Thursday, April 10, 2014

Chapter 11: Engaging Students in Performance Assessments and Reflective Learning

Focus question: How can students and teachers use digital portfolios as tools for learning?


Answer: Both teachers and students can use their digital portfolio as a learning tool by going back through their portfolio and reflecting. Reflection is a process of self assessment in which the learner  examines past actions to see what to keep or change. Whether you are an "old" teacher who has been teaching for many years or a new teacher, a portfolio (digital or not) can help you see how much you've grown and changed. The good thing about digital portfolios is that you can store all your accomplishments online and chances are that you'll never loose them, especially is you use apps like "iLife" and "TaskStream".  Students who are going for any type of career goal can use portfolios as well to keep a record of all their accomplishments either for a certain class or just because they want to see their progression during their time in school.



In this chapter we talked about, exploring the possibility of using student participation systems as learning assessments. Participation actively engaged students in whatever content is being taught at the current time. This can allow the teachers to conduct quick assessments to see whether or not his/hers students have grasped the concept. One example the book gave was classrooms using Clickers. Clicker have many advantages including real time feedback, they encourage active learning, and promote student involvement. In the chapter it was also discussed how involving students in the process of their performance evaluation and in the process of "how to teach" a certain concept can help a student be more engaged in learning. Just because a student is involved in the decision making does not mean they are in control. Teacher would still be responsible fro delivering the curriculum and assessing said curriculum but how learning happens and how evaluation happens would be formulated through honest discussions, debate, and decision- making between students and teachers. Such mentality is found in Democratic School and Classrooms. In these types of classrooms students take responsibility fro making decision about classroom rules, themes for study and how they set personal goals and document their progress. A great way of documenting progress is by creating an e-portfolio or a digital portfolio. By creating such portfolios students can access them anywhere, they would be more portable than regular paper portfolios, and they can enhance a student's computer skills. There are some drawbacks like users needing to be computer savvy, or some students may not get feedback from their classmates or readers, and some students may spend more time on the aesthetics of their portfolio than actually highlighting their work. Portfolios can be another way for educators to asses students and their work. Teacher can also use online surveys to preassess what students know about a certain topic. Websites like "Zoomerang" or "Surveymonkey" are great tools, or to incorporate technology in the classroom a teacher can use an app like "Poll Everywhere" where students can text in their answers. Assessments will always be central to a teachers line of work, whether it's your supervisors assessing you or you assessing your students.

                                                  Photo credit to Wesley Fryer via Flickr
                                                  **example of a Poll Everywhere poll.

1 comment:

  1. Your post covered many of the concepts and tools in this chapter on performance assessment - I wonder what you think about the move to these tools rather than the traditional tests? In the digital portfolio, there is also an important aspect of reflection which can help guide not only reviewing the importance of growth from the perspective of the past, but also help in guiding for the future.

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