STEP ePortfolio Workspace
A Web-Based Learning Environment
Supporting Pre-Service Teachers with
Electronic Portfolio Creation,
Reflection and Online Collaboration
Jim Vanides & Keri Morgret
Stanford University Learning Design and Technology 2002
“…powerful education requires that
teachers and principals be able to analyze
and reflect on their practice. Individually
and with others, they need to assess the
effects of their work and to refine and
improve their practice…”
Rachel Lotan
Program Director
Stanford Teacher Education Program
“…powerful education requires that
teachers and principals be able to analyze
and reflect on their practice. Individually
and with others, they need to assess the
effects of their work and to refine and
improve their practice…”
Rachel Lotan
Program Director
Stanford Teacher Education Program
Key “Learning Problem”
How do we make the creation
of electronic portfolios easier
and more meaningful?
What is an ePortfolio Workspace?
What is an ePortfolio Workspace?
a personalized web-based learning space where I do my
STEP work and an additional way to interact with my STEP
community:
• Community Discourse – asynchronous and synchronous
discussion, faculty-student and student-student
• Community News – personalized
• Document Management – organize and archive digital
work into “electronic binders”
• Web Publishing – drag and drop simplicity
What is an ePortfolio Workspace?
a collection of digital works, organized in “electronic binders”:
• Assessment Portfolio – evidence of proficiency relative
to Teaching Standards
• Formative Portfolios – work-in-progress, available for
invited conversation and private reflection
• Employment Portfolio – shown to potential employers
• Course Binders – faculty-created, student appended
• Private Diary – index of reflections
• Project Binders – personal or collaborative
Learning Cycle
prepare
Experience
director mentors
supervisor
C&I
photos
Share
peers
video
Capture
CT
docs
friends
Reflect
annotate
organize
catalog
select
audio
notes
Learning Cycle
prepare
Experience
director mentors
supervisor
C&I
photos
Share
peers
video
Capture
CT
docs
friends
Reflect
annotate
organize
catalog
select
audio
notes
Learning Benefits
Save Time ~ Learn More
• Scaffolds for deeper reflections related to
teaching standards
• Facilitates collaboration, sharing and feedback
• Increases learning productivity and organization
Design Method
•
•
•
•
Informant and learner centric design
Scenario based design
Research review and key learning principles
Reviewing existing tools & alternatives
Design Method
Informant Design: Engage STEP students,
alumni, and faculty from the beginning of
the design process …
Design Informants and Advisors
Rachel Lotan (STEP Director)
Treena Joi (STEP ’02)
Margaret Krebs (PT3, Tech)
Kara Mitchell (STEP ’02)
Alan Marcus (Social Studies C&I
Gloria Miller (STEP RA)
instructor; STEP supervisor)
Jo Boaler (Math C&I instructor)
Cory Maley (STEP alum)
Colin Haysman (STEP Instructor)
Katie Miller (STEP alum)
Teresa Cameron (STEP Tech)
Anthony Gallego (STEP alum)
Decker Walker (LDT Faculty)
Kristina Scott (STEP alum)
Cindy Mazow (Stanford Learning
Toru Iiyoshi (Carnegie Foundation for
Lab, LDT alum)
the Advancement of Teaching)
Existing Practices in STEP
• Face-to-Face community, with subgroups sorted
by subject and supervisor
• Intense program with no “spare” time
• Docushare and web-server storage repositories
• CD and Web deliverables
• Assorted applications for processing multimedia
(PowerPoint, Word, iMovie…)
• Some web-design with Frontpage, Dreamweaver
Key “Learning Problem”
How do I
organize it all?
Technology is a
pain to learn…
How do we make the creation
of electronic portfolios easier
and more meaningful?
What are other
teachers doing?
Reflecting is not
very easy
There’s no spare
time!!
Proposed ePortfolio Workspace
• Web accessible anywhere, anytime
• Asynchronous review and discussion,
synchronous chat
• Dynamic, personalized website
• Accepts varied multimedia objects
• For formative and assessment portfolios
• Supplements, doesn’t replace, existing
face-to-face community
Technology Infrastructure
Web
Server
www
Database
Storage
Array
Transcription Server
The Efficacy of Portfolios
“… a portfolio without goals (or standards) and
reflections is just a multimedia presentation, or a
fancy electronic resume…. [By] including
reflection, direction (goal-setting), and
connection (dialog with others about the
portfolio), a teacher creates a foundation for
powerful professional development.”
