(via Pam, who I’m glad to see is back in bidness…) Ok…I’m totally green with envy. This school in Washington is giving their students the vehicle to create a personalized, four-year, online, multimedia, standards-driven portfolio of their work. It was created by an assistant superintendent at the school, and it has the capability for parents or teachers or mentors to leave feedback. Teachers can get online access via their class lists and parents and students can log in anytime from any Internet connection. And for me, here’s the best part:
Teachers say one of the most innovative parts of the eFolio may be the “reflection” section, where students are asked to analyze what they have learned and show teachers they have moved beyond memorization to a deeper understanding.
I believe so strongly in the power of meta cognitive reflection, and I don’t think we’ve even begun to tap the potential of facilitating it. But eFolio is a very cool step in the right direction.
Now what I really want to know is if there’s a Web logging piece to it…
One way of looking at it is that you just need a portfolio system with TrackBack, and then your weblog system can be completely independent of your portfolio system.
While I keep electronic portfolios in mind as a long range goal, they require a very low computer to student ratio (I’d say our 1 to 3 isn’t enough) and substantial time, and it just isn’t clear that there is a sufficient payoff over paper portfolios in most cases.
So I wouldn’t be too jealous.