VLEs and E-Portfolios

[Geoff]

If you're talking unrestricted use of social networking tools, yes, it's mostly dross, but then that's what a lot of teenagers seemingly want to do. It's a wanted form of socialising.

 

To be fair, I'd put this sort of interaction down as a natural healthy progression for teenagers. They are figuring out how to interact with each other in an adult scenario. Technology aside, just leave them too it.

[crispinw]

Hi Mark and Geoff,

 

I am not against what either of you are saying - healthy progression and what teenagers want to do etc. I just question whether it is the "big idea" for raising educational standards (because that was the impression that came out of "Harnessing Technology" and is also implied by the DfES' Learning Platform target).

 

Nor am I totally against e-portfolios having a part to play in pedagogy: I just think that there needs to be a lot more structure and evaluation than has been done so far.

 

I had a look at Doug Belshaw's students' blogs. There are some nice looking pieces of work, but I still have some reservations:

 

1. doing some quick searches in Google show that some are heavily plagiarised (surely an almost irresistable temptation with this kind of assignment).

 

2. Most have only one comment - an assessment from Doug Belshaw. In only one did I find a real conversation going, when "Danny" had put up a piece on Celtic: "History stuff only please Danny…", "ok mr.b.sorry.,i have told everyone about celtic fc history!thats got to be ok………………:D", "ha ha whats this all for then? why dont you talk about somet betta than celtic!?". "Oh, alright then…[from Mr B.]". This is the exception which proves the rule that it is very difficult to get children to discuss the work! And without discussion, the blog is just the digital equivalent of a classroom noticeboard.

 

3. Belshaw clearly has a very good relationship with his pupils and puts a lot of work into the blogs - but does this mean that the idea would transfer to less committed/skilled/IT-savvy teachers (i.e. the 99%)? I doubt it.

 

As for the DiDA qualifications, I would like to see some kind of indpendent assessment of how successful these systems are. It seems to me that e-portfolio systems fall under the same cloud that a lot of coursework assessment systems are under at the moment.

 

Crispin.

[MkII]

I wouldn't disagree that there seems to be a fair way to go yet, whilst also thinking that 24 hour access to schoolwork online is something I agree should be exploited by education.

 

I think Doug has discussed that point of plagiarisation. This affects us all now with pupils researching schoolwork online.

 

Doug's point was to teach pupils to give accreditation to their sources. That's all other people do.. they take ideas etc and give credit to the source. Does that make them less valid - no. I thought this was a great revelation - let pupils reclaim their honesty.

 

Belshaw puts a lot of work into his online presence! I don't see that there's a lot of extra work maintaining those blogs - perhaps we should ask him? If I remember correctly he has set up an RSS feed to every blog and just sits back while the work flows in - doesn't sound like too much hard work to me!

 

I think it's a myth that teachers can't use technology. We're successfully moving our staff into more in depth use with little problem, teachers aren't really a different species [don't read the FFS area on edugeek k? ].

[dajbelshaw]

Mark kindly made me aware of this discussion by email, so I thought I'd add my 2 cents...

 

The reason I'm doing what I'm doing with my Year 10 History students is engagement, but also to pioneer ways of working that may become more mainstream in future. I'm a member of Futurelab's Teachers as Innovators programme and am writing my Ed.D. thesis on what it means to be 'educated' in the 21st century. The point made above about plagiarism is a good one: students need to be able to use online resources critically and effectively and not just plagiarise them. Any student who plagiarises most of their blog posts have to do it again.

 

I'm trying to make them independent learners and, to an extent, it's succeeding. Homework isn't an issue any more because both I and the students know before they walk in the door of my classroom whether they've done it or not. Again, as mentioned above, I just subscribe to the RSS feed of each student's blog plus the feed for the comments. These are then organised into folders in my Google Reader account.

