Diapositiva 1

1
(No Transcript)
2
The digital portfolio to make formal, non formal
and informal learning visible

• Training and discussion laboratory
• Rome, March, 27th 2008
• Anna Maria Ajello Cristina Belardi
• University of Rome Sapienza

3
Overview

1. A brief introduction the history of portfolio
2. Assessing NFL and IFL in the European context.
3. A project for recognising NF and IF learning of
   young disadvantaged people
4. The portfolio as an assessing tool
5. The construction of a digital portfolio

4
The history of portfolio recently

• European Union
• Debate about the portfolio as a useful tool to
  make visible and to prove what a person is able
  to do
• From a lifelong and life wide learning point of
  view

5
The ancient history of portfolio

• Tool used by artists like painters and
  handicrafts
• to show their best products and their competences
  to their prospects

6
Another recent history of portfolio

• Contribution of cognitive psychology and
  sociocultural psychology to the science of
  evaluation
• More complex ways of considering learning and
  knowing
• brought to elaborate evaluating tools like the
  portfolio- that could fit for new assessing
  pourposes and processes (authentic assessment)

7
Assessing NFL and IFL in the European context
8
In the European context acknowledged

• Important role to lifelong learning (to change
  the job, mobility etc.)
• Importance of every kind of learning, acquired in
  different type of contexts
• (F-formal, NF-non formal, IF-informal)

9
(Rough) differences among F, NF and IF learning
Type of learning Context Certifications Intentional Structured
Formal learning School, training courses etc. Yes Yes Yes
Non-formal learning Outside the institutional and educational contexts (e.g. lessons at home to learn how to play guitar) No Yes Yes
Informal learning Daily life activities (work, leisure, hobbies etc.) No No No
10

• It is important to make connections among the
  contexts where several type of learning are
  acquired in order to promote
• Personal satisfaction
• Active citizenship
• Social inclusion
• Employability
• In order to do it, is required to develop new
  validation processes and methods.

11

• Several initiatives in European countries as
  described in the
• European Inventory on validation of non formal
• and informal learning
• by Otero M.S., McCoshan A., Junge K., 2005,
  ECOTEC
• Research Consulting
• www.ecotec.com/europeaninventory/2005.html
• Es Booklet in Finland, Digital Portfolio in
  Italy, etc.

12

• Projects managed directly by E.C. and by CoE
• European Portfolio of languages
• European Portfolio for youth leaders and
  youth-workers

13
In.TraA project for recognising NF and IF
learning of young disadvantaged people
14

• Aim recognition of informal competencies
  acquired by young disadvantaged people with a
  medium-low level of education
• Target group known to have few literacy-
  competencies
• Tool/method user friendly, not a software for
  self-assessment

15

• A quotation from an interview with a young
  Italian drop-out
• M well, since I am crazy about Bob Marley, the
  colours of the Reggaes flag are green, yellow
  and red. I have a wall full of Bobs posters, so
  I put green, yellow and red lamps .at the
  background I get reggaes flag. Its really
  cool! I get Bobs image, on a Reggae background.
• Interv So you want to put them parallel to each
  other, like this (with my hands I show the
  parallel position of the lamps) in such a way
  that the three colours of the flag are appearing.
• M yes

16

• Interv And which was .what do you have to
  invent? How to attach them to the wall?
• M no, not how to attach them to the wall, I have
  to inventI mean I have to find a way to
  synchronize because you cant just put one here
  and another one thereI have to find out how to
  direct it.
• Interv oh, oh, I understand. And you attached
  the lamps to the cable, everything ? Well done!
  And how did you do it, had you already learnt how
  to do it, had you learnt it here?
• M my father taught me.

17

• The interviews some results
• The persons who taught the dropouts how to
  perform are friends, mothers, fathers, brothers
  and sisters, uncles and aunts, grandparents,
  parents in-law.
• Many of them watched the expert performing an
  activity and then they stole some information
  about how to perform with their eyes and then
  copied him/her

18

• They tried by themselves, asking the expert for
  some advice.
• E.g. Maurizio ( 16 years old) - I saw some
  friends of mine while they were doing it, I liked
  it so I have tried.... at the beginning they
  helped me, then I did it by myself.
• They learned to do things by themselves just by
  reading, trying, inventing, or doing.
• E.g. Luca, 17 years old, - Once the TV remote
  control was broken, so I opened it because if
  something was broken I could solder it again....
  I tried by myself.

