June 26th Reading: Part 2: Presentations

Presentations (summary of all 6 articles)
Whenever you are giving an oral presentation, it is important to know your audience and have done your research. Presentations will differ depending on your audience. If you are talking to a group of CEOs on their company's profit portfolio, you can use vocabulary and ideas that are relevant to their jobs. If you are presenting to a group of students or young adults, you want to remain genuine but not act like "Joe Cool". Knowing your audience will help you determine how you want to present your information and the style and format you choose to use. As most of us know, sometimes someone asks a question or makes a comment in the middle of a presentation, and it might get you off your topic. If this happens (our students always seem to try to get us off task with asking questions...I know I have had a few Ferris Bueller's in my classroom), it is important to know some important steps to help trigger your memory so you are able to complete your presentation

1. use mnemonic devices to help trigger your memory
2. plan your presentation like you tell a story...think what happens in the beginning, middle, and end
3. find a fodder (10-15 second time filler i.e. clear your throat, walk around the room, etc to get back on task)
4. walk around the room...different areas will help buy time and allow you to think through your topic
5. use coding throughout your presentation...similar to a nonverbal or unwritten form of a mnemonic device

Once back on track, it is important to keep your audience's attention. If you notice them straying from your main point...change it up a little! Get passionate with your audience so that they know you care about the topic. The more you move your body (okay, not like a crazy person), the more you will get energized and more comfortable with your presentation and your audience will sense how you personally feel about the topic. Apparently drinking any form of caffeine before presenting is a bad idea. Did you know that your adrenaline alone produces enough energy as 7 cups of coffee?? If we are nervous, we might already feel shaky...adding more to that might be disastrous. Stay calm and at ease by practicing and having someone video tape you presenting so you can personally edit your skills before you actually get in front of a live audience.

June 26th Readings...Part 1: Electronic Portfolios

Using Adobe Acrobat for Electronic Portfolio Development by: Dr. Barrett
After almost having my electronic portfolio completed, I hope that it will be accessible to the majority of my viewers. Using Adobe Acrobat or PDF formatting to house some of your documents guarantees that anyone can view your work. It is important to also include a link to a free download. The best part of this format...it's free! Teachers always flock to items on sale or FREE!

Portfolio Assessment
We have spent the last few days discussing electronic and traditional portfolios. The main idea of implementing a portfolio is it provides authentic material on either the student, teacher, or whoever owns the portfolio. This article highlights three separate kinds of portfolios: Documentation (working portfolio), meaning you add to this portfolio over time to show growth; Process portfolio, basically the same as a Documentation portfolio, but student reflections and higher order thinking are involved; Product or Showcase portfolio, which show the students' best work over a period of time or for a particular class. This type of portfolio is a summative assessment. The biggest challenge is making sure your portfolio stay current. Keep adding and/or deleting items as you see fit.

Kathleen Fischer's Electronic Portfolio
This electronic portfolio modeled good ideas on what a finished product may look like. I can't wait to get mine up and running on the web!

June 25th Readings

The Digital Portfolio: A Richer Picture of Student Performance by: David Niquidula
Traditionally, student records meant analyzing standardized test scores and grades in certain subjects (i.e. report card or official transcript). These scores would follow us wherever we went. Future employers would want to have access to these records to see if we are capable of fulfilling a certain job requirements. Do test scores and grades really paint a valid picture on whether or not someone will be an amazing journalist or the next teacher of the year? We have to move forward from just analyzing how someone looks "on paper" and look more at authentic evidence on what the student can do (strengths), to help paint a better picture of the student and also to get to know the student more than just a resume or transcript but as a future employee, etc. Digital Portfolios provide employers and college admission boards this opportunity. The two schools, Eastern and Thayer, that helped model the digital portfolio implementation process were amazing examples! What role models to demonstrate such success to others. They definitely got me motivated!

Collaborative Planning for Electronic Portfolios: Asking Strategic Questions
by: Dr. Barrett
This educator seems to know it all when it comes to electronic portfolios! She describes in this article specific areas to include in an electronic portfolio to make sure that all areas are covered before publishing.

