said yes, 40% no, and 20% a little
• 20% would feel comfortable using the e-Portfolios, 60% would like to play around with it, and 20% would like a lesson in using it

I think the thing that surprised me the most was the percentage that hadn't used Google Sites before. I am also happy that such a high percentage gained more knowledge from my presentation. Having e-Portfolios at our school next year is going to be very do-able. We've already gotten the main template set-up to start working from. Now it will be a matter of having my kids use it, getting all the "bugs" out, and teaching the rest of the teachers how to use it.

Now to the official questions for WPP Part D.
Formative: Did the project get implemented as planned?
Yes. There were two "bumps in the road" as I've explained in my blogs. One being that the children needed to have e-mail addresses. This took us a bit longer to do and teach, but ultimately it was a great success. The other being the problems I had with Survey Monkey getting e-mailed to my faculty. Next time I do a faculty survey, which I know I will, I will e-mail it from my other e-mail address so that doesn't happen again.
Summative: Evidence of success in addressing the problem of practice
Again, yes! My problem was using the static paper portfolio binders. I felt like they were too much work, took a lot of effort for the children to organize them and punch holes in their papers, and the binders weren't big enough. Plus we were also running out of space as each class has two different portfolios in them. The faculty loves this idea, and I am very excited and happy about it! We still need to figure out final details and agreements for using them next year, but the biggest hurdle has been overcome.
How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here?
I think the only thing I would do differently would be to play around with new tools that I will be using and try them out in exactly the way I want to use it. I had used Survey Monkey when we were exploring surveys with this class, but I wish I would have actually created a simple survey ahead of time and e-mailed it to my tech coordinator to make sure it worked. As I said above, I'm sure I will get more responses, but something that was supposed to be very simple turned into a little bit of a pain.
What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?
I think I have a few lessons.
1. As I said above, make sure and use any new tool in the exact way before the presentation.
2. e-Portfolios are the wave of the future. They are already being used in higher education and high schools. I believe the trend is going down the education ladder to elementary schools. There are some elementary schools using them now, not many, but some. I do believe we will be using these as documentation to see a child's growth from elementary on up.
3. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE CHILDREN! Here we thought third graders might have problems with school e-mail and using e-Portfolios. I know it has only been a week, but I do not see that at all. They are such quick learners with technology and they absolutely love it!
In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?
I think the next time I get an idea about a change for the school regarding technology, I need to go for it! It shouldn't take me taking a graduate class for me to do something like this. I think I would do it the same way with maybe a change in presentation. I think, now that I have used Prezi, I would use that, or even make a video. Power Point worked very well for my presentation, but next time I can "change it up" and use something different. I also think next time I will use Google for my survey. I really think it is just as easy to use as Survey Monkey.

Poll Everywhere

Create interactive meetings at Poll Everywhere

I loved this! This was so quick and easy to do. My students also liked it. I will use this again for sure. I might even use this in my website instead of using Google to survey my kids each week with a poll question.

PART C - Implementation

My audio link is just above this. I used Vocaroo and it was very simple and worked great. I started with Audacity, but Blogger won't take an MP3 file...just a little frustrating.

I have been working on my Power Point presentation to the faculty, staff and administration.


One of my successes is that I found a really good video on You Tube to put into my presentation made by another elementary school. I was really happy about this because so much of the information out there is geared toward older children. So I was very excited to find this. They even interviewed the students and they talked about their growth with using portfolios and in their reflecting. I know the faculty at my school will like this video.

I still need to put in the screen shot of the portfolio page my tech coordinator, Dave, and I have been working on. This will go in on Monday. We are not quite done with it yet.

My plan is to share my Power Point presentation with the faculty at our staff meeting on Wednesday. I will show them some examples of different rubrics we will be able to use, and I will send out the survey via SurveyMonkey right after the meeting for them to fill out. I am excited to receive these and hope they will be as excited as I am to implement this.

This Monday afternoon the class will get their first introduction to electronic portfolios and will work on their "About Me" page. Originally, I didn't think I would get this far this year to let them start on this, but it just made sense to try it out with them so we can get an idea of how they do and if we have to change any of our ideas for next year. Plus, they are going to get a chance to put their electronic computer work in there. I've also made a page for them to put their photos. It is not quite done yet, but you can see part of it below.

