Tag Archives: digital portfolios

The Places We Can Go

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I was totally moved by this story shared on Imgur the other day:

“Oh the Places You’ll Go…”

"Oh the Places You'll Go..."

I graduated High School this week. When my Dad said he had a present for me I thought I was getting some cheesy graduation card. But what I received was something truly priceless. Following the ceremony he handed me a bag with a copy of “Oh the Places You’ll Go,” by Doctor Seuss inside. At first I just smiled and said that it meant a lot and that I loved that book. But then he told me “No, open it up.” …On the first page I see a short paragraph written by none other than my kindergarten teacher. I start tearing up but I’m still confused. He tells me “Every year, for the past 13 years, since the day you started kindergarten I’ve gotten every teacher, coach, and principal to write a little something about you inside this book.” He managed to keep this book a secret for 13 years, and apparently everyone else in my life knew about it! Yes the intended effect occured… I burst out in tears. Sitting there reading through this book there are encouraging and sweet words from every teacher I love and remember through my years in this small town. My early teachers mention my “Pigtails and giggles,” while my high school teachers mention my “Wit and sharp thinking..” But they all mention my humor and love for life. It is astounding to receive something this moving, touching, nostalgic, and thoughtful. I can’t express how much I love my Dad for this labor of love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was so moved by this story (as many were) and as always, thought about it in the context of our schools.  Often we look at school in “one year chunks” yet we don’t realize that the impact we have on a child can (and should) be forever.  When schools look at their vision, are they building it past one year, or are they looking at something longer lasting, and as the above story illustrates, something more powerful.

Last year, I saw the “Dear Sophie” commercial from Google Chrome, and I still get goosebumps every time I watch it.

For the dad in that video, he saw the long term vision that sharing and archiving his child growing up would be something that would be extremely powerful for his own child.  I am sure, however, that he did not think it would reach millions of others through the video that was made.

Within our work at Parkland School Division, we are moving into our second year of our digital portfolio initiative for our students, and the vision is that students will have created an archive their learning for all of the years they spend in our schools (any school) that they can take and build upon long after they leave.  This is not to say that there aren’t struggles with this work.  Many people would feel comfortable using different platforms such as Kidblog because they may be easier or they may be apt to use, but we are trying to build a vision where the platform is secondary to the learning.  If we all use the same platform to create these portfolios, we can then get into truly deep and transformative learning.

It would be easy at any point to throw in the towel on this project though.  It would have also been easy for the dad to give up on the project for his daughter with the book, but he wanted to do something special and make a difference that would go far beyond a simple graduation gift.  He wanted to give his daughter something she would truly cherish.

Do we as schools have a long term vision that will help transcend what we do past “year chunks” and into lifelong learning?  Do we have the patience to see projects through that go far beyond any single year?  Do we build capacity within our schools so that no matter what leadership is in place, that long term vision can be achieved?

I am hoping our answer to all three of those questions is a definitive yes.

You Should Read… (March 12, 2012)

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My blog has been off and on for the last little while due to technical difficulties but luckily (for myself) I have temporarily fixed it!  This is all a part of the learning curve!

Here are some really interesting videos/articles that I have seen in the last little while.

1.  Can Skateboarding Save Our Schools – A very interesting idea on using skateboarding as a model for assessment and at about 9 minutes (watch this), the speaker uses a great example of why grades are really tough to use when learning a new skill; you either can or cannot do it sometimes.  You may not agree with what the ideas that the author suggests, but it is a great ‘real-world’ example to spark discussion.  Isn’t that what we want in our learning communities?

2. Slacktivism – Another great post by Shelley Wright discussing the Kony 2012 video that has quickly went viral (here is a great Ted Talk on why videos go viral) and is all over both mainstream and social media.  The discussions that the Kony video are fantastic although not everyone agrees with the way it has been done.  Here is what Shelley has to say:

Here’s the problem, while the video correctly informs us Kony is a dangerous man who needs to be stopped, the solutions it offers are decidedly white, North American and ill-informed. Throwing North American money at a problem, at best, rarely solves it, and at worst, exacerbates it.

