Digital Portfolios 2.0 – No Student Left Behind

Digital Portfolios 2.0 is a series of blog posts describing the carefully crafted steps and scaffolds put in place to help a high school reinstate the use of Digital Portfolios. 

Nothing will deflate a project like this more quickly than when teachers go to do the portfolio curation work with students a month or two down the road and scores of students don’t even have their Google Site created. The effort that we put into this “in-between” phase seems mundane but was crucial to the process continuing as smoothly as possible in months to come.

As described in this previous post, the Google Form collection of the published links served as “completion proof”. It was also super helpful as we systematically tried to have advisory teachers track down and help students get their portfolio completed if they missed the “gymnasium Google Sites creation day”.

As instructional coaches, we took on the task of having advisory teachers either a) confirm that their entire class had successfully created portfolios or b) send a list of absent students. We then spent the next two weeks or so sending very frequent email reminders to teachers who had not responded to the confirmation request, or who had students who needed to have portfolios completed. We offered to come and do mini-tutorials for any remaining students; many teachers took us up on this. Other teachers used the paper instruction booklet, or the Google Sites tutorial poster to help students on their own.

To help in this process, we used the spreadsheet connected to the “Link Collection Form” that collected students’ Google Sites “edit” link and “published” link. Students were organized by homeroom teacher for easier tracking. Another tab on this Google Sheet had all of the Homeroom Teachers’ names and either a ✅ when all students in their group had the portfolio completed or a list of students who still needed to create their Site. This was tedious record keeping, but really helped to achieve near 100% Google Sites creation.

This “in-between” blitz was a success. When we returned to the school in later months to help classes add their portfolio content, it was rare to encounter a student who had not yet created their Google Site. The few times that did happen, we could use the great tools that we had previously produced to quickly get the students up to speed.

The next step: helping teachers help their students add course content to their digital portfolio.

Mini-podcasting: Just press record

I’ve been attending “how-to-podcast” sessions at various big edtech PD events for at least two years. I’ve listened to advice from at least a half dozen edu-podcasters and probably about a half dozen sessions from Jen Giffin (@VirtualGiff) alone. I have Google Keep lists of tools for recording audio, for mixing, for adding free music and lists for choosing equipment.

But what about a topic? Even though my favourite podcast genre to listen to is #edtech, I know that there are plenty of those in the world. As I tried to think about what was unique about my experience as an educator, my brain kept coming to the fact that there are unique stories to tell in rural education, even if the audience might be small. I approached another ed-techy English/Social teacher in a neighbouring rural district about co-hosting a rural school-based podcast, maybe called “Little Schools on the Prairie” (you’ll “get” that if you are a child of the 70s or 80s), but the timing was not working out for us.

About then, I realized that I had my own rural school projects that I could amplify with a little mini-podcast…so why not give it a try. As I’ve recently discussed with fellow Canadian Bryon Carpenter (@BryonCar) from the @FreshAirAtFive podcast, sometimes it is important to just jump in and PRESS RECORD or there will always be another reason to “not yet”. And so “Prairie Rose Possibilities – The Podcast” was hastily born.

Pressing Record

Anchor.fm has proven to be so incredibly easy to use as a distribution platform. And because my podcasts are simple I can do all the creating that I need within Anchor.fm as well. Their audio editor is even robust enough to take care of any recording issues or stumbles or accidental expletives.

In about a month and a half, we’ve gone from 0 to 16 mini-podcasts that are an easy way to share the exciting work that is happening in “big idea” projects around our district. The motto has not been to create a perfect clip, but to “get it out there” …. by just pressing record.

Time. I’ve promised school leaders or project leaders that we can do a “one-take podcast interview in 10 minutes or less”. And, if you don’t count the time that we spent visiting before and after, 10 minutes or less has been accurate.

Tools.

• Recording. About 2/3 of the recordings have taken place virtually. Google Meet. Press record. This has sometimes resulted in a lower quality sound product, especially if my guest didn’t have ear buds, BUT the recording got done. For the in-person interview, we both sat down in front of my computer and I hit record with OnlineVoiceRecorder.com or recorded right from Anchor.
• Editing. I created the first 4 episodes with WeVideo’s podcast tool. For episode 5, I finally jumped into Anchor.fm and have been there ever since. The creating and especially the publishing are SO EASY that it has been possible to pump out the interviews as they happen.
• Hosting. I share the podcast link to Anchor.fm, but miraculously, you can find this little mini-podcast on most other podcast catchers through the magical podcast sharing world. The podcast episodes also embed into my Instructional Coach Google Site. Give a listen to the episode embedded below.

