E-portfolios and the ICT Nationals
We are currently about finishing Unit 1 and Unit 20 with our first cohort of students on the OCR Nationals L2 ICT course. As it is our first full year through we have been a bit traditional and all their work is being printed out and to be honest I am shocked at the amount of paper we are getting through. So with a new scheme of learning created for the current Y9 and Y10 I am hoping to do away with paper versions of their work and instead create e-portfolios. My original idea was to do this using Mediator. It is a fantastic bit of software and all the kids can use it quite easily. However, storage is an issue at our school and the kids are forever running out of space. So I wanted a ‘cloud’ option. I thought Mahara would be an excellent option, but we are still having teething problems with getting it networked. All their work is currently being uploaded to moodle, where we can easily assess it but it’s not really an ‘e-portfolio’. So I am now at cunning plan number 3…Prezi.
Prezi has become available free for all educational establishments. It is a fun and unique way of doing presentations. But what it also does is allow you to upload work in the form of pdfs, images and videos(flv). Now I have a means for all the students to create funky , individual e-portfolios which are stored online, but which can also be downloaded as a flash presentation when completed.
The issues:
- All students work needs to be converted to pdf. Not a problem if you have office 2007.
- All videos need to be converted to flv. Youconvertit seems to work wonders
- A 30 slide presentation on internet research takes a while to arrange in prezi.
- Using the path tool in prezi to create a journey through the work is also time consuming
Here is an example of a Unit 1 e-portfolio prezi.
As you can see, it takes a while to go through all the evidence. However, I think I have a cunning plan for that as well…use something like wink to record the evidence rather than loads of screenshots. This can then be converted to an FLV and then uploaded. This way, the Prezi e-portfolio solution could be used for a variety of different units. So far I have managed to get my Y10 class to create the layout and design for their e-portfolios. Once all their work has been signed off and they are happy, I hope to get all of their work uploaded.
Using Prezi is a really interesting idea. We do Units 1 and 21, it’s our third year through and like you, I am alarmed by the ammount of paper – and ink – that we get through.
I think my students would really enjoy using Prezi. The one issue I wonder about is the time factor. We teach this to Y8 and Y9,; I find that simply covering all of the work in an hour a week is a challenge. Mind you, I could probably re-jig some tasks to include Prezi…
I’d be really interested to see how this works out with your students.
Hi, ‘Mr. L’ ?
Cunning plan No.4:
You will need to read my blog in order to get a feel of where I’m comming from. But for several reasons I do not think that a ‘cloud solution’ is appropriate for a school – if you are seen to be providing or instigating the tools.
My eFolio solution as designed for the UK market will meet all your requirements without spending valuable student time building all the various components. My policy is to negotiate with a lead teacher exactly the layout of pages and the inserting of any scaffolding according to your strategies and the ethos of the school etc. Please check out the following examples:
http://www.ukclonebase14-19.efolioworld.com/
http://raytolley4.xfolioworld.com/
http://raytolley2.v2efolioworld.mnscu.edu/
http://sophiehorncastle.v2efolioworld.mnscu.edu/Home
As you can see, any setup can be designed and then generated for a whole cohort of students – which they can then add to as they wish. Artefacts are simply uploaded and placed in the appropriate pages with drag ‘n drop for appropriate audiences – even with a different ‘feel’ for different exam boards etc.
I could go on about all the inbuilt tools for feedback, polls, surveys etc. Another aspect is that of the supervision/monitoring of appropriate e-safe behaviour.
Whether or not this is an immediate solution for your present cohort I would very much like to ‘talk’ with you further, either here or off-list at:
rjt@maximise-ict.co.uk
Forgot to say that I can arrange extended free pilot accounts for evaluation.
Ray T