The days when a student’s backpack could serve as her portfolio are over.

In today’s classroom, assignments are fulfilled not only with pen and paper, but also with computers and cell phones. How to best present, distribute, and preserve such digital endeavors is an important question for teachers and students alike. 

The following top digital portfolio platforms offer a broad range of functionality. Most are multimedia, easily handling a variety of file types -- text, image, links, video, audio, social media embeds, and more. Many allow collaboration and communication, as well as educator controls. Most importantly, these provide a way to safeguard, assess, and share students’ work with pride. 

FREE

Artsonia
Artsonia is like a dream come true for art-minded teachers and students: a free, safe, educational space through which students showcase their digital creativity. Friends and family can view, comment on, and purchase keepsakes immortalizing the artistic efforts. The easy-to-navigate site integrates with Google Classroom and provides a comprehensive teachers’ guide. Celebrate your kids’ artistry with Artsonia!

ClassDojo Portfolios
A free, easy-to-use platform that allows kids to share their assignments while teachers retain control for safety. Students simply scan the class QR code (no logins!), then create and submit photos, videos, journal entries, and more. 

Sway   
A free multimedia presentation tool that students can use to upload, share, and export projects and schoolwork. Not sure how to get started? Try one of the included templates or browse others’ productions. Integrates with Microsoft Office suite.  

Google Sites  
Creating a digital portfolio/website could not be any easier than Google Sites makes it. The drag-n-drop interface lets students quickly insert content such as text, images, embeds, calendars, YouTube videos, maps, and much more. Use one of the provided six themes, or create a custom one, then publish as a public or restricted-view site. 

FREEMIUM

Edublogs
One of the oldest and best-known web platforms for education, Edublogs makes it easy to start building a free Wordpress platform for teachers and students. The free plan offers 1 GB storage, class management tools, and no advertising. A robust set of educator guides and community participation is another big plus for Edublogs.

bulb  
What’s a “bulb”? Just as a light bulb illuminates a space, this digital bulb illuminates student work, allowing it to be clearly presented and shared. Bulb makes it easy for K-12 and higher education students to create a multimedia digital record of their ideas, performances, research, and learning. 

VoiceThread
At first glance, it may not be obvious that VoiceThread can serve as a digital portfolio. It is a multimedia slideshow tool that allows users to record voice, music, and sound effects to accompany each presentation. These capabilities open a world of possibilities for students to showcase their achievements as well as for teachers to review and comment. 

Book Creator
Like VoiceThread, Book Creator isn’t marketed as a digital portfolio platform. Yet, with features such as multimedia uploads and numerous ways to save work, students can easily create and share their digital efforts. The generous free account allows up to 40 “books” and online publishing rights.  

PAID

PortfolioGen
Originally created for teachers and students, PortfolioGen is now intended for anyone who wants a professional way to showcase their skills, experience, and accomplishments. Options for digital portfolios include blogs, endorsements, athletic achievements, message center, employment history, and password protection. Bulk education pricing is available. 

Seesaw for Schools
Designed for education, Seesaw for Schools provides a platform through which students complete and share school assignments and projects. By tracking their progress, kids gain a sense of mastery and pride in their schoolwork. Plus, parents and guardians can be involved too -- just download the free companion Seesaw Family app. Integrates with Google Classroom. 

• Launching Digital Portfolios District Wide
• Wakelet: Best Tips And Tricks For Teaching 
• Best Sites for Genius Hour/Passion Projects

The days of sending students home with crumpled up art projects are happily over, thanks to online Artsonia portfolios. Used by 50,000 schools, kids create online collections of their artwork that can be viewed at home and shared with everyone from grandparents to college admissions officers. Using the app and online storage is free and there are lesson plans available. Schools can use Artsonia’s ability to make everything from calendars and coffee mugs to jewelry and T-shirts as artistic fund-raisers.

Sway

Cool scroll effects, flexible features boost visual storytelling tool

Pros: Combining text and images to tell a story is a snap with tons of features and an uncluttered user interface.

Cons: The navigation is a bit outdated, and classroom-friendly options are lacking.