I think my biggest bump in the road so far has been making the actual ePortfolio. I wanted to use something that was free, and in talking to Dave, we decided since we are learning and using all the different Google Apps so much, we would stick with that for this. At first I tried making one from scratch and that didn't go so well. So, I found a template, and that went much better! By deciding to use Google Sites we had to give all the children their own e-mail addresses and password. They have never had these before. So when we introduce the ePortfolios we will also be talking to them about this school e-mail address. Hopefully this will work out with 3rd graders. It also put us a little behind in finishing up the ePortfolio site, but it'll be done in time. :)

As far as delights...I am absolutely delighted to have my students start on these this year!

Web Video Conferencing

Below are my attempts to use different web-conferencing options.

Dim Dim
This was unavailable to use. There was a message about them not accepting any new members.

Vyew
Next, I tried to use Vyew. At that time they were having technical difficulties.

Webhuddle
This was third on my list. I thought this was too hard to use.

Yugma
Finally, I found one! I liked this and downloaded it. The problem came when I tried to invite my group members from my e-mail. It would only take from an e-mail that is no longer in use. I used my school e-mail, which used to use Mozilla Thunderbird, but now we have the exact same e-mail address but use G-mail. For some reason it kept going to Mozilla which I couldn't use. I had a brainstorm when on the video-conference with Carolyn to use a different e-mail. So I did. It still went to Mozilla even though the e-mail address was totally different! I just don't get it. It is something I will talk about with my tech. coordinator. This was the only way to invite them to the session so, I gave up. If we can figure this whole thing out, I would like to try this in the future.

Acrobat.com for Adobe
So, I went to Adobe. I knew we used it in our class video-conferencing and we used it with my other group work for 811. Now, I was never the host before. So I went in using the free Adobe and set up the conference. The nice thing was it would use your e-mail address to invite people, which again did not work for me, but it also had a URL to send to people. This did work!! However, for the actual meeting it didn't work so well. First of all, Reaz could not get into the meeting. Tom and I were in and talking, but at that same time, Reaz couldn't get in. He sent us a screen shot that told him the meeting had ended...but it hadn't! So we ended up that day communicating with Reaz through Google Docs and e-mail. Also, I could not figure out how to record the meeting using the free version. Was anyone else able to do this?

The second time we used Adobe, the very next morning, it was also interesting. Tom and I got into the meeting just fine, and Reaz did get in, but we couldn't see or hear him. He could hear us, but we couldn't hear him. I also discovered at this time that the Host cannot type in the chat box. Tom and I had decided we would just go and use Skype. I was trying to type Reaz this message to make sure he heard us, but it wouldn't let me. Tom had to type the message.

Skype
This worked!!! We all got in, could hear each other very clearly, without an echo, and we also chatted. I have used Skype before but not with a group on a conference call. I had also not chatted before so this was a new thing for me. It worked very well and we got things done. I still want to see if I can get Yugma to work. I would like to try it so desk tops and screens can be shared during the conference. I will also be open-minded about trying different video-conferencing options, but in the back of my mind I will know if they don't work out there is always Skype! :)

PART B - Application of TPACK

Below is my work on my WPP project.

What is the TP knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?)

The technology I've chosen is to incorporate e-Portfolios into my class and hopefully school. The technology will make the content problem more accessible for the students by teaching them to organize their work on the computer and to use blogging for reflections. My technology coordinator and I will model using e-Portfolios and then we will be guides on the side.

Some of the questions I have considered about the teaching on e-Portfolios follow.
Is there enough computer access for this?
Yes. I cannot always get into the computer lab, but there are extra openings in the computer lab available for me to reserve for use. Additionally, I am very fortunate to have 6 working computers in my classroom. The children will be able to rotate the use of these for e-Portfolio work.


