Presenting Knowledge: Electronic Portfolios

Many times, we look back on our lives and we try to think about the things we have accomplished. There are times when we forget the small moments and even some moments that may be on a larger scale. Events that occurred more recently in our lives may take center stage in our reflection. It would be interesting to see how differently that reflection would appear if we had been documenting our lives throughout our journeys. An electronic portfolio is a way for students of all ages to document the artifacts of their academic experiences. Over a period of weeks, months, or even years students have the opportunity to create, collect, reflect, connect and finally present a portfolio that displays an array of selected artifacts for an audience to admire and evaluate. These portfolios integrate technology into the presentation of collected artifacts, and with millennials filling in seats around the world any engaging avenue to tap in to this generational mindset is one that we must explore.

Electronic portfolios may mold easier into an educational environment where students are more technologically advanced, older and more independent. Typically students that are already knowledgeable about creating hyperlinks, uploading documents and manipulating web authoring programs will have more success developing an electronic portfolio. However, the procedures in creating a portfolio can be taught to many students with explicit modeling and practice. These portfolios display students' data, progress and mastery of skills and objectives over a period of time. Through the implementation of electronic portfolios, visual learners are provided with the opportunity to see their work displayed while logical-mathematical learners are provided with an opportunity to track their progress and growth over a period of time. Electronic portfolios are a way for students to reflect on their academic journeys, exalt their achievements and rejoice in their exhibitions.

How different would our journeys be if we were documenting our accomplishments?

Charlotte's Web Blogging Off

One String to the Next: On a WebQuest

Day after day, people search for answers to questions that they've been longing to resolve. Our answers are found in books, magazines, newspapers, television broadcasts and the internet. Sometimes we look for answers through discussions when sit down and talk with people about curiosities, confusion or even searching for clarification. In the digital age that we are forced to face, we must still learn to work together and solve the problems of our own fortunes. When teachers bring learning experiences into their classrooms that integrate technology and require students to collaborate, today's teachers begin to prepare our current generation for the days of digital closure and solidarity. Learning projects that once focused on identification and summarization are transforming when teachers introduce WebQuests into their classrooms. WebQuests require students to use higher order thinking skills (i.e. analysis, synthesis and evaluation). The creation of a WebQuest can be carefully guided through many available websites, professional development trainings, journal articles and more. WebQuests prepare students to go beyond the two dimensional paper report and extend their learning through technological dimensions.

Naturally, WebQuests can be molded into a classroom whether one or several computers are available. Hesitation for implementing WebQuests should only stem from making a high quality quests due to the fact that high quality quests for learning take time and effort. It requires a great deal of time to search for websites that are engaging and appropriate. Sometimes the surface level websites may not be the sites that are the most interesting and teachers or designers may need to dig deeper to find more informative and intriguing websites. Time and effort continues when WebQuests attempt to challenge learners and thinkers. Creating a challenge requires thoughtful questioning that goes beyond knowledge, comprehension and application and the questioning begins to strive for analysis, synthesis and evaluation. True webs of challenge take time.

WebQuests can be teacher or student centered and they can be designed to explore any subject area. With digital learners sitting in classrooms, WebQuests seem idealistic for motivation. History and science, when brought to life in technology, open the doorway to drawing millennials into classrooms around the world. Famous North Carolinians, the United States of America, the Periodic Table and so many other topics only began to glaze the surface of possible ideas for WebQuest designs. Current local and world news could be heated topics of discussion in a WebQuests that is created to incorporate videos and images. WebQuests are webs of questions waiting to be linked, with many hands, from one string of silk to the next.

Charlotte's Web Blogging Off

Digital Storytelling: Bridging the Digital Divide

Generations evolve, technology is enhanced and society is conforming to meet the needs of all ages. For years, people have written stories on cave walls, slates, scrolls, and a variety of different types of paper. Today, we can watch stories come to life as they are written with voice and images through the new age of digital storytelling. The audience is captivated by the visual whereas stories used to be filled with nothing more than sounds coming from an author's voice. Digital storytelling uses technology to enhance an author's words and provide an audience with insight into detailed effects of words that truly can come to life. Research on digital storytelling provides its array of users with many tips, tools, and tutorials to bridge the digital divide.

Digital storytelling is a valuable tool for anyone, but especially classroom teachers. Students can find motivation in digital storytelling because current students are developing in an age of constant technology. At any grade level, students are recording the same stories on pencil and paper; however computers and digital storytelling give the students a variety of ways to share their work. This approach allows reluctant writers to express themselves and share their work with their peers regardless of the convention errors that may be evident in their written products. Digital storytelling must be presented to students in a way that the student know the purpose of tool and they are not distracted by all the "bells and whistles."

The most obvious use of digital storytelling is to engage and motivate student writers. The technology seems to integrate naturally with published writing pieces. The students can also use the same software to share information they learned and researched from other content areas. Individuals or small groups could research Native American groups and share the information learned or they could share the characteristics that they have learned about different types of rocks and minerals in science. In language arts, the class could do a unit comparing oral storytelling to reading written text. By recording stories, the students become fluent readers of a specific passage while also working on voice expression based on the tone and punctuation of the text. By integrating the visual arts with the content areas, the students' illustrations can be another showpiece that builds the confidences of learners with different strengths in Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences. The software encourages curiosity and students buying into each other's interests and projects so that all children are motivated to not only learn, but share their knowledge within their community of learners.

Charlotte's Web Blogging Off