Bottom Line: A seamless transition from design to presentation makes Sway a great fit for presenting carefully curated content.

[Use Twitter to Build PLN, Communicate With Students]

Read more here.

By Common Sense Education

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

bulb Digital Portfolios is giving all teachers bulb+, the company’s premium account, at no charge. 

With a free bulb+ account, teachers can:

• Create personal collections, curriculum and resources. 
• Track professional development and display badges and credentials earned.
• Establish professional learning plans to meet goals and standards.

bulb also announces that free “bulb” accounts will have more features, including:

• Use and create templates.
• Embed audio and rich media files.
• Gather comments and feedback.
• Showcase work in presentation mode. 

Students can create a free bulb account to capture ideas, express knowledge and display skills. Or they can purchase a bulb+ account for $3/month. 

bulb is a secure, ad-free tool; user data is never mined. Visit sign-up for an account at bulbapp.com. 

Today at ISTE19, bulb Digital Portfolios announced that embedded Google files will replicate as PDFs and be stored for life in their bulb Asset Library. The company also released updates to commenting, analytics, badging and credentialing.   

Launching later this summer is bulb’s newest Google integration, which will replicate and store embedded Google Drive files as PDF’s in their bulb Asset Library. It will allow users to keep content after losing access to a school-based Google account. Existing integrations include single sign-on, access to Google Drive for embedding documents and loading photos from Google Photos. Using the new Google Classroom integration, students create in bulb and turn-in work via Google Classroom, documenting learning over a lifetime. For an overview of bulb’s integrations with Google, you can watch this video. 

New features added include:

• Private and public feedback: Comments can now be set to public or private. This nurtures dialog essential to learning, while giving users full control over the privacy of their work. 
• User insights and analytics: Page views, likes and comments will lend users more intelligent insight into how others are interacting with their content. 
• Badging and credentialing via Badgr: Educators can now showcase badges and credentials earned via Badgr, amplifying their professional development efforts.

bulb Digital Portfolios is donating 22,000 licenses to high school seniors. 

Students receiving the gift are graduating from schools where bulb is used to support learning. These 22,000 students join previous high school graduates who have leveraged their bulb digital portfolios to secure scholarships, internships and expedited placement in universities and industries.  

Hope Braafladt from Coppell High School will bring a complete collection of her work to Oklahoma State University, where she plans on studying child and family services. “bulb has allowed me to keep my school work and projects organized and easy to access. It will be a great source for me to refer to throughout my freshman year at OK State,” Braafladt said.

Teich After incubating the idea in his district’s strategic plan, Dr. Chris Wasko, Instructional Project Manager in Wake County (NC) Public Schools, helped launch a digital portfolio initiative involving 700 teachers from 187 schools. He shared Wake County’s experience in a recent Tech & Learning Leadership hangout.

During the 2016–17 school year, Wasko worked with 50 educators with expertise in portfolios, mining their experience to introduce digital portfolios into the district. The objective was to develop and implement a more robust and balanced assessment system that would use digital portfolios to reflect accurately students’ knowledge of core curriculum standards as well as their ability to collaborate, be creative, communicate, and think critically.

The strategies the district used to develop the portfolio program included:

■ Define and communicate standards for the 4Cs: collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking
■ Create a balanced pre-K–12 district assessment framework to include measurement of the 4Cs
■ Develop and deploy a digital portfolio platform to house work samples demonstrating student growth on 4Cs competencies.

In the fall of 2017, Wasko and his team identified four teachers at each of the 187 schools to participate in a train-the-trainer professional development model. Initially, Wasko’s trainers helped teachers see the value of digital portfolios in terms of their own evaluations. They explained their responsibility to use various types of assessment data to ensure that their students are globally competitive for work and postsecondary education.

The training team cultivated teacher buy-in by providing professional learning around related tech tools and helped participants to develop their own digital portfolios. The district then provided additional professional learning around Understanding by Design, balanced assessment, digital citizenship, and student reflection—all key components of successful digital portfolios.

The district goal is for each Wake County student to have their own digital portfolio by 2020.

