Portfolios, Personalization and Passion

There were several themes at ISTE2012 that have reinforced my philosophy of ePortfolio implementation: personalizing education for each child, helping each child find their passion to be more creative and entrepreneurial.

Sir Ken Robinson led the opening keynote panel on the topic, "Redefining Horizons: Encouraging Students’ Passion to Achieve" with panelists Shawn Covell (of Qualcomm), author Marc Prensky, and actress/scientist Mayim Bialik. His book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, "is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the Element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels."

Dr. Yong Zhao provided an interesting and entertaining presentation on "Global, Creative, and Entrepreneurial: Defining High-Quality Education."

ISTE 2012 presentations

I'm sitting in the Bloggers Café at ISTE in San Diego. Here are my slides for my presentation that I gave earlier today.

Iste google apps2012

View more PowerPoint from Helen Barrett

I also uploaded the slides from my workshop last Saturday.
Here are my slides for my poster session on Tuesday morning.

Thanks to Jackie Gerstein for taking this picture!

Here is a sample of the tweets from my presentation:

• “@2footgiraffe: What? So what? And now what? Via @eportfolios #mnpstech #iste12” @CoachWagz
• What? So what? And now what? Via @eportfolios #mnpstech #iste12
• @eportfolios says: eportfolios are a type of "Academic MySpace" #iste12 #edtech
• @eportfolios if you were building an ePortfolio from scratch and had no limits, what would your top 3 requirements be? #iste12
• @eportfolios says: "Google believes in data liberation." Hah! #edtech #iste12
• @eportfolios says: "Why google?...It's an integrated ecosystem." #iste12 #edtech
• @eportfolios is a genius! #iste12
• E portfolio is both process and product! #eportfolios @eportfolios #iste12
• @eportfolios says "remember you are telling a story, not just any story...tell it with pride." #iste12 #edtech
• The purpose (of portfolios) drives the process and content. Via @eportfolios #iste12
• #iste12 we need a balanced outcome. Student centered and school centered. Via @eportfolios #mnpstech
• @eportfolios Helen Barrett has been working w/eportfolios for 21+ yrs #iste12
• Looking forward to hearing what Helen Barrett (@eportfolios) has to share about e-portfolios w/Google Apps #iste12
• Excited to hear from @eportfolios AKA Helen Barrett on ePortfolios at #ISTE12
• Where have I heard Dr. Helen Barrett before? It had to be another conference... #iste12 #eportfolios @eportfolios
• Me 2 #pwsd RT @hglasser: Dr. Barrett http://ow.ly/bOArU @eportfolios - Student-Centered Interactive #eportfolios with #Google Apps #iste12
• Packed room for @eportfolios interested to hear how sharing items via google in public venue- how are reflections handled #iste12
• @hglasser @eportfolios Thank you both for the link to resources! #NAISTE #iste12
• Dr. Helen Barrett http://ow.ly/bOArU @eportfolios - Student-Centered Interactive #eportfolios with #Google Apps #iste12
• Student-Centered Interactive #Eportfolios by @eportfolios #SlideShare http://ow.ly/bOAAO #iste12
• Got my seat for #eportfolios at #iste12! @eportfolios , I'm ready to learn!

Revised course plans (and travel plans)

Never again will I plan an international trip over Skype. Since before November 7, when the proposal was submitted, I have been working with the State Department's English Language Specialist Program to spend several weeks in Vietnam in March, because of the interest of a few English faculty members for training in electronic portfolios. I was told that the proposal was approved in February (but March was too soon to travel). Since then, I have been frustrated because I have not been able to get the details about my travel or the status of my visit. Until April 10, I was assured that they were waiting on final approvals, first from DC, then from a supervisor in Bangkok. A week ago, I applied for my travel Visa. Then, late on the night of April 10 on Skype, I was informed that an administrator in the Consulate has cancelled my trip. Still more approvals needed and paperwork to complete while classes are ending in early May. Oh, the bureaucracy! Now I need to figure out what I'm going to do for the next couple of weeks. Plant a garden? (posted to my Facebook account)

Instead, I spent some time last weekend revising two online course outlines:

• Introduction to K-12 ePortfolios
• K-12 ePortfolios with GoogleApps (I am also using this site for my workshops at the SC Midlands Google Summit in June and my ISTE 2012 Workshop in San Diego.)