How do I build independence?
Dave, my tech. coordinator, and I will model it for them. Then they will work on it with us being at their side for help and support. We will also partner up students by putting a stronger computer user with one that has more computer challenges for greater independence on both their parts.
Will they get frustrated?
I don't believe they will. They are already saving their work into their own folder and have learned not only to always save it there, but also how to retrieve it. I believe this would just be the next logical step for them.
The area some students might have some frustration in is the blogging. I will encourage the students to put quality responses in their reflections by blogging. To start them off in this area I will have questions for them to answer, some text and some multiple choice. I think this will be helpful for them as they start because they are not used to sitting at a computer and typing in their thoughts. Most of their work is done ahead of time and then typed in. If, even with questions to guide them I am not getting the kind of quality responses I want I will have them write it out first at the beginning. My goal right now is to do more with blogging so this should help.
Assessment?
As this is a year-long endeavor, Dave and I will be assessing their progress on a regular basis. We will have rubrics to guide the children and they will have a formal assessment at the end of each trimester. Their final assessment will be their final portfolio.

My presentation to the faculty and administration will be by Power Point. I will use Survey Monkey to get their feedback. After I look at the results, I will discuss them with Dave, and share the results with administration to discuss further implementation. Hopefully the faculty is on-board. If not, I will go ahead and use e-Portfolios on my own as a model to others.

What is the TC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible? Be sure to think about representation.)

The children will be learning how to save, capture, and eventually scan work from across all content areas into their e-Portfolios. This will be an authentic way for them to use computers. It will be an area of organizational growth from where they are now. Currently the students save all their work in their own folder on our school server. This ensures their work accessibility from any computer in the school and separate from other classes and other childrens' work. However, in their folders their work is not organized at all, by this time of the year there is a lot of work in their files and other items they have saved. Using e-Portfolios will not only be a way for them to showcase their work but to organize it. It will also give them the knowledge and ability to eventually take their written work and put it in the same place. This will be another area of growth for them.
Right now the children at our school write written reflections on a regular basis in many content areas. It will be new to them to use blogging as a way to write reflections. It takes skill to type and put original thoughts down at the same time. This will be a great new skill for them to develop. I also think it will be very interesting to have them comment on some of their classmates blogs. I am confident this will make the content of their reflections in their blogs that much better.
The fact that parents, grandparents, etc. will be able to easily view the student's work is wonderful. Now they are only able to do that only if they visit the school.

What is the PC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?) Be sure to think about how the student will experience the content given these instructional strategies.

I believe the students will enjoy very much using e-Portfolios. They love to do anything on the computer! Kids are great at exploring and being risk-takers on a computer. After we show them and model e-Portfolios they will be more than ready to go and try it. Many children exhibit very good problem solving skills when using computers. I believe being guides on the side is perfect for this. Being put with a partner is also a very authentic way for them to add to their content knowledge. The more children use computers in an authentic way to get something done, the more they will learn, and the more knowledge and skills will remain with them.
Showing growth during the year and over the years is a state and national standard. The students and parents will be able to view this growth on a regular basis by visiting the school site or by having their child copy their e-Portfolio onto a zip drive and bring it home. I believe parents don't get the full impact of what we are doing at school until they actually see it...especially with computers. This will give them a wealth of information.

PART A - Brainstorm Session

What web conferencing tool did your group use?
What were the advantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project?
What were the disadvantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project?

This was interesting. I had tried to use Yugma to get us all together, but I had trouble inviting my group to join. It kept pulling up an outdated e-mail that my school no longer uses. I saved it so I could show my tech. coordinator. So then I joined acrobat to use adobe. This worked out better because it gave a url that I could use to invite Tom and Reaz to our meeting. Our first meeting didn't go so well. Tom and I were in the meeting, but adobe would not let Reaz join us. So we ended up communicating with Reaz through e-mail and a document Tom typed up in Google docs. You can see in the screen shot below, which I took at the end of our meeting, Reaz's message about not being able to join us.


Our second meeting went better. As you can see by the screen shots below, we used Skype this time. We actually tried to use Adobe again, but Reaz had trouble again. This time we were all on, Reaz could hear us, but we couldn't hear or see him. So we decided to leave and use Skype for the meeting. Skype worked really well. We could hear each other clearly and I learned how to chat on Skype, which I had never done before.

The other thing is, we have screen shots because we couldn't record. Adobe didn't have a way for me to record us using the free session (or I couldn't find it), and Skype doesn't have a way to record. If it does, none of our group has done it before.

