I watched “Helping Students See
Their Own Growth Through Digital Writing,” featuring Aram Kabodian, a middle
school English teacher and writing fellow.
This video appealed to me because I am also a middle school English
teacher, and I’d like to find some ideas of creating a more meaningful scope
and sequence to the writing I do with students.
The goals of this webinar include examining the pros and cons of using
portfolios with students, and how digital portfolios and wikis can help
students see their own growth in writing over time.
Kabodian
defines digital portfolios as a collection of authentic works or artifacts that
reflect the knowledge and skills, allowing students to reflect on them. Participants identified several benefits to
developing digital portfolios, including increasing an audience for student
writing, providing multimodal opportunities, and providing an opportunity for
students to see growth. Participants
also identified some pitfalls, including a lack of access to technology, uncooperative
administrators, and privacy concerns.
Kabodian identifies his top reasons as developing 21st
century skills, aligned with Common Core goals, as well as the metacognitive
activity of reflecting on their learning.
Furthermore, digital portfolios have longevity; they can’t be lost or
thrown away in the same way that paper portfolios can, and they save paper. Digital portfolios offer another opportunity
to accommodate a variety of learning styles, allowing reluctant or introverted
students to fully participate, for example, or allowing the blossoming of
visual and hands-on learners.
Kabodian
also demonstrates a student example of a well-organized digital portfolio, with
examples of reflection, and he shows some assignments and rubrics he uses to
help guide students through deeper reflections on assignments. He acknowledges that assessing digital
portfolios is a topic he struggles with, although he links to some rubrics that
may work for you.
One of
the most important things that struck me in watching this video is the
challenge of modeling and teaching reflective writing to students. He links to a useful video about reflective
thinking that I would want to use in my
classroom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoI67VeE3ds&feature=youtu.be
A participant in the video
suggested that the reflective writing piece that analyzes digital portfolio
could be a letter for a family member, which I think is a worthy idea that
builds in an authentic audience and important stakeholders in the learning
process.
This video focused more on why you
might want to use digital portfolios and less on the how to create them. I see the value of using digital portfolios,
but I could use some concrete suggestions on the mechanics of creating
portfolios on digital platforms, especially in terms of how to keep the privacy
of students. As a teacher of students in special education, I worry about sharing content on the open web for all to see, without parental permission. I like the idea of having an
authentic audience, but I think the privacy issue can be a real concern, and I’d
like to see a closed platform that requires some sort of authentication rather
than an open one.
Overall, this video can help
teachers conceptualize why they might want to use digital portfolios, and it
offers useful links for further exploration.