 

Yes, it took some setting up and a while to iron out problems. But I think it's going to be worth it in the long-run. The wiki (http://gcsehistory.wikispaces.com) which we've got is going to prove invaluable for coursework photos, sources, etc. after our visit to Lincoln in a couple of week's time. I'm going to get them to Bluetooth their images and videos on the bus to my new Nokia N95 on the way back...

[crispinw]

Mark kindly made me aware of this discussion by email, so I thought I'd add my 2 cents...

 

Hi Doug,

 

Thanks for joining in - I was meaning to drop you a line myself to let you know that we were talking about your project!

 

The reason I'm doing what I'm doing with my Year 10 History students is engagement

 

Our original discussion was about the value of e-portfolios. I would accept that what I would call showcasing is motivating - in the same way as displaying work on the wall, but in a more up-to-date way. But motivation can be linked to novelty value and to teacher enthusiasm and I think may be difficult to maintain and transfer.

 

...but also to pioneer ways of working that may become more mainstream in future.

 

I think it is essential that innovation starts in the classroom - but behind my point about transferability is a question about how practice gets transfered from pioneer to mainstream. Does business have a role and, if so, is the market set up in such a way that small, innovative business is encouraged?

 

I'm a member of Futurelab's Teachers as Innovators programme and am writing my Ed.D. thesis on what it means to be 'educated' in the 21st century.

 

That is where I am a traditionalist. I think - bar a few new skills - the fundamentals of being educated in the 21st century is the same as it was in the 20th. My interest in e-learning is as a way of improving the means rather than changing the ends. I suspect the Futurelab perspective may be a little different.

 

The point made above about plagiarism is a good one: students need to be able to use online resources critically and effectively and not just plagiarise them. Any student who plagiarises most of their blog posts have to do it again.

 

I am a history teacher too - and I would say that plagiarism is not just about 'cheating', but at heart is a lack of skill. And the ability to write original material is an extremely difficult one to teach - in fact it goes to the heart of the subject. But I am not sure the 'internet research' paradigm is necessarily helpful as to my mind it puts too much emphasis on finding out, often at the expense of using the information.

 

I'm trying to make them independent learners and, to an extent, it's succeeding. Homework isn't an issue any more because both I and the students know before they walk in the door of my classroom whether they've done it or not.

 

Again, as mentioned above, I just subscribe to the RSS feed of each student's blog plus the feed for the comments. These are then organised into folders in my Google Reader account.

 

I am all in favour of teacher tracking for exactly these reasons, and see it as a major potential benefit of leaning platforms.

 

Yes, it took some setting up and a while to iron out problems. But I think it's going to be worth it in the long-run. The wiki (http://gcsehistory.wikispaces.com) which we've got is going to prove invaluable for coursework photos, sources, etc. after our visit to Lincoln in a couple of week's time. I'm going to get them to Bluetooth their images and videos on the bus to my new Nokia N95 on the way back...

 

Interested to see how your wiki develops. How much success do you think you will have in encouraging debate / correcting of each other's work? Are you aiming for this? Does the software facilitate it?

 

Crispin.

[GrumbleDook]

@Crispin

I think your above post shows the largest difference of opinion that people have over the use of VLEs and other eLearning methods.

 

We believe that this is a good opportunity to change teaching methods out of the 19th century (20th? Most methods still seen as 'traditional' go back longer than that!) and into the 21st.

 

The best description of staff roles I have seen is that of creator and facilitator. One creates and prepares resources that are differentiated, to the point of students being able to choose their own methods and resources for learning, and facilitators that work with the students to make sure that those resources and pathways are working, that they are appropriate and that they can assist the delivery. These roles can be done seperately or together.

 

At the moment most teachers are expected to be both ... and often LSAs, HLTAs and so on can be facilitators, but people stamp their feet about this as removing the roles of teachers to non-speciailists and non-teachers.

