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.