Forwarded conversation
Subject: Portfolios
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From: Susan Hennessey <hennesss@harwood.org>
Date: Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 5:00 PM
To: Matt Henchen <henchenm@harwood.org>


Sunshine is finally breaking through this endless rain!

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From: Matt Henchen <henchenm@harwood.org>
Date: Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 12:03 PM
To: Susan Hennessey <hennesss@harwood.org>


Wow Susan.  Great minds think alike, huh?
I'm sending this link to Graham Glass to see if we can build an ePortfolio in edu20.com.

Matt.--
Matt Henchen

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From: Matt Henchen <henchenm@harwood.org>
Date: Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 12:48 PM
To: Susan Hennessey <hennesss@harwood.org>


Holy cow!  So I just wrote to Graham Glass to suggest an ePortfolio on edu20 and then I checked out some other suggestions people made and somebody  already made the same suggestion.  Graham responded back, and he responded "we can do anything you want, just tell us specifics."  This is amazing!!! The key now is forming a working relationship with Graham so that he builds the product WE need!!!.  I'm on it.  This is amazing!

Matt.--
Matt Henchen

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From: Matt Henchen <henchenm@harwood.org>
Date: Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 1:30 PM
To: Susan Hennessey <hennesss@harwood.org>


I just sent the following to Graham Glass.  Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement...
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Graham.

So I'm now convinced that this is fate. After making my suggestion for an ePortfolio, I perused the other suggestion threads and randomly chose the one on adding Edmodo features. If you remember, toward the end of this thread another user (Joel) stated, almost in passing, that some sort of ePortfolio application might be nice. He even used the same link to Warlick's blog that I did.

Anyway, I am on the faculty of a public school in VT that has received a 'Transformation Grant' from the State Dept. of Ed. We are currently looking to develop a Proficiency-Based Graduation Portfolio for all students at our high school. We have made a few school visits (see Mt. Hope High School in Rhode Island for one) and attended a few conferences and we believe we have a pretty clear picture of the type of tool we need. We also believe that this tool could have a dramatic impact on education at other schools and I would love to help you develop an ePortfolio option.

Since you asked Joel for specifics, allow me to elaborate on our needs:

What I'm thinking is that you create a new assignment type called 'Portfolio Submission".

The teacher's set-up view of this page should include the following:
1)Title
2) Brief Description
3) Directions for the task (it's up to the teacher to make these good and valid directions - to make it a 'valid task') (this page must be an HTML editor to allow the teacher to embed media and make links to required resources, or to show exemplars)
4) Assessment Rubric (again up to the teacher to determine quality and validity - some information on universal design or backwards design might be a useful link...)
5) The School-wide or Graduation proficiency requirement that this assignment will fulfill.
6) Duration, due dates, etc. etc.
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The students view of this page should have the following information:

1)Title (provided by teacher)
2) Brief Description (provided by teacher)
3) Directions for the task (provided by teacher)
4)The Common Task Assessment Rubric(s) for this piece (provided by teacher)
5) Next, should be the student's workspace. A HTML editor where students can submit there work (with easy to add multimedia). This area would serve as a workspace and it should auto-save every minute or so. There should be a SAVE button and also a button to SUBMIT their finished work for evaluation.
6) There should be a self-assessment rubric and a self-reflection text box. (there should be an option for community assessment and feedback using the same rubric and comments box)
7) There should be an area for comments with privacy controls set by the school and/or teacher.

After a portfolio artifact has been submitted, the teacher will evaluate and give comments and there should be a button to ACCEPT & ARCHIVE the portfolio piece.
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Next, under assessment there should be a new option called PORTFOLIO. When a student clicks on this they should see all of the Portfolio assignments that have been assigned to them and they should be marked as one of the following: UNFINISHED (if nothing at all has been submitted by the student), IN PROGRESS (if something has been submitted but is not finished yet), FINISHED (if finished, but not yet evaluated), and finally ARCHIVED+status ( if finished and evaluated) (status= (E) Exceeds Proficiency; (M) Meets Proficiency; (A) Approaching Proficiency; (NP) Not Proficient or No Evidence; an asterisk could be added for above and beyond excellence or favorite pieces)

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Finally, (and this might be the tricky part) there needs to be a button under assessment called GRAD PORTFOLIO or SCHOOL PORTFOLIO. When a student clicks on this button they should see all of the school's proficiency requirements and a mark noting which ones have been completed and which have not. These marks should be auto-generated. When a teacher evaluates and archives a piece it should be noted here.
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These are the most important features we need ASAP. In the future, we could use an Individualized Education Plan page for students to plan out their courses and list extracurriculurs and such.

We could also use a way of presenting student work. We could use a tool that students could use to jump smoothly from one artifact to the next in an end of the year presentation. (Maybe a screencast type of application (jing-like)???)

I hope these recommendations are specific enough for you. Please let me know if you think this is do-able.

Matt Henchen
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From: Matt Henchen <henchenm@harwood.org>
Date: Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 7:31 PM
To: Susan Hennessey <hennesss@harwood.org>


Check out the response I just got from Graham!!!

"Hi Matt,

THANKS!! We've been waiting a long time for someone to give us this kind of detail for portfolios, and now I think we have enough to implement such a feature set. We can definitely make it happen, and we'd love your school to be one of the first adopters so we can get the real-world feedback we need..."

Pretty sweet eh?

Matt.--
Matt Henchen

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