 

Social networking plays and important roles as this is one of the first methods that students are likely to use to find that online materials can have a positive impact on them. Social networking for its own sake can provide engagement and motivation, but it is difficult to keep going ... using it as an addition to learning, or integrated as part of it, then it has more benefits.

 

Then again, this is not completely new ... the use of communication tools in learning has been round for some time, whether using pen pals or noticeboards in schools that students could leave messages on ... but with present technology the control is in the hands the students ... and that is one of the largest difference.

 

We have to help them learn how to use the technology to learn, to communicate and to understand control and responsibility.

 

Oh yeah .... and we also have to make sure they can pass exams.

[dajbelshaw]

Many thanks for that response GrumbleDook - couldn't have put it better myself! :-)

[crispinw]

I think your above post shows the largest difference of opinion that people have over the use of VLEs and other eLearning methods.

 

We believe that this is a good opportunity to change teaching methods out of the 19th century (20th? Most methods still seen as 'traditional' go back longer than that!) and into the 21st.

 

Tony,

 

I am only too aware of the instructionalist/constructivist debate! I have no problem with a revolution in methods as long as the new methods work. I would agree with much of the 'progressive' analysis that the traditional method placed too much emphasis on factual learning, not enough on creativity, too much on authority (which is often a defense mechanism for the teacher) not enough scope for individual pathways, that we live in a world that is broad (i.e. pluralistic) rather than tall (i.e. hierarchical) etc. I suspect that we would agree about what a really successful classroom looked like. But here are some of my problems with the progressive/constructivist agenda:

 

1. Sometimes it is based on what I would view as a fairly crass brand of post-modernist relativism, which says that there is no such thing as truth, but rather that everyone has 'their own truth' and that everyone's opinion is equally valid. This outlook is popular in many social science departments - but not in any serious physics departments (even though misunderstood accounts of chaos theory are sometimes quoted in its defence). Nor would you find any serious epistemologist agreeing with it. Which is not to say that the truth is easy or obvious or that anyone can ever claim certain knowledge.

 

2. I think it is often over-optimistic. It appears to propose that the way to change a callow fourteen year old into a perceptive academic is to treat them like a perceptive academic. But if you throw them into discussion forums, you find they do not have the interest or the skills (closely related) to handle an academic debate and so you end up with drivel. In my experience, dedicated constructivists often get very excited about what they see as childrens' creative contributions, which on closer examination have no academic merit at all and actually reveal serious misunderstandings. In fear of sqashing the child's autonomy, the constructivist often stands back and allows these misunderstandings to develop.

 

3. My educational models are Socrates and J S Mill - both oldies, both very liberal figures, and both strong believers in truth and reason. They both thought that "wisdom" was an activity, not a body of knowledge, and that the route to honing those activity-based skills was through discussion and debate. Both saw the role of the teacher as a conversation partner. Mill said that the teacher should always adopt the role of 'devil's advocate' so that students would be forced to justify even what everyone regarded as obvious. I deplore political correctness, principally because it excuses so much intellectual laziness.

 

4. In practical/psychological terms, I believe empirically that a very important driver of education is imitation. We are pre-programmed to imitate and the adolescent's tendency to look find 'heros' shows this process in practice.

 

Constructivists are rather uncomfortable with this because it suggests a lack of autonomy. The paradox of our society is that the value of individualism is socially engrained in us (i.e. it is not individualistic to believe in individualism) and individualism provides the basis for a resilient, dynamic and strong society (i.e. is in society's interests, not necessarily the individual's).

 

The route from imitation to creativity lies through the multiplicity of role models. I am interested in how art is taught these days. Students do a folder in which they imitate a succession of different artists. Out of all these different threads, they can weave their own personal style. I used to have a D H Lawrence quote up my sleeve to the effect that "originality is impossible outside a strong tradition".

 

5(a). Going back to my first point, progressive teachers often say "you cannot evaluate these methods because the old means of evaluation are fitted to the old methods" - i.e. exams are a waste of time.