Task. Even though the audience is small, the podcasts have served as an easy way to “amplify” the stories of our district’s current #PrairieRosePossibilities initiatives. A podcast player will play all episodes back to back while a listener is driving or out for a walk – that same listener is much less likely to sit down and read the same content. Another of the incentives for this podcast is to scratch at the question “How Might We Sustain Innovation?” – this is a question that I have mused about in an earlier blog post in relation to these projects. A mini-podcast might not be the full answer, but it might be a mini-step in the right direction.

There are many things that could be improved – the cover art, the editing, the sound quality of some tracks, the list could go on…. But if we waited to do those things better, we would never get to the publishing stage. Sometimes, oftentimes, it is just important to press that “record” button, and then the “publish” button and launch your ideas into the world.

How might we sustain innovation?

That’s such a big question! Please read on and leave your thoughts and comments at the end!

This past spring our school district invited schools to apply for a seed grant called Prairie Rose Possibilities. The idea was to provide some start up funds and project support for those “big dream” projects that never quite get off the ground, especially with our very small schools with very small staff.

At a school leaders meeting this week principals who were granted this seed money were given an opportunity to showcase their start up (and dreams) in the very first weeks and months of the project. Even though we met virtually across over 400 km, the excitement and enthusiasm in the principal’s voices was evident, not only for their own project, but for the projects that are sprouting around them.

As a largely rural district, many of the projects touch on some element of agriculture/growing or they provide students with experiences that they typically don’t have access to in our far flung small communities and schools.

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  Jenner School – pouring a base pad for an outdoor space

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  Incubating eggs for The North Agriculture Project

Early Project Starting Points

As Instructional Leads, we have had an opportunity to be involved with many of these projects since they were first approved. This has been exciting work and has included various areas of support such as

• helping to develop Driving Questions for the project
• helping to identify ways to show complexity, transfer and craftsmanship
• brainstorming and developing ways to show student progress and thinking
• guiding the development of project webpages and websites
• brainstorming ways to connect teachers, classes, curriculums and community folks to the projects
• brainstorming “next steps”
• interviewing project leads for a mini-podcast segment that captures the essence of the project -in its current reality and dreams for the future – in a less-than-5 minute segment

Having been in education for 20 some years, I have seen many wonderful projects bloom and then quickly wither. This cycle is often impacted by access to people who were the project seed planters. So as I work along side almost a dozen projects, my big question is this: How might we sustain innovation and engagement?

And from this big question, a list of sub questions that might impact the answer to that big question.

• Will the projects that are attached to credits or modules have greater longevity?
• Will the projects be able to withstand a change in leadership or personnel?
• Will staff see these projects as an exciting learning opportunity or yet another teaching imposition?
• Will connecting the projects to multiple curriculums across many grades incite student engagement and curiosity in the project?
• Will student ownership and leadership be encouraged? How will this affect the project longevity?
• What impact will there be when students are required to track and/or reflect on their learning opportunities? Will this sustain engagement or become overly burdensome?
• Will the impact of student reflection be impacted by whether the reflection is available publicly, or at least to parents?
• To what extent will community involvement be achieved? How will levels of community involvement affect project success and longevity?
• How will the project be communicated to the wider community?
• How will the promotion of the project impact its perceived success?
• What models of promotion will be most successful? Adult/student? Platform? Multiple platforms? District/school?
• How will the level of support from district funds or staff impact the project’s success? If district support diminishes (in funds or personnel) how will the project be impacted?
• To what extent will the projects embrace the focus on deeper learning that is intended to guide the projects?
• To what extent will students and leaders grow in their use of technology/skills to promote the projects and the learning happening in them?
• Will students be able to identify the carry over of their project learning to important real world skills and mindsets (eg. sustainability, failing-forward, economic viability, effective promotion, etc)

That’s a lot of questions! As I embark on this action research, I would love it if you gave your thoughts and predictions on any of the questions or added pertinent questions of your own… I’ll add them to the list!