Virtual Learning Network

• Our journey with staff portfolios
• Student journeys with e-portfolios
• Digital classroom journey and discovery

Context:
Parkvale School is a decile 5 school in Hastings (on the rural fringe), with a current roll of 520 children from years 1 - 6. We have. We have 27 teaching staff (including full and part-time staff) and approximately 8 support staff. We are the lead school in the Magpie ICT contract and are currently in our 2nd year of the contract.

Teacher Use:
Background:
Once Lead Teachers had been introduced to the concept of staff portfolio’s through ‘MyPortfolio’ we quickly saw how the use of these for staff could enable staff to keep track of PD, reflections, notes.
We wanted to investigate how easy it would be to use and maintain a portfolio and if it could help teachers in presenting evidence for Teacher Registration and appraisal.

What we did

• Lead teachers started their own portfolio for use with ICT after a taster session with Carolyn Stuart.
• Lead teachers shared what MyPortfolio was with some staff, (The school ICT Team, those staff that were early adopters or particularly interested in ICT)
• Sandy led an introductory workshop during Cluster Workshop Sessions on what MyPortfolio was and how it could be used to collect and reflect on Professional Development.
• Sandy shared templates of pages and these were developed into Registration Reflection and Evidence pages by some staff.
• Staff who were now familiar with MyPortfolio showed other staff what it was and how they were using it.  ie Jody showed Jacque how she is using it for her PRT reflections and for her Tutor Teacher to record feedback on. Video on this process.
• Jody shared her portfolio with ERO as evidence of her reflection and PRT programme.
• Sandy offered after school sessions on using MyPortfolio.

What happened

• Lead teachers began to use MyPortfolio to keep track of their professional learning and make links to relevant documents and websites.
• Some other staff became interested in finding out what my portfolio was and how you use it. They questioned lead teachers about when they were going to be shown how to use it.  Some staff went online and taught themselves and then sought help if needed.
• Staff began to take up opportunities to be introduced to MyPortfolio and set themselves up an account.
• Some staff began to use MyPortfolio as a place to store their evidence of PD and learning and to reflect on their practice.
• Staff began to share pages with each other so learning and development was spread throughout the school and between staff. Staff started writing comments on each other’s pages and shared constructive feedback in regards to reflections or conundrums shared on the pages.
• More and more staff are showing the desire to create MyPortfolios and running parallel to discussions on how to show evidence for Teacher Registration are creating pages around the Registered Teacher Criteria.

• To continue to expose staff to My Portfolio as a reflection resource.  Enable staff to see the use of a portfolio for storing learning, thinking and reflections can consolidate their PD and reduce paperwork.
• For appraisals and observations from management to be linked through the pages to serve as evidence for registration.

Student Use:

Background:
Students create lots of wonderful digital presentations and multimedia items. Most of these items are published on the blog, but not everything can be shared there. Some students are not motivated by the class blog publishing as they feel little autonomy about this. Some classrooms at Parkvale create paper-based portfolios for their students. These are presented in a variety of ways, with a range of goals.
Some staff were looking for a more digital method for sharing student achievement, learning and multilmedia items.

What we did:

• Some staff created PowerPoint's for their students to use as learning journeys.
• Two staff members created a template that students saved a copy of, then they worked on a slide per week. Each slide integrated a technical computer skill with showcasing student achievement.
• Other teacher’s created slides with the students and the slide was then imported into their individual learning journey.

What happened

• Students were motivated to display their learning. We were able to tie in our formative assessment to this process and the students created some strong reflections and next steps for their learning.
• Our learning journeys provided a strong focus to our computer sessions as we were able to be sure that our skills were increasing and the students were using these skills in a meaningful context.
• These learning journeys were shared with each other frequently and the students loved learning new skills from each other.
• Parents were shown these portfolios at conferences and they lead to great discussions about the achievements and next steps of the learners.
• The PowerPoint format did not allow for any recording of feedback. These portfolios were only able to be shared twice throughout the year. Some students began to lose motivation in creating their learning journeys as they were only able to receive feedback and encouragement at interviews.
• Some PowerPoint's were uploaded through Slideshare and shared on the class blog. This definitely motivated the students and they received support and encouragement through this. However, not all of the formatting was transferred through Slideshare. This was disappointing and some of our multimedia learning was unable to be shared.

• Teachers, wanted to create individual blogs to replace these Learning Journeys. However, we were concerned about the safety in monitoring these blogs.
• Research was conducted into the Google Teacher Dashboard service.Through discussion with the Principal, he shared his interest in trialling 1 to 1 classrooms and the way Teacher Dashboard could enable us to do this safely.
• It was decided to conduct more research through observing and liaising with schools that were trialling this approach. A group of interested staff went to Auckland to visit Point England School, Summerland Primary School, and Bucklands Beach Intermediate. Through this journey we created our proposal for establishing 1 to 1 classrooms, which was developed with the ICT Team, then presented and discussed with the Board of Trustees.
• Products were analysed and the most cost effective solution was selected and the application was created. A parent Information evening was held to share our research and answer any questions. Applications were sent out to year 4 and 5 students, for 2012.

Examples
Katrina
http://parkvaleroom16.blogspot.com/2011/08/learning-journey.html  - Caitlin


Key Lessons and Next Steps:

• The school is currently planning for two 1 to 1 classrooms in 2012. The Google Teacher Dashboard is being created and teachers are excited to see if this will enable the student’s blogs to be managed easily and serve as a vehicle for student sharing and reflecting.
• The blog will serve as the students e-portfolio and will be easily shared with the wider community for feedback and feed forward. This will help us to keep the students motivated as they will be able to share their learning with an authentic audience. Parents and wider whanau will be encouraged to comment on blogs.
• Further parent information sessions will be held to help parents to write “great” comments, those that are kind, thoughtful and helpful with specific feedback.
• Two classes are going to trial this pilot programme for 2012 and we will be monitoring and reflecting upon the success of this in regards to student achievement, engagement and their ability to self assess.
• Teacher are using their e-portfolios to link directly into the Registered Teacher Criteria so that they become a key part of the evidence.  This is growing as the teachers become more familiar with the criteria.