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Thursday 5 February 2009

What does your e-Portfolio look like?

Following Dr Helen Barrett's blog it worried me that her graphical representation of all of the various aspects of an e-Portfolio was beginning to get a bit too complex to be of any practical use - apart from provoking some intense discussion. In her discussion forum it soon became apparent that there are many contrasting elements both linear and cyclical. Maria lists some of the essential contrasts:

"The key concepts: process vs product, formative vs summative evaluation, internal vs external audience, inmediate vs retrospective reflection, learning experiences vs learning outcomes/standards is a welldefined framework."

I therefore attempted to create my 'Radar Diagram' and thus presenting a useful representation. I soon realised that this could be used by tutors to discuss with their students such things as learning styles or areas needing more attention etc. Students, too, could use this as a personal self-assessment exercise, comparing their results with 'ideal' results at stages throughout the course.

The obvious input for this was to create a set of questions where an individual might give a '1-10' response. Similarly, this approach could also be used to identify a whole class's or cohort's general position on this learning diagram.

I attach the spreadsheet used to generate the Radar Diagram or Map. I do not claim that this is a perfect solution and would therefore appreciate your feedback. Thinking in terms of formative assessment, the same spreadsheet could obviously be developed to assess the general understanding of the uses of an e-Portfolio for a whole class and thus meet Popham's first level, ie that of adjusting one's lesson plans to suit the needs of the class.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ray - I like the insightful questions for the development of the Radar Diagram!
...Definitely gives eFolio users a tool for self-awareness as they are working on eFolio - but I'm interested in the concept of giving them direction in ways they could enhance their eFolio site!

Ray Tolley said...

Hi, Kristi,

I think that my Radar Diagram would be appropriate for any mentor in either a 1:1 or a class scenario where, at the begining of a course, students could respond to the questions.

On a 1:1 situation it might be, for instance, that a student is strong on social apps. The mentor would then encourage the student to think of where the (s)he could use this proficiency to encourage deeper learning by the group of his/her peers.

If the results were averaged for the whole group the teacher might want to address a general weakness such as the reliance on summative grades or a general lak of confidence in writing about learning experiences outside of the formal class lessons.

On the whole, I would expect any teacher to be able to see where different strengths and weaknesses can influence further lesson planning or resources.