Digital Professional Portfolios: Pathways to Professional Development

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Digital Teaching Portfolios Pathways to
Professional Development
Natalie B. Milman, Ph.D. nmilman_at_gwu.edu The
George Washington University
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Todays Agenda

• Overview/Introductions/Creation of a KWL Chart
  about digital teaching portfolios
• Multimedia presentation and examination of
  digital teaching portfolios
• DTP Commandments
• Presentation/activity/discussion Portfolio
  development process and standards
• Presentation and dialogue about digital tools for
  creating digital teaching portfolios
• Revisiting the KWL chart and considering what was
  learned

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Introductions

• Describe name and position
• Describe your experience with portfolios (if
  any--in general and/or digital portfolios)
• Complete KWL chart (K-W parts only)

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portfolio (pOrt-'fO-lE-"O)

• a hinged cover or flexible case for carrying
  loose papers, pictures, or pamphlets,
• from the use of such a case to carry documents
  of state the office and functions of a minister
  of state or member of a cabinet, and
• the securities held by an investor the
  commercial paper held by a financial house (as a
  bank) a set of pictures (as drawings or
  photographs) either bound in book form or loose
  in a folder.

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What is a portfolio?

• A portfolio is a goal-driven, organized,
  collection of materials that demonstrates a
  person's expansion of knowledge and skills over
  time.
• The contents, organization, and presentation of
  materials in portfolios vary depending on their
  audience and purpose.

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Types of portfolios

• Working Portfolios
• Descriptive
• Learning
• Presentation Portfolios
• Assessment
• Class
• Employment
• Professional
• Showcase
• Teaching

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What are teaching portfolios?

• Special type of presentation portfolio
• Contain artifacts from teaching
• Demonstrate deliberate selection, reflection, and
  communication revolving around the artifacts
• Illustrate a professionals recognition of
  personal competence

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Critical attributes of teaching portfolios

• "structured documentary history of a set of
  coached or mentored acts of teaching,
  substantiated by samples of student portfolios,
  and fully realized only through reflective
  writing, deliberation, and conversation (Shulman
  1998, p. 37).
• Shulman, L. (1998). Teacher portfolios A
  theoretical activity. In Lyons, N. (Ed.), With
  portfolio in hand Validating the new teacher
  professionalism (pp. 23-37). New York Teachers
  College Press.

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What are digital teaching portfolios (DTPs)?

• Contain the same content traditional portfolios
  include but present these professional materials
  in digital format
• Also referred to as multimedia portfolios,
  electronic portfolios, e-folios, webfolios, and
  electronically-augmented portfolios

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Lets look at some! http//home.gwu.edu/nmilman/d
p/kortecamp

• What elements are common among the DTPs you have
  examined?
• Which portfolios did you like most? Explain why.
• Which portfolios did you like least? Explain why.
• What elements do you think are important to
  include in a portfolio? Why?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages to
  creating DTPs?
• Why would you create a digital portfolio as
  opposed to a traditional (print-based) portfolio?

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DTP Commandments(Kilbane Milman, 2003)

• When in doubt DON'T throw it out!
• Do it digital!
• Be organized, not frustrated!
• Log it or lose it!
• If it is nice, save it thrice!
• Be careful, not sorry!
• Give credit where credit is due!
• Do unto others as you would have done unto you.
• Create and stick to a timeline!

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What is the DTP development process?

• 1. Planning the portfolio Focus frame
• 2. Considering portfolio contents Collect,
  select, reflect
• 3. Designing the portfolio Organize produce
• 4. Evaluating the portfolio Perform formative
  summative evaluation
• 5. Publishing the portfolio

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Stage 1 Planning the DTP

• Focusing the portfolio - determine the purpose
  of the portfolio and its intended audience.
  (RATIONALE)
• Who is my audience?
• Why am I creating a portfolio?

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Stage 1 Planning the DTP (contd)

• Framing - determine how to create continuity
  among the various components of the portfolio.
  (FRAMEWORK)
• How can I create continuity? (theme,
  standards/domains, question)

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Which frameworks could be used?

• Praxis III Domains
• Professional Standards
• State
• INTASC (beginning teachers)
• NBPTS (experienced teachers)
• Technology
• ISTE (National)
• State

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Stage 2 Considering DTP Contents
Collect
Select
Reflect
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What items should be collected?

• Artifacts
• An artifact is tangible evidence that indicates
  the attainment of knowledge and skills and the
  ability to apply understandings to complex tasks
  (Campbell, Melenyzer, Nettles Wyman, 2000, p.
  147).

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Artifact examples

• Educational philosophy statement
• Résumé
• Classroom management plan
• Professional development plan
• Student portfolios
• Photos
• Lesson plans
• Seating charts

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What items should be collected/created?

• Supporting documentation
• Items that do not fit into artifact definition.
  Such items provide information about the
  person/portfolio, but are not artifacts.