19

• It is ironic that many young disadvantaged people
  trivialize what they learned in informal
  contexts, outside school, such as M. who says
• Im able to knock down a wall, but I think
  everybody can he belittles himself.

20

• Characteristics of IL
• everyday life activities - learning result of
  meaningful activities (Rogoff and Lave 1984,
  Lave, 1988)
• nature partly tacit (Polany, 1967) - hard to
  explain verbally and not even aware -

21

• Learning a process in everyday lives
• Origins research about everyday cognition and
  apprentiship in thinking (Rogoff e Lave, 1984
  Rogoff, 1991),
• Learning as participating in situated
  activities which make sense for people involved.
• Learning is a characteristic of every human life
  from its beginning to the end.

22

• Learning in school
• Different from the way we learn at school we
  learn concepts related to disciplines through
  verbal practices
• Also evaluating practices are verbal

23

• We suggest to take into consideration a piece
  written by L. Resnick, concerning how to evaluate
  learning acquired at work through a portfolio and
  by means of on demand assessment

24

• L. Resnicks description of the portfolio
• methodology of assessment to be used within
  educational and training contexts
• A young woman needs to carry out evidences of her
  skills to gain a place as a senior apprentice in
  the workshop of a famous weaver.

25

• 1. The young womans portfolio would include
• womans works
• a letter written by the craftsman in whose shop
  she did her initial apprentice work stamped with
  the establishments known seal
• few words added by that craftsman - about the
  reliability and willingness of work of the
  aspirant.
• certification from the Regional Association of
  Weavers from which the applicant came

26

• 2. On-demand performance assessment the master
  weaver could check the applicants skills to
  produce work of the kind included in her
  portfolio by watching her producing similar
  pieces of work.
• 3. A jury to examine portfolios and evaluate
  performances
• 4. Standards explaining the criteria for the kind
  of work he should include

27

• Another way of considering learning and
  assessment
• Competence
• being able to perform well in particular
  environments
• Performance assessment
• focused on certifying accomplishments rather
  than on identifying enduring traits of
  individuals

28

• During the InTra project we could elaborate a
  tool for making learning visible not for
  assessing or evaluating- through a digital
  portfolio including
• photos of the works/accomplishments
• videos to make the procedures with which the
  young people carried out their works visible

29

• Portfolio as an interesting tool to make visible
  IFL acquired by young disadvantaged people.
• It is important to acknowledge the differences
  among assessment, recognition, validation and
  making visible, etc. !!

30
(No Transcript)
31
To understand the characteristics of the
portfolio method we have to clarify some new
concepts elaborated in the field of psychology,
hence we have to connect to the recent hystory of
portfolio.
32

• Contribution of cognitive psychology and
  sociocultural psychology to the science of
  evaluation
• More complex ways of considering learning and
  knowing
• brought to elaborate evaluating tools like the
  portfolio- that could fit for new assessing
  pourposes and processes (authentic assessment)

33
Authentic assessment

• It is different from testing
• performance assessment through the simulation of
  real, everyday situations

34
Authentic assessment

• Questions asked to the students make sense for
  them, related to the syllabus (curriculum)
  covered in the course of the term
• Activities of teaching/learning several,
  motivating/appealing

35
Portfolio broad definition

• Significant collection of the works.
• It gives evidence to the history of the efforts,
  of the advances and of the outcomes achieved in
  one or more learning fields or professional
  contexts.