The major change I made to both course sites was to provide an alternative to creating an Implementation Plan: creating a Professional Portfolio using the same course lessons:

1. Overview (What?) Define the context for developing your portfolio and assess your readiness for developing a professional ePortfolio, including your technology skill level.
2. Purpose (Why?) Identify the benefits (and your motivation) for creating your own professional portfolio and write your ePortfolio purpose/audience/vision statement.
3. Collection/Archive (How?) Create an online space to store your artifacts and identify the artifacts you have collected in digital form and how they will be organized in your portfolio. Identify the primary audience for your showcase portfolio.
4. Reflection/Blogs (How?) As part of this course, you have already established your own blog (learning portfolio/reflective journal). You could also develop a reflective digital narrative video to add voice to your portfolio (digital storytelling).
5. Presentation/Showcase (How?) Create a hyperlinked website as a showcase portfolio, organized thematically. By now, you should have selected the appropriate presentation portfolio tool. Options are blog pages (WordPress or Blogger), Google Sites, Weebly, Wikispaces, Mahara, etc. Reflect on each category of artifacts plus provide a reflective caption on each artifact.
6. Assessment/Feedback (How well?) Write your own self-assessment of your portfolio in your blog. Select one of the rubrics to guide your self-assessment. Share your portfolio link and ask for feedback.

Registration for the next cohort of my facilitated Introduction to K-12 ePortfolios course is open now and collaboration begins on May 1. Once a paid member of a facilitated course, participants are not automatically dropped from the course Google Group and may choose to continue learning with subsequent cohorts.

Google Sites Navigation & ISTE Workshop

I discovered the horizontal navigation bar for Google Sites that includes a menu with drop-down links. I developed a Google Site on Using GoogleApps for K-12 ePortfolios, which was adapted from my "generic" Introduction to K-12 ePortfolios course site. I was not going to make the GoogleApps site open to the public, since I added supplemental course information on my ePortfolios with GoogleApps site. I forgot that I used that URL in my ISTE proposal, although I have been receiving requests for access to this site. So, I just opened up the website today, but with major revisions.

I recently saw a very interesting website on Working with GoogleSites, developed by an Iowa technology consultant, that incorporated drop-down menus. After a little experimentation in the Manage site menu, I was able to move the Navigation bar from the left side to horizontal tabs across the top of the site. It gives me more screen space, and longer descriptions in the sub-page links. But on the downside, I have to manually manage the menu items,  adding each new page. On the other hand, I can control the order of the menu and sub-menu links (no more being restricted to alphabetical order when I "Automatically organize my navigation" in the sidebar). I like it!

ISTE 2012 Sessions Scheduled

Today, I received notice of approval of these sessions for the 2012 ISTE Conference in San Diego:

• Create Interactive ePortfolios using GoogleApps: Docs, Picasaweb, Blogger, Sites [Workshop : Hands-on] Scheduled: Saturday, 6/23/2012,  8:30am–3:30pm PDT.
  GoogleApps provides a comprehensive ePortfolio system: Store artifacts in GoogleDocs/Picasaweb; maintain reflective journals using Blogger; create showcase/assessment/presentation portfolios with GoogleSites; manage domain with Teacher Dashboard.
• Student-Centered Interactive ePortfolios with GoogleApps [Concurrent Session : Lecture] Scheduled: Monday, 6/25/2012,  12:45pm–1:45pm PDT.
  Create a comprehensive student-centered system supporting all three levels of ePortfolio development: Create/collaborate/store/share artifacts in GoogleDocs; Reflection/Feedback using blogging; Presentation Websites with GoogleSites.
• mPortfolios: Supporting reflection in ePortfolios with mobile devices [Learning Station Session : Poster] Scheduled: Tuesday, 6/26/2012,  10:00am–12:00pm PDT.
  Mobile devices (iOS, Chrome or Android) can support reflection through regular planning & goal-setting, capturing the learning moment, and metacognition (reflecting on change over time).

I've never done a poster session before, so it will be a challenge to present a complex topic like reflection and mobile devices in this format. But my presentation on GoogleApps is a reprise of my 2011 presentation that I thought was on of my best! The full-day hands-on workshop will give me an opportunity to provide an overview on my online Introduction to K-12 ePortfolios class with GoogleApps supplement. I'm pleased!