EFOLIO: K12 INSERVICE TEACHERS ATTITUDES TOWARD ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIOS

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EFOLIO K-12 IN-SERVICE TEACHERS ATTITUDES
TOWARD ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIOS

• Candace Chou Carole Bagley
• Mike Mendez William Watkins
• University of St. Thomas

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Outline

• Introduction
• Research design and method
• Analysis
• Conclusion
• Recommendations

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Introduction

• What is portfolio for?
• learning, teaching, assessment, appraisal,
  promotion and professional development
  (Klenowski, 2002).
• to demonstrate a teachers competency in
  integrating technology into a content area.
  (Kilbane Milman, 2003)

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Why use eFolio?

• Life-long learning Learning occurs before,
  during, and after formal education.
• Life-wide learning Learning in the workplace,
  family, and community (Cambridge, 2005)
• Community building learning through modeling and
  information sharing. Participants share multiple
  perspectives and learn from the expertise of each
  individual in different areas.

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Types of Portfolio

• Professional portfolios
• Working portfolios include all the work that a
  teacher has developed over a period of time, for
  example, lesson plans, photographs, email with
  students and parents, multimedia presentations
• Presentation portfolios showcase portfolio that
  represents a subset of materials found in a
  professionals working portfolio
• (Kilbane Milman, 2003).

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Types of Portfolio (cont.)

• Teaching portfolios demonstrate the professional
  competence of anyone who engages in the act of
  teaching at any academic level

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Background

• In-service teachers participated in the Learning
  Technology (LT) Certificate program
• Teachers commenced the development of eFolio upon
  entering the LT program and continued the
  development throughout the program
• Technology alignment with ISTE NETS
• ISTE International Society for Technology in
  Education
• NETS National Educational Technology Standards

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eFolio Design Process

• System eFolio Minnesota
• Modeling showing students good eFolios done by
  previous cohorts
• Support hands-on practice plus video tutorials
  and handouts
• Assessment rubric eFolio checklist and peer
  evaluation through Blackboard Discussion Board.

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Research Questions

• What do teachers see as the pros and cons of
  using eFolio for professional development or
  classroom integration?
• How do teachers plan to use eFolio in the future?
• How can teachers be encouraged to continue using
  eFolio for life-long learning?

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Research Design

• Online surveys sent to 55 in-service teachers who
  had taken two technology courses at the LT
  program
• Interview with teachers

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Survey Questions

• Question 1 On a scale of 5, how would you rate
  the application of E-Folio for K-16 educators?
• Question 2 On a scale of 5, how useful is
  E-Folio to your profession?
• Question 3 What do you see as the advantages of
  creating eFolio?
• Question 4 What do you see as the disadvantages
  of creating E-Folio?
• Question 5 How could the E-Folio assignment have
  been more effective than it was?
• Question 6 How do you plan to use E-Folio in the
  future?

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Q1 How would you rate the application of eFolio
for K16 educators?
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Q2 On a scale of 5, how useful is eFolio to your
profession?
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Comparison
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Q3 Future Plan with eFolio

• Document professional growth
• Integrate into the classroom
• Increase familiarity with the tools
• No plan

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1. Document professional growth

• I hope to keep my current professional
  information and projects in it.
• I plan to keep it updated and use it as an online
  resume.
• I would like to clean it up and update the eFolio
  from time to time.
• Possibly to keep up my professional e-folio for
  possible employment changes.

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2. Integrate into the classroom

• I plan to have all of my students develop an
  eFolio.
• For classrooms at the adult level
• I would like to use it with students as a way to
  present their portfolios
• I am interested in reproducing the e-folio idea
  for younger students.
• I think it would be a good thing for our students
  to use
• Tried to set students up with sites, but it was
  not that successful. At least so far.

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3. Increase familiarity with the tools

• I will continue to add information to increase my
  confort sic. level.
• I guess I am at the learning stage and next year
  I will be returning back to a regular education
  job at the elementary level. Maybe there I will
  have more opportunities to reflect on its usage
  and do some implementing.