36
Portfolio

• A must for the process
• the students participation in choosing the
  contents
• The explanation of criteria for choosing the
  contents
• Criteria for giving the credits
• Evidence of students thinking about his/her
  learning process and outcomes

37
Differences among portfolios related to

• Goals to be achieved through it
• Contents selected
• Who is the manager/owner of the portfolio

38
Working portfolio

• Collection of products made in time
• No systematic selection of the products with
  reasons explained
• it helps in becoming more aware of the process of
  learning but not in critically analysing
  important moments in the learning process when
  the person increased (or not) in terms of
  learning
• It is not assessment

39

• During the construction of a portfolio there is
  assessment when the person
• collects products,
• thinks about his/her learning process
• takes decisions concerning his/her future steps

40

• To think about the practice (about his/her own
  products and learning processes) positively
  affects metacognitive and affective/motivational
  processes
• increasing awareness, autonomy and responsibility
  concerning
• practices, products, learning and about oneself
  as learning person and as actor becoming expert.

41
Digital instead of paper portfolio

• It allows to give evidence both of the end
  product through photos of it, and of the process
  during which the product was made through videos.
  
• Innovation for the disciplines of evaluation
  process evaluation no more distinguished from
  outcome evaluation (no more dichotomous)

42
The construction of a Digital Portfolio
43

• Meeting and interviews between the tutor and the
  user.
• Tools like a computer, a scanner, a videocamera,
  etc .
• 5 main phases.

44
First Phase

• Tools to be used A PC with Cd reader and word
  processor, a Cd Rom with an example of a digital
  portfolio already completed
• Objectives to conclude a good working agreement
  and to start projecting the portfolio

45
First Phase

• Activities to analyse the reasons why the user
  would like to make his/her own portfolio (goals
  to reach) to explain to the user the objectives
  of the process, describing what a digital
  portfolio exactly is, and the extent of both his
  and the tutors involvement, underlining the
  importance of the mutual collaboration.
• It is useful at this point to illustrate the
  differences between the three types of learning.

46
Second Phase

• Tools to be used a paper folder for each user, a
  computer, and sheets of paper
• Objectives Analyse and choose the proofs of
  formal and non-formal learning to be inserted
  into the digital portfolio.

47
Second Phase

• Activities
• To Provide the user with a paper folder paper
  portfolio that will precede the construction of
  the digital version on Cd Rom.
• To Prepare a Word file with his/her personal data

48
Second Phase

• To analyse with the user his institutional
  education
• To list on a sheet of paper the institutional
  certificates (formal learning)
• To analyse non-formal learning activities
• To think about evidences and to list them
  (Certificates, Self-declarations, References like
  letters from an employer, etc.)

49
Second Phase

• To sum up all the proofs of the formal and
  non-formal learning
• To suggest to comment on and to explain the
  reasons why s/he chose those evidences

50
Third Phase

• Tools to be used Software Editor for
  presentations, a scanner, video captures
  software, a computer with Cd Rom reader, a Cd
  Rom, an interview model, sheets of paper.
• Objective Begin to structure the digital
  portfolio and to realize a semi-structured
  interview in order to analyse the users informal
  learning and to favour the process leading to
  awareness.

51
Analysis of IFL through a semistructured
interview

• A kind of research process in which both the
  tutor and the user are involved
• The tutor supports the person in the collection
  of data concerning his informal competencies
  through a process of active interpersonal
  communication between the tutor and the young
  person.
• Useful tools 2 interview models

52

• Each interview model covers a specific context of
  informal training i.e. work and free time.
• The models permit the tutor to take notes
  concerning the data collected during the
  semi-structured interview and to summarise
  consequently the various activity systems in
  which the young person is competent.

53

• The tutor asks the user to describe the
  activities in which s/he has taken part in the
  various informal contexts and tries to get a
  particular insight into the methods and sources
  of learning, into the tools that the person has
  learned to use in order to realise those
  activities and into the type of products
  resulting from it, which are the visible results
  of these activities.