 

To reveal how much of a traditionalist I am, I think that the traditional 45 minute essay on an unseen and thought-provoking question is a terrific indicator of adademic ability. While in my subject (History) most of the newer forms of assessment (such as extended coursework essays) are generally dreadful, as the student's own thought-processes and skills are drowned in a huge quantity of other people's arguments (quite apart from the enormous amount of cheating which goes on).

 

Which is not to say that there might not be a good case for new evaluation methods. There is a big danger, however, that in introducing new teaching methods and new assessment methods at the same time, the new assessment methods will be chosen only because they validate new teaching methods.

 

5(b) While teachers are the experts on the most effective means to a good education, it is society at large (after listening carefully to teachers' arguments) to say what it sees at the ends of education. Progressive thought has dominated education departments for 25 years and I am not sure that society is particularly pleased with the result.

 

At the moment most teachers are expected to be both ... and often LSAs, HLTAs and so on can be facilitators, but people stamp their feet about this as removing the roles of teachers to non-speciailists and non-teachers.

 

I think there is something rather unhealthy about the "one teacher-one class" model. I think it is a wonderful eye-opener for children to see adults disagree and argue - (a) the fact that they disagree and (b) how they manage the argument. I am all for using technology to support team teaching which maybe has a place for both subject experts and non-specialists who may have better teaching skills, or other skills to bring to the mix. Complaining about allowing non-teachers into classrooms is, I think, 70s style restrictive practice. There is nothing so great about a teacher qualification: when I did my PGCE, the pass rate was 96% - it was almost impossible to fail.

 

We have to help them learn how to use the technology to learn, to communicate and to understand control and responsibility.

 

Yes, but that is a different objective. You need to teach children about computers in the 21st Century - and that is an argument for allowing them some access to discussion forums etc. But that is relatively easy to do. The bigger challenge, I think, is to use computers to improve teaching across the curriculum.

 

Oh yeah .... and we also have to make sure they can pass exams.

 

What would we do without them?

 

Crispin.

[crispinw]

I think your above post shows the largest difference of opinion that people have over the use of VLEs and other eLearning methods.

 

But after all the discussion of politics and philosophy is finished, the key response to a divergence of opinion is surely to allow and encourage that divergence to play itself out in the market. Lets see which approach works best, according to the lights of of all the various stakeholders in the system (and what works best will probably turn out to be a mixture of many different approaches - and the experience of having the debate will probably enrich and change all our own outlooks too). The debate, the divergence of views, is healthy and pushes forward progress.

 

The reason I am posting here is because I am opposing as vigorously as I can the centralised imposition of poorly thought-through solutions from the centre, which kills the debate and also kills the market. I'm not here to oppose anyone who is pioneering new approaches. Doug is having his aspirations blocked by Becta's centralised prescription model as much as I am. My key campaign for interoperability is about opening up the market and allowing different approaches to work alongside each other.

 

Maybe I develop a really good tracking system and Doug develops really good Wiki-for-the-classroom software: and they can both make really valuable contributions because they will both plug-in to a robust framework for open standards. And I might say "Can your Wiki system return tracking data so that the teacher can see who has made the most and the most highly rated contributions?" and Doug might say "I don't want to return that sort of data because it is too instructionalist" and ultimately the issue would be decided by the teachers who were using both our systems. But our disagreements would be on the margins and would generate progress.

 

At the moment we can't even start to have that sort of discussion because the whole of the infrastructure throughout the whole of the south of England has about to be provided by a single megacorp which has successfully played the system and whose software does not support key standards for interoperability.

 

Crispin.

[maximise]

Hi,

 

I've done a lot of work on developing the 'perfect' e-Portfolio for schools - in fact any age '5-95'. It's low-cost, hosted externally, and is also OCR capable.

 

Far too much to say here. Look at my website, in particular the eFolio link:

 

Maximise-ICT for Staff Training and Development

 

many documents and policy statements etc.