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Q4 eFolio Advantages

• Document growth
• Communication
• Job search
• Multimedia capabilities
• Peer Learning
• Friendly interface

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1. Documenting growth

• I see E-Folio as a place to organize examples of
  work produced.
• On-demand information on the person and their
  professional activities.
• It is something that students at a tech/jr sic.
  college could use to put together a portfolio of
  their work.

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2. Communication

• Ease of use when applying for a position or when
  giving parents information about staff members.
• If changing jobs or presenting at professional
  workshops. The workshop people could get a bio of
  me and my work.

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3. Job search

• Online multi-disciplinary approach to your
  resume. Makes your resume appear more
  interactive, and lets the employer have an
  underlying meaning about your computer skills.
• As a substitute for a paper resume.
• Good learning tool. Would be especially useful
  early in a career when job-hunting.
• A venue for new job opportunities, a selling
  point.

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4. Multimedia capabilities

• Compilation of data into a central area without
  paper and allows you to incorporate links to your
  programs and reviews using various media into one
  area.

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5. Peer learning

• A place to share information with other
  educators.
• Interesting to see what can be done with this
  program and what other professionals have done in
  their careers.

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6. Friendly interface

• I look at what I have created through e-folio and
  see how easily information can be accessed as
  well as what can be designed.
• It's very easy to update at any given moment.
  Easy to use.

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Q5 eFolio Disadvantages

• Access
• Maintenance
• Limited functions
• Privacy
• Storage
• User interface

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1. Access

• Digital Divide issues. Not all parents can
  access.
• In my situation I only have one computer to
  access with my special education students.
• Maybe too advanced for some employment. Requires
  the employer to be savvy with the computer and
  internet resources. The goal of a resume is to
  get an interview, can the same be for this? Or
  does it porovide sic. too much information?
• I have tried to use this site with students
  creating their own sites and it has been very
  frustrating. They get kicked out of the program
  and they use their work, because "session
  expired". A message I never got as an educator
  putting my information on the web.

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2. Maintenance

• Lots of busy work
• E-Folio takes a lot of time to create and
  maintain.

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3. Limited functions

• If you are not looking for a job or don't want to
  collect your work. It is hard to use.
• Not needed if you already know how to create a
  web page.

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4. Privacy

• The only disadvantage I could see with creating
  an e-folio is privacy. I am uncomfortable with
  any idea that our students may be at risk by
  being on an internet site.

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5. Storage

• Storage size, especially if your district doesn't
  allow you to store files on their site.
• We only have a short time usage of the St. Thomas
  server after which the links we established on
  the e-folio will be no good.

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6. User Interface

• I think I am at such a learning point that it is
  overwhelming.
• Cumbersome, non-intuitive, not sure if
  administrators or hiring agents will look at it
• Learning and dealing with the limitations of the
  program inflexibility not all the steps and
  processes are logical

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Q6 How could eFolio assignments be more effective?

• More clarification
• Class time for practice

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Recommendations

• Use a Web-based discussion board to allow the
  community of teachers to comment on each others
  eFolio sites.
• Set aside at least two or three class sessions to
  review ISTE NETS standards and the appropriate
  examples that address these standards.
• Build a database of standards-based eFolios
  developed by the in-service teachers by grade
  levels and content areas.
• Develop a more comprehensive rubric for
  evaluating eFolio projects.

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Recommendations

• Review eFolio at each subsequent course
• Encourage learners to purchase more storage space
• Provide a wizard type of online assistant for
  novice users to create or revise a section.
• Provide a database of national and state
  standards for users to link to

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References

• Cambridge, D. 2005, Electronic portfolios for
  lifelong and lifewide learning Research and
  practice (Satellite Broadcast), Minneapolis, MN.
• Kilbane, C. R., Milman, N. B. 2003, The digital
  teaching portfolio handbook A how-to guide for
  educators, Allyn and Bacon, Boston
• Klenowski, V. 2002, Developing portfolios for
  learning and assessment, Routledge Falmer, London.

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Contact Information

• Candace Chou
• ccchou_at_stthomas.edu
• Mike Mendez
• mjmendez_at_stthomas.edu