54
n. 1
Context Work Context Work Context Work Context Work Context Work
Activity Methods and Sources of Learning Tools Products Proof
Ex. Mechanic repaired scooters and automobiles Observing the boss at work and receiving lessons from him on this matter .. n. Scooter repaired . 1.A photo of the scooter before and after repair 2. A letter signed by the boss of the mechanic shop .
Ex. Helping father in family shop By asking questions to his father and receiving informative response . 1. 2. 3. n. . Lists of the materials to buy and the specifications of quantity of each product . 1.List of products ordered and bought 2. Photographs of boxes of materials ordered and delivered to the shop .
55
n. 2
Context Free Time (Hobbies, Sport, Home) Context Free Time (Hobbies, Sport, Home) Context Free Time (Hobbies, Sport, Home) Context Free Time (Hobbies, Sport, Home) Context Free Time (Hobbies, Sport, Home)
Activity Methods and sources of learning Tools Products Proof
Ex. Painting Observing friends, reading books titled Trying by myself. n ... painting 1 painting 2 . 1.photoraph of a painting 2.Video recording of the young person painting
Ex. Cooking Observing and listening to instructions from mother, sister etc. 1.. . 2.. .. 3.. n.. Cakes pasta .. 1.Photograph of a cake 2.Video recording of the young person cooking ..
Ex. Repairing the T.V. remote control Trying on his own to take it apart and put it back together again 1.. . 2.. .. 3.. n.. remote control being repaired . Photo and video of the remote control being repaired by the youth ..
56

• At the end of the semi-structured interview
  the tutor summarises all activities that the user
  is capable of performing, highlighting the
  persons informal competencies and then asks him
  to choose which competencies are the most
  important in his opinion, and should be included
  in his portfolio.

57

• One of the aspects to which the tutor must pay
  major attention when managing the interview for
  the analysis of competencies acquired in informal
  learning contexts regards the tendency of the
  young persons to marginalise the importance of
  such competencies.

58

• The tutor must guide the person through the
  realisation of the digital portfolio without
  substituting his choices, realising a
  scaffolding activity (Wood D., Bruner J., Ross
  G., 1976), which means a psychological support
  (emotional and cognitive).

59

• The proofs of informal competencies that can be
  inserted on the Cd Rom are
• Letters from employers
• Photographs of products produced in work-related
  activities and in free time
• Video recordings.
• The photos represent static recognition of
  products and therefore static proof of
  competencies that are acquired in informal
  contexts.

60

• At the end of this phase the tutor will fix a new
  appointment with the user in which he will ask
  him to bring the products to be photographed or
  the photographs already taken with a digital
  camera.
• The two must come to an agreement concerning the
  video to be recorded, in other words on which
  activity realized in informal contexts to be
  filmed, on the place where the filming should
  take place, etc.

61
Fourth Phase

• Tools to be Used Camera and digital video
  camera, Cd Rom Computer with Cd reader
• Objectives To choose, realize, and insert the
  photographs into the informal learning section
  of the digital portfolio, to record the video.

62
Fourth Phase

• To make and to choose the photos to be included,
  and to choose the order of the photos,
• with the support of the tutor s/he can write
  comments near each photo to clarify the type of
  product or the result of the activity that is
  being illustrated.
• To make videos

63
Fifth Phase

• Tools to be Used Cd Rom. and a computer with Cd
  Rom reader.
• Objectives and activities To insert the video
  film on the Cd Rom, eventually making final
  modifications to the digital portfolio and to
  observe the final product to plann future steps

64
Tutor

• Must be fully aware of the characteristics of
  informal learning (everyday learning) to be able
  to recognise immediately the fields of activity
  in which the person who is to realise the
  portfolio is competent, watching out all the time
  for eventual trivialisations.

65
Tutor

• To be able to validate the personal
  characteristics and competencies that until that
  moment were not sufficiently valorised, hence
  s/he will be able to support the user in a
  process aimed at self-empowerment.
• To support the young person during moments in
  which he/she encounters difficulties in verbally
  expressing him/herself

66
Tutor

• The tutor must be well aware of the two
  characteristics that qualify the dialogue to
  realise the construction of the digital portfolio
  as a guidance counselling interview.
• The first regards the perspective of temporal
  dimension of the dialogue between tutor and the
  young person, which must particularly focus on
  changes and on future plans.

67
Tutor

• The second characteristic concerns the emotive
  support that the tutor should offer to the
  person, responding to his expectations of trust
  and confirmation of the rationality of his
  decisions ( Bastianoni P., Simonelli A., 2001).
  The tutor should demonstrate to be a trustworthy
  mediator.