ePortfolio and Transition Opportunities

 I only have a few ‘secondment’ months left. I’ve really enjoyed the experience and I’ve learned loads from it, too – once I found my feet -:)

Although my remit is to provide ICT support to all stages, it’s been mainly primary schools that have approached me directly. As I come from the primary sector anyway, this didn’t really surprise me. I’ve always been keen, though, to become more involved with high schools. I think this may be because of the interest I have in the transition stages between the two sectors.

I’ve tended to teach children in the upper stages of primary and in the past have set up individual blogs for the children. Although these were well used at the time, they tended to disappear in to the ether when the children moved on to high school

When I wrote a blog post about  ePortfolios, a comment by Ray Tolley helped me understand what had happened to the various online spaces I had set up for children in the past.

Ray commented:

“Perhaps one important point missed so far is about longevity. Having taken the trouble to help pupils build up an e-Portfolio, what happens if there is no ‘portability’ to the Secondary school or beyond? I doubt that promises of ‘interoperability’ will really materialise in the next 10-15 years! I think that it is very important to invest in a system that is future-proofed. I feel that children will get very frustrated if they have to start from scratch all over again when they move on to another school.”

Since then, I’ve been toying around with an eportfolio experiment  and last week the children who are taking part went along to Nethermains Primary school to explain the concept to some peer primary 6s.

Yesterday I asked the Carronshore children if I could record some of their thoughts about their eportfolio experience so far:

Now that I’ve set up the ePortfolios for the P6 group at Nethermains primary, they are really enthusiastic. I’ve also met with their class teacher who seems very willing to take things forward. The children and their teacher are coming along to Carronshore next week so that they can learn some more ‘first hand tips from the original ‘guinea pigs’ 🙂

I’m also really pleased that I’m going along to the local High School tomorrow to meet with some S4 students who are interested in setting up their own eportfolios to reflect on their Art work.

I introduced the concept to the teachers in the Art department recently and just today one of them (Mrs C)  left a comment on the Carronshore Blog :

Hi Carronshore!

Just a quick comment to say well done on creating the fantastic artwork for the exhibition.  I think it looks fantastic and really like the tartan designs.

I teach Art and Design at Larbert HIgh School and we are really keen to start a blog with our Art classes.  I will continue to visit and encourage our pupils to have a look at your wonderful work also!

Keep up the good work!

She also left a comment on a post I’d written on the Carronshore blog about the eportfolio experiment :

 The pupils (and teachers!!) are really looking forward to Mrs Vass visiting us on Friday to hopefully help us set up  ePortfolios with some of our pupils.  I really enjoyed reading that so many pupils at Carronshore enjoy Art and we can’t wait to meet you when you move up to HIgh school!

I’m really looking forward to going along to the High School tomorrow to introduce the S4s to eportfolios – I’ll blog about it 🙂

4 thoughts on “ePortfolio and Transition Opportunities

  1. Interesting stuff. Learning Logs – interesting way to spice these up. Reflecting via PhotoPeach sounds like an idea.

    Mr T

  2. Hi, Margaret,

    Have read you latest, including your Case Study, with great interest. However, I still think that you tend to confuse the disparate tools with what an e-Portfolio is actually supposed to do. Yes, blogging and wikis have their place but this is not an e-Portfolio which should ‘cherry-pick’ those artefacts, reflections, peer reviews, mentors’ feedbacks etc which are appropriate to present a rounded one-stop ‘This is ME!’

    I would like to talk with you further, perhaps via other media, about the exciting progress of eFolio in the Orkneys. We have been working with a pilot group of Secondary students for some time now and are just begining a second phase with Yr7 pupils.

    You can get me at: support@maximise-ict.co.uk

    or see some of my documents at: http://issuu.com/efoliouk/docs

    • Thanks for taking the time to comment, Ray (and for taking the time to read my Case Study, too!)

      I’m just ‘playing around’ with the ePortfolio idea it the moment. When I return to class next August, I hope to be able to do it more justice. Although I’ve set up a few small groups with a version of an ePortfolio, I’ve not had the time to have much input. I’ve been delighted, though, by the level of motivation shown my the children – despite the lack of support they’ve received.

      I’d love to see examples of the Orkney ePortfolios. Maybe we could have a chat during the next few weeks via Skype or something? I’ll get in touch via email soon.

      Margaret

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