I recently watched a video called "Primary Digital Portfolios". This was posted by Kathy Cassidy, a first grade teacher in Canada. In this video, she had two of her current students and two of her formers students: Carson, age seven; Sabrina, age five; Braeden, age six; and Dalton, age seven. These four students reflected on their experiences using digital portfolios. Cassidy uses a classroom blog for their digital portfolio. Here they can post writing, images, and other things that help them to showcase what they have been learning throughout the year. Using this blog also allows parents to see what is going on in the classroom.
What is a portfolio according to these students? They said that it was a way to show the work they've done and that it shows your work at the beginning of the year and how much you have improved at the end. On their blogs, they are most proud of different activities that they have posted such as the patterns they created, things they have made out of clay, and stories that they have created. The students also discussed what choices that had in creating their blog. One said that she got to choose what to make her pattern out of such as ice cream, strawberries, numbers, letters, etc. Another said if they used Vocaroo or Sketchpad, and that they got to choose a picture to write about.
There were several ways that they could show what they are learning in the classroom. You could put up pictures, writing, activities, or both. You could use Vocaroo, which is a recording of yourself reading. Storybird is a tool you can use to create your own story and add pictures to it. Sketchcast is another tool they use in the classroom. Here you can draw pictures while it videotapes you. You can record for up to 20 minutes. They used this tool to draw what they knew and learned about plants and on Mother's Day, they drew a picture of the mother.
How can students use online in a safe manner? Do not allow students to put their last name or a picture of themselves to remain anonymous. They can also tell if people are viewing their online portfolios or not. Each post has a count of how many times that post has read. Viewers can also make comments about how the students are doing.
The students thought that an online portfolio is better than a paper portfolio. They felt this way because when it is online, it is easier for people to see your work. A paper portfolio restricts this to your classmates and teacher. After hearing about how much online portfolios have impacted these four students, I am inspired to use this in my future classroom.
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