Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Dr. Robert S. Legutko
Assistant Professor of Education
This presentation will include an overview of using electronic portfolios as a means
of alternative assessment by education students in their course work,
culminating/final departmental projects, and job searches.
Construction of electronic portfolios by using the Microsoft’s Word, PowerPoint,
and FrontPage, and Netscape’s Composer, will be illustrated.
This PowerPoint presentation can be accessed on-line at
http://www4.desales.edu/~rsl2/cybertools/4August2004.ppt
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Presentation Outline
I. Definition
II. Why Construct an Electronic Portfolio?
III. Research on Portfolio Assessment
A. Student Portfolios: Classroom Uses
B. Teaching Portfolios in (University) Faculty
Development
IV. Things to Consider
V. Common Software Programs
A. Microsoft FrontPage
B. Microsoft Word
C. Netscape Composer
D. Microsoft PowerPoint
VI. Conclusion
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Definition1
An electronic portfolio may be defined by the following
characteristics:
• Collection of author’s work over a period of time;
• Authentic performance-based assessment tool;
• Used for evaluation by demonstrating how and what the
author is learning or has achieved; and
• Construction is based on technology.
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Why Construct an Electronic Portfolio?
ADVANTAGES
1. Compact
2. Easy to reproduce
3. Alternate Assessment
4. Makes you look smarter than your colleagues
5. All that glitters is gold!; and
6. Sets you apart from your colleagues
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Why Construct an Electronic Portfolio?
DISADVANTAGES
1. Will the format(s) still be here in 1,000 years? (My M.Ed.
paper on C-64)
2. Does the end user understand technology? (HFC story)
3. Does the end user operate in the same format? (PC v. Mac)
4. Some people still prefer to hold documents in their hands
5. Too much flash, not enough substance
6. Sets you apart from your colleagues – how does the boss
assess if everyone else does theirs the old-fashioned way?
Or, we fear change…!
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Research on Portfolio Assessment (Student Portfolios)2
WHAT IS IT?
• Collections of student work representing a selection of
performance.
• Derived from the visual and performing arts tradition in which
they serve to showcase accomplishments and personally
favored works.
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Research on Portfolio Assessment (Student Portfolios)
WHY TRY IT?
• Students have been stuffing assignments in notebooks and
folders for years.
• Capitalize on students' natural tendency to save work and
become an effective way to get them to take a second look and
think about how they could improve future work.
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Research on Portfolio Assessment (Student Portfolios)
HOW DOES IT WORK?
• Students are expected to collect, select, and reflect.
• In building a portfolio of selected pieces and explaining the
basis for their choices, students generate criteria for good work,
with teacher and peer input.
•Students need specifics with clear guidelines and examples to
get started on their work, so these discussions need to be well
guided and structured. The earlier the discussions begin, the
better.
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Research on Portfolio Assessment (Student Portfolios)
WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SAY?
• Portfolios can provide structure for involving students in
developing and understanding criteria for good efforts, in coming
to see the criteria as their own, and in applying the criteria to
their own and other students' work.
• Students benefit from an awareness of the processes and
strategies involved in writing, solving a problem, researching a
topic, analyzing information, or describing their own
observations.
• Portfolios can serve as a vehicle for enhancing student
awareness of these strategies for thinking about and producing
work--both inside and beyond the classroom.
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Research on Portfolio Assessment (Student Portfolios)
WHAT ARE THE DRAWBACKS?
• Portfolios place additional demands on teachers and students
as well as on school resources.
• Teachers need not only a thorough understanding of their
subject area and instructional skills, but also additional time for
planning, conferring with other teachers, developing strategies
and materials, meeting with individual students and small
groups, and reviewing and commenting on student work.
• Teachers may need extra space in their classrooms to store
students' portfolios or expensive equipment such as video
cameras.
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Research on Portfolio Assessment (Student Portfolios)
SHOW STUDENT PORTFOLIO EXAMPLE FROM ED305-INTEGRATING
TECHNOLOGY INTO ELEMENTARY & EARLY CHILDHOOD CLASSROOMS
For culminating/final departmental projects and job searches
HAND-IN-HAND FOR US AFTER STUDENT TEACHING – THE PORTFOLIO IS TO
BE TAKEN TO THE JOB INTERVIEW
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Research on Portfolio Assessment
(Teaching Portfolios & Faculty Development)3
ITEMS FOR A PROFESSOR’S TEACHING PORTFOLIO
1. List of courses taught
2. Grading standards
3. Thoughts on the goals of each course
4. Description of students taught
5. Reasons students had for taking the course
6. Student learning styles
7. Examples of assignments and exams
8. List of teaching strategies; and
9. Ways to assess student learning
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Research on Portfolio Assessment
(Teaching Portfolios & Faculty Development)
ASSESSMENT
1. Student and peer evaluations
2. Notes or comments from former students
3. Reports from the employers of graduates
4. Representative, graded papers; and
5. Scores on standardized tests
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Research on Portfolio Assessment
(Teaching Portfolios & Faculty Development)
Gathering all this data isn't sufficient in itself. "For the data to
affect teaching," Murray notes, "one needs to reflect on what the
data reveal about his or her teaching." The portfolio might
include a record of changes in teaching style or approach
resulting from self-reflection or a description of new teaching
methods, or faculty development activities you took part in.
John P. Murray, author of Successful Faculty Development and Evaluation: The
Complete Teaching Portfolio, ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 8.
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Things to Consider
Directions Page (click here for RSL’s portfolio instructions page)
Links where to get the free “player” downloads
• Adobe
(site: http://www.adobe.com)
(free reader: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html)
• PowerPoint (site: http://www.microsoft.com)
(free viewer:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=428d5727-43ab-4f2490b7-a94784af71a4&displaylang=en)
• RealOne (site: http://www.real.com)
(free player: http://forms.real.com/netzip/getrde601.html?h=softwaredl.real.com&r=037e456ef55232c6b400&f=windows/RealPlayer10GOLD.exe&p=Re
alOne+Player&oem=dl_rp10_2&tagtype=ie&type=dl_rp10_2)
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
Common Software Programs
Microsoft FrontPage (purchase trial software at
http://www.microsoft.com/office/frontpage/prodinfo/trial.mspx at no cost for the
product, $7.95 shipping)
Microsoft Word (purchase at any computer store)
Microsoft PowerPoint (purchase at any computer store)
Netscape Browser (download for free at
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp)
Using Common Software Programs in Electronic Portfolio Construction
CyberTools Symposium 2004
References
1. Definition of Electronic Portfolio may be attributed to the author of the following
website: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596r/students/Abrenica/Abrenica.html
2. Information in the section titled Research on Portfolio Assessment (Student
Portfolios) may be attributed to the Office of Research, Office of Educational Research
and Improvement (OERI) of the U.S. Department of Education. “Student Portfolios:
Classroom Uses” at www.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/classuse.html.
3. Information in the section titled Research on Portfolio Assessment
(Teaching Portfolios & Faculty Development) may be attributed to “Thriving in
Academe: What About Teaching Portfolios and Faculty Development?” from the June
1997 issue of The NEA Higher Education Advocate at
http://www.nea.org/he/head9697/advo9706/thriving.html.