Reflection Week 4 - ePortfolios and Assessment

This week we addressed the use of electronic portfolios.  According to article “Electronic Portfolios as Digital Stories of Deep Learning”, the use of a portfolio can tell the story of a student’s learning.  Using a portfolio can be significant when used as a formative assessment for instruction.  In the article it states the process of seeking and interpreting evidence from a portfolio to determine what learners are learning and where they need to go is referred to as Assessment for Learning.  The article identified ten research-based principals of Assessment for Learning (AFL).

http://electronicportfolios.org/digistory/epstory.html 

The AFL I focused on was taking account of the importance of (and foster) learner motivation.  I found in the article I chose, “The Effect of ePortfolio Satisfaction on Students’ Learning Motivation and Internet Self-efficacy”,  that when keeping an ePortfolio there was a positive correlation between learning motivation, Internet self-efficacy, and ePortfolio satisfaction.  Educators need to incorporate the use of ePortfolios into the classrooms to encourage students to take control of their learning and self-evaluation processes.

http://www.sicet.org/journals/jetde/jetde11/11-9-Huang.pdf
 

As a project this week, I created my own ePortfolio where I will archive many of the projects I have done in this course.  I plan to add the other courses I have taken to organize the evidence/artifacts of the technologies/projects I have created so that I can reflect on my learning.

https://sites.google.com/site/rhondahallsportfolio/home

I can see the potential for “dynamic assessment”, enhancing the teaching and learning process by using an ePortfolio.  Also recognizing one’s abilities and skills can come from the use of ePortfolios.  Keeping an ePortfolio can enable one to self-assess and teachers to pinpoint problems will the potential for reteaching.  As an educator, I feel that developing the student learners’ ability for self-assessment so that they can reflect and self-manage their learning, can have a powerful impact on student learning.  I could make use of an ePortfolio for students in the library. I would ask for the title of the book, the author, and a short synopsis of the book.  I would also ask if they would recommend the book and why.  I students could see if they are choosing books they like or do their book choices need to change.  I could ask them to write about every book they read in a school year.   Our job is to give our students the skills to manage their information and see that they understand what they are learning.