We did get the job done, however. We will be teaching about Google Apps, using Jing to make screen shots, and will be putting this information into a shared Google document. Tom will be working on putting our screen shots and scripts into Celtx for our storyboard portion. Each member of our group is researching different parts of Google Apps and making slides for our presentation. We all have our jobs and timeline set through next Saturday. So far, so good!! :>)

PART A - Description of Need or Opportunity

In my case, I see my WPP as a need and an opportunity. My problem involves e-portfolios. My school had tried to use e-portfolios a few years ago, but it never got off the ground due to lack of teacher support. I think now is the time for us to check these out further for the following reasons.

· First, each child in each class has two portfolios. There is a lot of work involved in keeping these up-to-date.

· One of these portfolios goes with them from JK through 5^th grade. We are finding that they are not big enough, even though we have specific agreements on how many pieces of work can go into each grade’s section. So we are looking at buying bigger binders to house these. That means more bookcase space will be needed in each classroom. Another problem with them being so full is that many times the papers fall out because a child drops it or doesn’t close it properly. It takes awhile to put back work over a number of school years.

· Another reason that e-portfolios are looking better involves the work the children are doing with technology. Right now I am making sure each of the projects the children have done throughout the year in their computer file are printed so they can go into their portfolios. This is not always easy and is a lot of work! The more I think about it, the more it doesn’t make sense to me. It would be so much easier, I believe, to have an e-portfolio.

· The last reason, but certainly not the least, is all the use of paper and ink. We are an Emerald Green School, so we are very concerned about the environment and our carbon footprints. Our school works hard to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Along with this we really try to use the least amount of paper possible. Printing each child’s computer work to put into their portfolios does not go along with our green efforts. Also, using all that ink can be expensive.

I believe if we were to use e-portfolios it would solve many of our issues. First, it would certainly be more earth friendly. Next, we wouldn’t have the issues of storage for all the binders, papers falling out, and the binder size becoming too small. Lastly, we wouldn’t have the work of printing things out and making sure there was a copy of all their work in their binders. As the children have more and more of their work on the computer, it seems like it would be easier to move their work around electronically. I believe this would also be a great way for parents to see and get copies of their child’s work, too.

I’ve discussed this with my technology coordinator and he definitely sees the need. We could put the e-portfolios somewhere on our school website. When the children finish a piece of work on the computer they could save a copy of it into their e-portfolio. It would be nice if we could have parents log on and be able to see their child’s work on a regular basis.

I think we may need to start out slowly with this, but I think eventually we could have just e-portfolios and no longer have binder portfolios. I know how teachers get overwhelmed with changes and more work. However, if we introduce this to use for computer work the children have done, it could be expanded later on to include all of their work. Photos or videos of big projects could be included easily. Other work could be scanned and put in. I believe if this is introduced to the teachers with more being added to the e-portfolios over time, it will be successful. I will also be looking at the different kinds of portfolios, i.e. the working portfolio, the assessment portfolio, and the showcase portfolio.

I will be getting my information from different internet sites including the following:

http://electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/ePortCanadaBarrett.pdf this is a published paper by Helen C. Barrett, Ph.D. about e-portfolios in K-12 - By my reading I have learned that Helen Barrett is the "mother" of e-portfolios. One of my favorite questions she asks is, "How can we use our collection experiences to help learners as they develop their portfolios?" I think this is a very important question to think about, and I believe more modeling needs to be done in this area. From this particular site I have learned e-portfolios can be set up in many different ways, with the best way being student-centered. This is where the learner collects the artifacts from their learning experiences and reflects on them. She says a portfolio collection must include:

• student participation in selecting content
• the criteria for selection
• the criteria for judging merit
• evidence of student self-reflection

I have not made rubrics for the children to use for their selection of work. This is a new idea for me. Another interesting thought I received from this site is being able to use the learner's authentic voice in an e-portfolio. This gives reflections uniqueness and creates a story. It also gives voice to the work both literally and rhetorically.

http://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioapps/overview/levels which has information about the different levels of e-Portfolio Development in K-12 Schools - This site states e-portfolios are still used mostly in High School. It breaks them down into three levels.