• Goals
• Guidelines for the selection process
• Sample work for each goal
• Feedback from teachers and peers
• Self Reflection (most important)
• Rubrics (what was the assessment process)
• Standards and Models of other portfolios

Developing Student Electronic Portfolios

This site offers multiple resources on the use and implementation of electronic portfolios...even links to Dr. Christie's site! :)

Susan Silverman's electronic portfolios for her students

The electronic portfolios/ year books for each of her students were amazing! I loved to see how she organized each of her students work. It resembled a traditional web set up and each child's name linked out to their portfolio. I really only observed writing samples, and all of the writing was typed. I sure hope that Ms. Silverman did not type all of her student's work each time they were ready to publish. I can really not see that as useful time, especially with all that is expected of us teachers today.

Dr. Alice Christie's Examples of Electronic Portfolios

A lot of sites to choose from, but I had trouble navigating my way around, because most of the links were broken. I did come across an interesting site for kids called KidPub. This site (small fee required) allows students access to publish their own writing as well as view other kid's writing. What a great way to bounce off ideas and to show growth over a period of time. This site also allows teachers to create accounts for their own classroom. My only concern would be how to come up with the funds, and finding time for the students to publish their work on the classroom site without depending on the teacher.

I realized that their is a wealth of knowledge pertaining to electronic portfolios that my school and myself have not discovered. My goal would be to definitely start something to this caliber for the upcoming year. Anyone interested in donating a class set of flash drives??

June 24th Readings

Electronic Portfolios: Students, Teachers, and Life Long Learners
This article provides many examples of the basics on how to create an ePortfolio and even suggests software to use in order to store your data. This is the first article to mention the storage issue. I had to deal with the storage issue myself yesterday, when I went to copy my file onto my flash drive...it was not able to hold all of my data! What a dilemma! Luckily 8MB were on sale at Office Max!! I never would have thought to have had to purchase such a large drive!!

Dr. Helen Barrett on Electronic Portfolio Development: A Short Video
Dr. Barrett describes electronic portfolios as a "purposeful collection of work". The reason the works are considered purposeful, because the learner takes charge in what is going to be placed inside the portfolio to demonstrate understanding on a concept. The main piece of material that I seem to leave out of each section of my own student's portfolios is the reflection piece. It is important for students to reflect on their learning because it can then be used as an authentic form of assessment. I enjoyed the short ePortfolio clips of the little girl, Victoria, and her grandmother, the teacher, displaying her portfolio. She took ownership of her work and was proud to present it to others because it captured her learning and she was able to display it in a unique manner.

Researching Electronic Portfolios and Learned Engagement
by Helen C. Barrett, PhD.
According to Barrett, portfolios "contain work that a learner has collected, reflected (key point), selected, and presented to show growth and change over time". Portfolios, either student or professional, demonstrate to others the person's knowledge level. When students are allowed to select what items will be used in their portfolio, they take charge of their learning and will take pride in their achievements. Understanding what goes on behind the scenes of assessment will hopefully also make them more aware of what is expected of them to demonstrate their knowledge. The article suggests that electronic portfolios should have two sides...a teacher side (to show and highlight formative assessments) and also a student side (what they have chosen to demonstrate understanding). Portfolios should be used as an "assessment tool for learning". Teachers can analyze a student's portfolio and grasp whether a student understood a concept or needs to be pulled into a small group. It is an authentic tool to use to get to know the needs of your students in a variety of learning areas.

eLearnSpace: ePortfolios
by: George Siemens (2004)
This article reminds me of my own teaching philosophy of incorporating constructivist teaching practices into my classroom. Siemens states that "learning through life experiences creates artifacts instead". Isn't that our ultimate goal as teachers? I don't want my students to simply memorize their multiplication facts, but instead I want them to understand why multiplication works and be able to describe how it can be used outside of the classroom. Bring the learning to their level so they are able to make sense of what is being taught and apply it to their own lives.

