LISD ePortfolio
The following is a brief overview of the LISD ePortfolio
Why ePortfolios?
"Too often our students consider their work in the classroom as required assignments—not work that has anything to do with what they will be doing in the real world. Oh, maybe they are picking up some skills they might use in their future employment, but that’s about it. As teachers, how do we get students to understand that the work they do in our classes—such as team projects, community service, technical papers, and even research—is relevant to what they will be doing after they graduate? How do we encourage them to keep their materials and use them to validate their work as students?"
The LISD Template Layout
The LISD ePortfolio is organized by an "All About Me" and six 21st century skills, NOT content areas. Students will update their all about me to reflect their unique interests and perspectives and they will add artifacts and reflections from various areas to each of the 21st century skill pages.
Each 21st century skill page is set up in a blog style format. The section at the top where the reflection prompts currently are will stay at the top, however it can be modified. Every time a student is ready to add a new artifact/reflection they will click the "new post" button to create a new section. Each new post will go above the others, so the most current items will be at the top.
What are Artifacts?
Artifacts can come from a wide range of student work, both in and out of school. Artifacts should be selected not only from the core academic areas, but also electives and extra curricular activities. Student-selected artifacts may include:
- Projects
- Processes
- Videos
- Essays
- Drawings
- Photographs
The Importance of Reflections
"Most of us go through life viewing our experiences as isolated, unrelated events. We also view these happenings simply as the experiences they are, not as opportunities for learning. Psychologists refer to this type of lifeview as an "episodic grasp of reality" (Feuerstein, Rand, Hoffman, & Miller, 1980), and it is not a habit we want to pass along to children. Instead, we want students to get into the habit of linking and constructing meaning from their experiences. Such work requires reflection."
What Can You Do?
In all classes - core and elective:
- Use the vocabulary of the six 21st century skills
- Help students capture and organize their learning in their google drive
- Model reflecting on learning
- Provide time and oppurtunities for students to reflect on learning