Level 1 is ePortfolio storage, which we already do at our school. On our school server each child has a folder with all of his/her work in it.

Level 2 is Collection & Reflection. I learned at this level a learner keeps a learning journal and reflects on their learning in the samples of their work. They can keep these reflections organized using a blog. This was new to me, and I must say I really like the concept. They can do all kinds of reflections from open-ended writing, to answering questions, or filling in blanks. Their work can also be linked or attached to this reflection. It also stated that the students' work should be from many curricular areas, and this is something I totally agree with. The role of primary teachers is to provide feedback on the students' work so they can have the opportunity to show improvement in the future. For younger students the teacher can help the children collect and select appropriate work to showcase.

Level 3 is ePortfolio as Showcase. This area had some good questions for students, i.e.

• Why did I choose these pieces? What am I most proud to show about my work?
• What does this work show about my learning?
• What more can I learn? (goals for the future)

Levels 1 & 2 should occur on a regular basis, maybe at the end of a lesson.
Level 3 should occur less often, at the end of a term or class. I'm thinking maybe at the end of a unit.

http://www.digication.com/featured/k12 has portfolios from different schools. This is a site to use to actually create e-portfolios. It seems very easy to use. There were some examples on the site, mostly showing art portfolios. Although there was one High School who showed other work. I'm still trying to figure out if this is free. I also want to look at some others, i.e. Google.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech111.shtml has lots of good information about the different kinds of portfolios and has resources. This site states e-portfolios are well-established in Higher Education, and just starting to enter K-12. This site also had information from Helen Barrett. It listed her 5 steps needed for the development of electronic portfolios:

1. Selection
2. Collection
3. Reflection
4. Direction
5. Connection

There was a part on this site I know I can definitely use in my presentation. It asks the question, Why E-Portfolios?

• Paper portfolios are static. Using e-Portfolios the students can connect their different work to show different goals in their learning. You can also have more than 1 copy - it can be duplicated and transported.
• e-Portfolios take up less physical space but can hold a lot of information, i.e. pictures, art work, writing samples can be scanned, projects, even reading samples can be recorded. Also, collaborative student work could be included into each child's e-portfolio.
• Something I didn't even think about is once their work is organized it can be enhanced with the addition of sound, music, pictures, graphics, and video.
• e-Portfolios would authentically enhance computer and technology skills because the children would be creating, editing, selecting, organizing their work, and reflecting on it.
• Younger children (K, 1st grade) can use e-portfolios with a set template and older students as tutors.

I also learned rubrics are used to assess the quality of student work with e-portfolios. This is something I have not done with my own students. I have them use a checklist.

MACUL also has a group blogging about e-portfolios and Dr. Barrett has a blog about it, too at http://blog.helenbarrett.org/2010/09/k-12-and-higher-education-eportfolio.html. Dr. Barrett's blog is full of resources! Included on here she has digital storytelling for reflection. I definitely want to check that out. She also has a connection to using Google Apps for e-portfolios in K-12. This is of interest to me as Google is already used by the children so much. I will be spending more time on this site as it has a wealth of information!

When I talked with our technology coordinator, we decided the best way to introduce this to the faculty would be using a Power Point presentation. My goal for this class it to research e-portfolios, check out how other schools are using them and if they are successful, work with my technology coordinator to set up an example of how it could work, find examples of permission forms we could use, and put this information into a presentation.

My indicators of a successful project will be the response of my faculty and administration. I feel I will have been successful if I have increased their knowledge about e-Portfolios, given them ideas of how to use them successfully, and to hopefully get them open-minded enough to at least think about using them next year to some extent. I have checked into SurveyMonkey and am planning to make a survey for the faculty and administration to fill out after my presentation. This will tell their interest in this, thoughts, and willingness to participate. This will help lead the technology coordinator and I to the next step of how to proceed.

My goal for this course is to finish my Power Point presentation, hopefully showing examples of some rubrics, give the presentation to the faculty, and get their input from the survey using SurveyMonkey. The indication of my success will be from the feedback I get from the faculty and my technology coordinator. My goal is to have the faculty members willing, ready, and/or excited to implement e-portfolios next year.