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Supporting documentation examples

• Table of contents
• Authorship statement
• Credits
• Rationale or introductory statement
• Dedication

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Selection guidelines

• Examine as many artifacts as possible (i.e.,
  lesson plans, student work samples, etc.)
• Determine which artifacts support the framework
  by asking the following questions about each
  artifact

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Selection guidelines (contd)

• Does this artifact/item meet the criteria for
  which I am framing my portfolio? How?
• Is this artifact/item the best example(s) I can
  use for demonstrating these criteria? If so, why?
  If not, why not?
• Should I include this artifact/item in my
  portfolio? Why? Why not?

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Selection guidelines (contd)

• Create a chart of the artifacts, how they
  correlate with your framework, and how they rate
  (i.e., definitely include or maybe)

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Stage 2 Reflecting

• A digital portfolio without reflection is just
  a multimedia presentation, or a fancy electronic
  résumé, or a digital scrapbook (Barrett, 2000)

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Reflection is...

• "a drawing together of long strands of
  connections, the weaving together of experiences,
  theory, and practices into meaning for the
  individual teacher and a kind of construction of
  knowledge a knowledge of teaching practice"
  (Lyons, 1998, p. 106).

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Reflective questioning

• How does this artifact demonstrate competence in
  a particular standard?
• Why did I include this artifact (why is it
  important to me)?
• What did I learn as a result of using/creating
  this artifact?
• How would I do things differently as a result of
  the artifact?

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Stage 3 Designing the Portfolio

• Organizing
• Creating a table of contents (TOC)
• Putting artifacts into different categories in
  the TOC
• Creating storyboard
• Creating a design grid (layout of web pages)

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Stage 3 Designing the Portfolio

• Before Producing - Consider
• Skills
• Portfolio development process
• Resources (Software, Hardware, People)
• Need to digitize artifacts
• Time

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Stage 3 Designing the Portfolio

• Producing
• Transforming artifacts and supporting
  documentation into digital format
• Creating, testing, and building the portfolio
  from a template

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Stage 4 Evaluating the Portfolio

• Conducting both formative and summative
  evaluation (involve critical friends in the
  process)
• Revising the portfolio

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Stage 5 Publishing the Portfolio

• FTP to WWW
• Save on CD, DVD, Zip disk
• Print a Hard copy
• SHARING of portfolio with students, colleagues,
  administrators, professors

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How do I develop a DTP?

• Integrative approach
• Turnkey approach
• Stand-alone software

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Which tools are available for creating a DTP?

• Integrative approach
• Adobe Acrobat
• Macromedia Dreamweaver
• Microsoft PowerPoint

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Which tools are available for creating a DTP?

• Turnkey approach
• Chalk Wire
• LiveText
• Taskstream

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Factors to consider when selecting tools for
creating DTPs

• Technical skills
• Availability
• Difficulty
• Support
• Transferability
• Support for various media formats

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Factors to consider when selecting tools for
creating DTPs (contd)

• Multimedia environments
• Platforms
• Technical requirements
• Hardware and software required for viewing
• Audience skills required for viewing

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• What have you learned about digital teaching
  portfolios?

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References

• Barrett, H. (2000). Electronic portfolios
  multimedia development portfolio development
  the electronic portfolio development process.
  Retrieved July 23, 2001, from http//www.electroni
  cportfolios.com/portfolios/EPDevProcess.htmlstage
  3
• Campbell, D.M., Melenyzer, B.J., Nettles, D.H.,
  Wyman, R.M. (2000). Portfolio and performance
  assessment. Boston Allyn Bacon.
• Council of Chief State School Officers. (1996).
  Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium
  Standards For School Leaders. Retrieved December
  1, 2004 from http//www.ccsso.org/content/pdfs/isl
  lcstd.pdf.
• Kilbane, C.R., Milman, N.B. (2003). The digital
  teaching portfolio handbook A how-to guide for
  educators. Boston Allyn Bacon.
• Kilbane, C.R., Milman, N.B. (2005). The digital
  teaching portfolio workbook Understanding the
  digital teaching portfolio process. Boston Allyn
  Bacon.
• Lyons, N. (1998). Grant, G. E., Huebner, T. A.
  (1998). Portfolios and their consequences
  Developing as a reflective practitioner. In
  Lyons, N. (Ed). With portfolio in hand
  Validating the new teacher professionalism (pp.
  23-27). New York Teachers College Press.
• Shulman, L. (1998). Teacher portfolios A
  theoretical activity. In Lyons, N. (Ed.), With
  portfolio in hand Validating the new teacher
  professionalism (pp. 23-37). New York Teachers
  College Press.
• U.S. Department of Education. (2000). Building
  bridges The mission principles of professional
  development. Retrieved January 29, 2002, from
  http//www.ed.gov/G2K/bridge.html