The area where I see the most applications for myself is in advisory, also known in our school as navigation 101. I have a group of seniors right now and will get a group of freshmen next year. Attitudes towards advisory has been abismal. I think that most of the problems (maintaining a portfolio, relevance and attitude) could be solved by moving the whole process to the computer. The blog would serve both the purpose of storing and updating their portfolio for ALL to see as well as providing a much more interesting matrix within which to set goals, plan, and reflect.
Excuses, dragging feet and comments of how stupid advisory is could be eliminated or at least minimized. In many schools advisory is already online and portfolios are electronic and they span all four years but in my building it is not. I intend to change that. Not only will the whole process be more relevant but access to other sites about careers, colleges, volunteer work, online dictionaries, etc. will be available "right [there], right now" (Laureate Education, inc. 2007). Also, the idea of the "global audience" (Richardson, W. 2009 p. 30 as cited by Hetzel, Stacy 2010) adds not only interest but motivation to make any work fit for educated eyes. Best works could be scanned or photographed and downloaded onto their site. I think another benefit of doing this online would be that the "personal" aspect of the portfolio would actually get much more attention. This would also make the Senior Project presentation (recently integrated into advisory) go much more smoothly. The power point element would be a breeze to generate! I am very excited!
References
Hetzel, S. 2010 http://stacyhetzel.blogspot.com/2010/03/utilizing-blogs-in-classroom.html
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2007). “Technology and society” . [Motion picture]. Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society. Baltimore : Author
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of a portfolio! We are required by the county to keep a writing portfolio on each and every student, and I do my best to encourage this. I think with "anytime, anywhere learning" (Laureate Education, 2007), blogging will only encourage students to keep up and add work to their portfolios. I also believe this is a much more efficient way to keep portfolios and plan to encourage my county to look at blogging as a means for portfolio.
How will you handle those students who do not have easy access to computers? I have those issues with many of my students and wonder the best way to handle the situtation. I only have one extra computer in the classroom, so that seriously limits the access and computer lab time is not a viable weekly option because of the time commitment. I would be very interested to hear any ideas you have and to hear how your portfolios work out. I would love to begin online portfolios next year.
Trina Burroughs
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2007). “Technology and society” . [Motion picture]. Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society. Baltimore : Author
Thank you Trina for your comments. You raise a very important point. Because I will be "pioneering" the idea of putting advisory online I will be using the computer lab in the library. It is only thirty minutes every other week and all the students have access (their own student accounts) to school computers just before and after school. I am sure there will be a student who only has dial up at home, has to work right after school, rides the bus and so doesn't have time before school and lunch is the best meal they get so what are they to do? At that point I will take the problem to my vice principal (who is very supportive of what I want to do) and let her problem solve for me.
ReplyDeleteJennifer,
ReplyDeleteI think that an online portfolio for Advisory is a great idea. We, too, have an advisory period at my middle school. I am not sure whose attitudes toward it is worse, students or faculty. I like it because I like getting the opportunity to build a relationship with a group of students that will, hopefully, last three years and is bound by something than the "Almighty A"!
I so much like your idea of using the space to plan, set goals, and reflect. I am getting excited for you! (And am also wracking my brain to see how I could work on this for my advisory group! Ha ha ha--I love to steal from smart people!)
I am wondering if all of what you are planning could take place on a ning. I am learning more about nings and they seem to be a blace to for blogs, discussion groups, etc. If all are like the English Companion Ning that I belong to, each student would have their own member page on which to launch their blog. This appeals to me because I feel like I would have each student's blog contained in one place, but they would still have the autonomy of designing, setting up, and controlling their blog.
Keep us up-to-date on your process. I'd like to be a fly on the wall and observe you in the process!
Debb
Well, Deb/Yoda, I know nothing about the "ning" but would have said the same about a wiki only a few days ago so I will have to get back to you on the possibilities there. I will be doing this not only for me but hopefully to make it possible for the whole school to move online at some point so when I start I will probably start posting on my blog reports and reflections about the process. You will probably be able to help me out! I will let you know how it goes. I cannot start with students till the fall of 2010.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea. I work at Mount Vernon High School in Washington State. We also use the NAV 101 format for portfolios. A peer and I have been working on a google slide show (like powerpoint) that our advisory students can use to personalise for thier senior project presentations. I had not thought of using a bolg as a place to have my advisory students go. They could find information about past and upcoming advisorys, post comments, e-mail me questions, etc. I think that this is a wonderful way to make advisory more open to my students. The blog would allow them access to all the information they need and open up a new way to communicate.
ReplyDelete