Helen Barrett, University of Alaska Anchorage
(2000) “Electronic Teaching Portfolios: Multimedia Skills + Portfolio Development =
Powerful Professional Development”, SITE2000 Conference
http://www.electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/3107Barrett.pdf
Key Learning “Active Ingredients”
• Metacognitive Scaffolding
• Community of Learners
• Peer Review
Key Learning “Active Ingredients”
Metacognitive Scaffolding
“…learning is most effective when people engage
in ‘deliberate practice’ that includes active
monitoring of one’s learning experiences”.
John Bransford, Ann Brown, Rodnye Cocking
(2000) p 59 How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School; quoting Ericsson (1993)
Key Learning “Active Ingredients”
Community of Learners
“…based on the premise that learning occurs as
people participate in shared endeavors with
others…”
Barbara Rogoff, UC Santa Cruz
(1994) p 209, 214 “Developing Understanding of the Idea of Communities of Learners”.
Mind, Culture and Activity Vol. 1 No.4
Key Learning “Active Ingredients”
Peer Review
“If we want portfolios to be more than an accidental
sharing of experiences, if we want the portfolio
owners to get involved in each other’s work we have
to design for that. Peer assessment is one
approach…”
Håkon Tolsby
“Digital Portfolios: A Tool for Learning, Self-Reflection, Sharing and Collaboration”
my.STEP.stanford
A personalized
web-space for:
• Thinking about
teaching
• Discussing
teaching plans &
questions
• Being a Learning
Community
Community of Learners
Personalized STEP news and calendar
Community of Learners
Community Tools and Interaction
Community of Learners
Community Showcase of Best Practices
Public Recognition
Discussion and Collaboration
Collaborative consultation has been found to
improve teachers' problem-solving skills,
facilitate teachers' understanding of and attitude
toward children's problems, and promote gains
in long-term academic achievement (Meyers, 1995)
Susan N. Friel UNC-Chapel Hill
(2000) MaSTech: An on-line community to support preservice and new teachers of
middle grades mathematics and science.
Discussion and My eBinders
Discussion by
Invitation
Discussion and Annotation
Peer Review
Community
Discourse and
Peer Review
Reflection
“… portfolios [at UNCG] emphasize reflection that
requires descriptive, analytical, and transformative
writing about the evidence presented in these portfolios.”
“…the quality of portfolios has improved…commensurate
with the focus we have placed on integrating the
reflective cycle into our professional courses.”
Barbara Levin, University of North Carolina Greensboro
(2002) “Reflection as the Foundation for E-Portfolios”, SITE2002 Conference
UNCG “Reflection Cycle”
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/pbl/pblreflect.htm
Designing for Reflection
“… learning is most effective when people engage in
‘deliberate practice’ that includes active monitoring of
one’s learning experiences.”
“Transfer can be improved by helping students become
more aware of themselves as learners…. Metacognitive
approaches to instruction have been shown to increase
the degree to which students will transfer to new
situations without the need for explicit prompting.”
John D. Bransford, et al
(2000) p. 59 & 67, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School
Reflection and My eBinders
Organize
learning
artifacts with
drag & drop
Simplicity
Reflection and My eBinders
Reflect
while you
organize…
Reflection and My eBinders
Scaffolded Reflection,
when the learning is
fresh and meaningful
My eBinders
Reflection
Focused on
Teaching
Standards
Teaching Standards and Reflection
Self Assessment
Framework for
Reflecting on
Teaching
Standards
Private Reflection
“… [preservice portfolio authors] avoid the kind of critical
self-exposure necessary for truly engaging with problems of
practice. If portfolios do not provide a place for such
reflective thinking, it doesn’t seem likely that they will
result in the kind of improvements in teaching practice or
continuing teacher knowledge development that advocates
hope for.”
Joanne Carney, Mercyhurst College
(2002) “The Intimacies of Electronic Portfolios: Confronting Preservice Teachers’ Personal Revelation
Dilemma”, SITE2002 Conference
Private Reflection
Personal
Reflections,
including audio
notes and
transcription
My ePortfolio
The
assessment
(summative)
portfolio
Initial Feedback
• “This would be a huge step… The time element [of
the STEP program] won’t go away, but this gets
rid of the busywork of technology…”
• “This simplifies the whole process”
• “As an instructor, I’d definitely use it!”
• “How soon can you implement this?”
Next Steps
• Conduct additional user feedback and test the
“learning experience” (does creating an electronic
portfolio this way result in a more meaningful
learning experience?)
• Incorporate domain-specific standards (national,
state, STEP-specific, subject specific)
• Build live prototype