Essentially, the premise of the video is that Kony has abducted thousands of children and needs to be stopped. The solution? All of us who stand for truth and justice should be the ones to stop Kony. How? We mobilise as many people as possible to lobby influential artists and politicians to stand up for the cause, which in turn will pressure Obama to keep the 100 troops deployed to Uganda in place until Kony is caught. Once Kony is caught, or killed, all will be good.  But will it? Do we honestly believe Justin Bieber is the Ugandan people’s best hope? Doesn’t that overestimate our ability and underestimate theirs?

If anything, educators are learning more than ever to not simply jump on a bandwagon behind these types of global initiatives, but more importantly to think critically about what is happening and it means to our world.  There is so much to learn not only about our past, but our present.  This article talks about the opportunities we have to discuss this with our students:

So here’s the positive side of Stop Kony: it’s an open door to have those tough conversations with kids who are mature enough to handle them.

Practically every teenager I know has seen and shared the Kony video. It’s always a good thing when youth are encour­aged to think beyond their own borders, and when they’re in­spired to make a difference.

Invisible Children is telling teens and young adults that they can use their powers of social media for good. Those are impor­tant messages.

But we should also encourage our kids to heed some of the critics and come to their own informed conclusions about the campaign. Major kudos to Grant Oyston, an Acadia student, for essentially kick-starting a global dialogue.

Dialogue. Such a great word to be used in the context of our schools.  We need to have it more openly and if anything, videos like this give us great opportunities for learning in our classrooms.

3.  Digital Portfolios – Kathy Cassidy, an outstanding educator from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan (this is turning into the all Moose Jaw edition of ‘You Should Read’!) discusses her process and learning from doing digital portfolios with her grade 1 students (yes, grade 1!).  Here work has been inspirational in some of the things that we have been trying to do within our own school division.  Kathy has been a leader in this area for several years:

I have been using my students’ blogs as digital portfolios for several years. By the end of the school year, they reflect each child’s learning in many subject areas from the first weeks of school until the last. In addition to showing the development of our writing skills, we make podcasts of our reading fluency at different points in the school year, and show our learning in language arts, mathematics, science, social studies and health.

I am hoping that sharing this type of resource will push more people into helping students learn to assess their work in a way that they have a solid understanding of their work while also building a very positive digital footprint of their work!

I hope you all have a great week with your students!

 


cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by mrsdkrebs

Change the Measure

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cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by aussiegall

The other day, through a conversation on Twitter, one of the questions that came up (which does often), is in light of all the progress in education, how do we measure if what we are doing is successful?  As I thought about it, it seemed that we are looking for some quantitative data to show success.  What I was struggling with though is if we are trying to make learning personalized, why are we trying to group the data?  Personalized learning would seemingly lead to personalized assessment and data with every child having a different measure of success.  The view of “success for all” really does not tell the story of each individual child but measures them against some common standard.  Wouldn’t success look different to every single person?  It seems we are looking to use “industrialized” data for personalized learning.

So what could that look like?  Well many organizations outside of education use the concept of “exit interviews” to measure how their company is doing and what it could do better.   Although there could be a more “numerical” way of doing this, many great organizations know that there is truly value in having conversations with those involved, and that through this qualitative data, their companies can get better.  The process is long but it is valuable.  What could that look like for our students?  Actually sitting down with them individually and having them share what they learned?  Would we not be able to understand how well they are doing while also assessing where we need to grow?  Is this not time well spent?  We need to bring our students in the conversation more.

Or why not focus on portfolios that tell the story from the child’s point of view?  Using digital portfolios are something that gives student the opportunity to not only share what they are learning, but it is also a reflective tool for learning.  By giving students a platform so we can look in at some of their thought process, will we not build an understanding of how well they are doing?

How do we measure success?  Through a score?  To adults, success could mean to some a good family, others a rewarding career, some money.  The standard is different for everyone.  We need to give this opportunity to our students.

I have said it before, and still believe that if classrooms are going to change (meaningful and sustainable change), organizations and structures need to change.  Simply looking for a “number” based on a different measure seems like the same type of assessment.  If we are going to change the way we teach, we need to also change how we assess, not just what we assess.

Suggestions?