Portfolio Learning...its Happening!

Image by swisscan via Flickr

I'm so pleased to report out that we are making some progress with portfolio learning at my school here in Palo Alto, California. Today I worked with some of the 9th grade students to introduce them to the concept of portfolio learning-see the google slide deck below. This slide deck was used to guide the conversation with the students today (I will make a recording of this and post the audio along with my slides in a future blog post here).

We know that the stories of our unique learning journeys cannot be boiled down to a letter grade. It is impossible to reduce our passion, interests and achievement to a set of numbers, symbols and letters. Back in my pre-service days at the University of Wisconsin - Madison we explored the potential of portfolios as a way to capture authentic student learning and achievement-but that was pre-internet and we only had analogue systems to track and manage the learner portfolios. We now have simple, easy to use systems in place for everyone to keep her own eportfolio that may be used across subjects, extra-curricular experiences, and academic years. Eportfolios have the potential for a learner to effectively tell her learning story and to make meaning of her learning in a way that works best for her.

I think this is going to turn into something really cool here at our school-I can't wait!



For more information on portfolios, visit Dr. Helen Barrett's site (she is the Queen Bee of portfolio learning).

Let's Build an ePortfolio Culture!

I recently stumbled upon this ePortfolio concept map. It is an excellent illustration of what a student-centered ePortfolio space could look like. If you ask 10 people to define a learning portfolio, chances are that you'll get 10 different answers. But we can all probably agree on the language surrounding the circle in the middle of this map. ePortfolio methodology promotes reflective learning, enhances an understanding of our own learning (meta-cognition), documents learning and creates a permanent learning record.

I'm convinced that once we move toward an ePortfolio culture in our schools that the role of grades and standardized texts will be minimized and authentic student work will be valued greatly.

What are we waiting for? Let's build an ePortfolio culture in our schools now!


































*Image from Cal State University's ePortfolio Portal
*Direct URL to image