The big question on every bodies mind as we make our way through this year heading towards time to start applying for jobs. Do we eportfolio or not? After these workshop, I now realise there are two different types of eportfolio I can talk about.
1. My personal portfolio.......
I must admit I am slightly to very sceptical about the idea of doing a portfolio on the computer. Without seeing some amazing work on accessible programs, I don't see why we can't just do a hard copy of our portfolio. I must admit when talking to a friend of mine who did a teaching degree a few years back, she liked the sound of an eportfolio and said that she would actually prefer that to her hard copy, which is hard to upgrade and modify as her teaching career continues. I agree with her that the idea of being able to edit and adjust it as the years go on does seem like a good idea. But i just feel like I haven't seen a program that supports the format of an eportfolio that works well enough for my liking.
I am sure if your undergrad degree was computers or technological design or something similar then you would be able to make an amazing eportfolio, but for somebody like myself, who loves spending time on my computer but doesn't necessarily have the know how or the access to any programs that are out of the ordinary. I would simply become annoyed at my eportfolio and get a little bit perfectionist on my work. I would constantly be thinking there was something better out there to produce it on.
I feel if you are going to do an eportfolio, it really needs to be striking to gain the principles attention. I have spoken with a few principles and teachers who sit on the interview panel and the majority of those who I have spoken too, said they often look at the portfolios while the teacher is jotting down notes to the interview questions. One principle said don't put a lot of words, because they won't read it. Its better to be visual as they will flick through the portfolio and not spend a lot of time reading everything you have put into the portfolio.
That's why I think the hard copy is better, as the board can self direct themselves through the portfolio. When it is in eportfolio format, if the staff aren't comfortable with computers or if the program you use isn't a well known program then the staff may miss important sections or just not bother looking past the first page.
My queries about eportfolios especially those connected to a website, is how to show them off. Bring your own laptop and you wont have access to the schools Internet. I also don't think you can expect the staff to be able to look at it, if you supply the staff with a USB stick or CD as most of the interviews are done away from one of the staff members work space. They may not look at it till after you leave.
I believe my dislike for eportfolios has sprung from a friend who is doing the same course at a different uni, she has been using the 'iwebfolio' program with much frustration. I have attempted to help this friend and too became very frustrated. The program cost money and always changes the formatting and sometimes just won't let you do certain things. The uni themselves have now admitted the program is not very good and probably won't use it next year. I also tried to look up other online programs such a pebble pad and a few others, but i find it hard to decide whether or not to pay for them, without a trail period. Especially after seeing how poor iwebfolio is.
Although I may seem very against the eportfolio, if I do find a program that is easy to use and has the qualities to make a great eportfolio. As well as a file that can be viewed on a computer that is not connected to the Internet then I would definatly consider it. A definite positive of using an eportfolio is showing your interest and creativity of how you would incorporate technologies into your classroom. I believe you could also show examples of work created a lot easier than you could in a hard copy portfolio.
2. Students eportfolios.
Unlike my own personal eportfolio, I highly recommend doing student eportfolios. I really like the idea of them, having a file that they continue to add onto throughout there years at school. Something the teachers can use to show parents at parent teacher interviews, a piece of work that the children has at the end of the year with all their accomplishments and especailly due to the fact that its a file on the computer, something they can keep for years to come and look back on.
A lot of the great work my students did throughout my first placement was done and corrected but not much happens after this stage. Especially being grade 5 and 6, not a lot of the work was displayed in the classroom. I therefor find that sometimes students don't put their best work into everything, as they know once today is over it doesn't matter what your piece of work looked like. I would think that a student eportfolios would help motivate the students to create their best work so that they can use it in their eportfolios.
Examples of work students can put in their own eportfolios: scan their work, photographs of their work, video tapes of them showing/explaining their work, video of the students telling stories or videos of the process they did to create their piece of work etc.
I believe the student eportfolio is a great way in incorporate technology into the classroom.
Microsoft Publisher:
Is no longer on the cheap student version of Office. This now makes the program less accessible for students, as majority of the students wouldn't have used the program unless they had used it previously at school.
Many students would no longer have access to this program on their home computers. It is however on school computers.I really think this is a shame that Publisher has been removed from the basic version of Office. It is a great program for children to improve on their basic computer skills without the annoying automatic formatting that happens with Microsoft Word. Publisher gives students the freedom to make a range of documents from templates or create something from a blank page. The main aspect I like is that a student with not great computer skills can still make a impressive looking piece of work which will improve their confidence with computers.
Creating a brochure in publisher:
When taking this lesson in the classroom - introduce the topic showing a range of examples of real brochures. Talk about them and their effectiveness.
- how are they set up?
- which ones do you like?
- what don't you like about some of the brochures?
- which ones are effective at selling their product?
- are they best with lots of pictures? or lots of writing?
- etc.
This task can also be used to introduce using publisher with freedom such as the free choice we had in the workshop, given a broad topic (ie, a destination I would like to go) which therefore enabled all students to be engaged as it was their choice which country or place they used.
By using publisher to create a brochure, children have the chance to practice the following skills in an engaging format:
- cutting
- pasting
- comprehension and summarising information
- typing and mouse skills, etc
My Brochure:
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