June 23rd Readings

Carmean and Christie: Article on E-Portfolios
Portfolios are a crucial piece of authentic learning taking place both in and out of the classroom. Portfolios can be used for a variety of reasons. Carmean and Christie state that "ePortfolio to assess student learning, document the learner progress and provide the graduate with a functional tool for selecting and presenting their achievements and records". Electronic or ePortfolios are the future for recording evidence. Portfolios get the students motivated and involved in their learning, because they have the opportunity to choose work that reflects their understanding of a concept and puts them in the driver's seat of learning. Teacher directed instruction is a wave of the past! Learning has moved from the teacher's hand to the students. Today's learners are taking on a more independent role in their learning.

Electronic Teaching Portfolios
When I was in college, we had to create a portfolio during our Methods/ Student Teaching semester to act as a reflective guide when actively pursuing a job. The portfolio creation process is time consuming, but is well worth it. My only frustration with the whole process was most administrators I met with for interviews barely took the time to look over my portfolio. This article talked more of transforming the notebook portfolio into an electronic teaching portfolio. The document now can house many different forms of assessment and reflections (both in PDF and in audio).

The Professional Portfolio
This article describes the different sections of a portfolio that educators should have documented to demonstrate competency levels in all areas. The main section of the portfolio that should take the most energy is the Teaching Artifacts and Reflections Documenting and Extended Teaching Activity. This section is the "heart" of the portfolio.

Preparing a Teaching Portfolio
When preparing a teaching portfolio, much time and dedication should go into this process. I see it as an on-going process (collecting data and material) rather than putting it together all at the same time. Each piece that will eventually be placed in the portfolio should have a reflection piece as well as illustrated samples that demonstrate student achievement and teacher knowledge.

June 21st Reading

Preparation: The Key to a Relaxed, Effective Presentation
Every time I start the school year, I always have butterflies in my stomach! But as soon as I get into the groove of things I lose the butterflies and gain confidence. When I was still in the College of Education, I always scripted all of my lessons with note cards to help ease my nerves when in front of the class. I still go through writing out a script with most of my lessons still today, especially when I know I am going to have a formal evaluation. I like the idea that this article suggests to help you memorize your presentation without looking like you have memorized it...sing it! I think I will try this strategy before Back to School Night!

Getting them on Your Side: Creating a Persuasive Presentation
Deductive vs. Inductive Reasoning
Deductive Reasoning is the better choice to use when presenting, because you are upfront with your audience from the start as to your objective. This article suggests the following steps to use when preparing your presentation based on your audience:

• analyze the needs of the audience
• prepare the audience to make a change
• set up where the argument is going
• provide reasons for making the change (what are the benefits)
• exude confidence and honesty

You're the Boss: Creating a Great Informative Presentation

Knowing your audience will help you get to their level. Just like conducting research for any given topic, proper research is appropriate when preparing for a presentation. Make sure to think like your audience...what will they want to know? What questions might they have? Try to answer all of these questions in your presentation. Use a storyboard to help you cover all of the different angles you are exploring during your presentation

Final Thoughts: Concluding Your Presentation Well

Every lesson needs closure to sum up your lesson and to make sure your objective was met. The same thing applies when giving a presentation to a given audience. It is also important to have a strong closing so your audience is aware that the presentation is coming to an end and you as the presenter can observe if your presentation objectives have been met. Always allow for a few minutes of Question/ Answer time at the end of the presentation

June 20th Reading

Digital Pictures and Scanners
I took a digital photography class in college while studying abroad in London, so much of the information contained in these readings I already had learned. One of the biggest mistakes I notice about people's pictures, is the subject always shot in the center of the frame. I have always been told to center everything...from working on school projects, presentations, etc...I hear "center it" in the back of my mind. Even though I feel like I have had some experience with photography, I know I have to be mindful of that rule. The second article that offered lesson ideas using digital cameras must be older than technology standards. Cathy was discussing this article in class tonight and how poorly written the objectives were. I completely agree with her. There were no higher level skills being required, and for some of the lessons, it was unclear what was actually expected out of the students. I'm sure that with the new ISTE standards and Bloom's Taxonomy in hand, each of those lessons could easily be revamped. The scanning article was pretty basic. Although we learned about scanning images in the last class, I never really had a chance to practice. I brought in my own pictures to scan into Photoshop on Tuesday for the many different projects that are floating around in my brain, but unfortunately, I keep working on what I have open on my screen and have not yet scanned! That is one of many goals I would like to conquer tomorrow.