DEVELOPING A COMMON LANGUAGE

An important concept to fine-tune is the difference between a digital warehouse and a digital portfolio. While a warehouse can literally store every digital artifact a student generates over time, a portfolio is a carefully curated, organized, and polished presentation of a student’s intellectual journey. Young students learn to create their portfolios and share them with teachers, parents, and classmates. As students mature, they can choose to share with a wider audience, such as friends, colleges, or even potential employers.

As teachers and students practiced building portfolios, five core elements emerged as integral to both the process and the portfolio itself:

■ Classes (core, elective, multiple grade levels)
■ Type of artifact (picture, video, slides, docs)
■ Reflection
■ Audience (teachers, classmates, parents, administrators, college admission boards, potential employers)
■ Design (background, fonts, colors, biographical information, layout)

The district empowered the school-based teams to determine the expectations for the items to be included in the portfolios. Younger students would have more required elements, but as students aged they would exercise more agency about their portfolio’s contents. A third-grade portfolio is going to look different from a high-school student’s portfolio. Students can remove or collapse their portfolios as they grow through the years.

Over time, teachers have learned that building digital portfolios is not radically different from what they’ve always done in their classrooms. Some of the learning artifacts can be quite modest—for example, a photo of a math problem the student worked on. If it’s meaningful to the student and it exemplifies the learning, then it’s appropriate to include in the portfolio.

Wake County schools now have many kindergarten through third-grade students using Seesaw to establish digital portfolio habits, but teachers are encouraged to implement a Google Sites-based portfolio as soon as possible. From fourth grade on, students have a Google Sites-based portfolio and regularly add and reflect upon meaningful learning artifacts from a variety of classes.

When students graduate or teachers leave the district and want to take their digital portfolios with them, they have a specified length of time to use Google data migration to move their portfolios before they’re deleted from the district’s Google drive.

Want to join the Tech & Learning Leader community? Email christine.wesier@futurenet.com for more information. To be considered for a Tech & Learning Leadership Summit, apply here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TLSummit19

Boclips today launched its new solution, Boclips for Teachers, a video platform that offers an extensive library of safe and engaging content for students and time-saving solutions for educators. 

Boclips for Teachers allows teachers to simply cut and paste links, supplementing lessons in any school subject with short video clips that capture and keep students’ attention. 

The platform gathers video clips from more than 120 partners, including Visual Learning Systems, Intelecom Learning, and Crash Course. It offers archived content going back 100 years, providing real-world examples of classroom topics. To find relevant material, educators type a topic into the search bar and then create collections of videos, each of which comes with a list of specific learning outcomes.

The platform enables users to share their collections with other educators, as well as find inspiration in collections created by Boclips. The videos support Common Core State Standards, and new material is added daily.

Educators who sign up before June 30 will receive a free year of Boclips for Teachers. Learn more and sign up today at boclips.com/teachers.

Today bulb Digital Portfolios released the bulbLibrary, a resource hub offering model portfolios, sample collections and pages, as well as templated content for customization.

A number of educators have submitted their portfolios to the library to share publicly with others, including Belinda Medellin, an instructor at CAST Tech High School in Texas with plans to launch a first-of-its-kind UXUI design course for high school students. A template around professional learning will help teachers with goal setting and plans for their summertime professional development. The bulbLibrary also features a number of instructional templates teachers can use with students, including a writing prompt template to help students to improve writing.

The bulbLibrary will be updated frequently. In celebration of Teacher Appreciation Week, a collection of responses to the question “What’s your why?” will be published. Educators can contribute to this resource by sharing their thoughts in the survey.

Visit the bulbLibrary here https://www.bulbapp.com/library.

Just about a month ago I led a special webinar for teachers all about Adobe Spark. Now typically when I share this powerful, open-ended creation tool, I focus on ways to turn students into creators. Not this time. This webinar was all about the wonderful things teachers can do with the Spark tools.

In this blog post, I share highlights from the webinar (see more upcoming events here) so you can pick and choose which teacher projects to explore. Whether you want to create newsletters or classroom posters, the possibilities are truly endless. The three Adobe Spark tools make it possible for teachers to create websites, movies, and graphics from any device. So if you have access to a web browser or want to download the free app on your iPhone or iPad, you’ll be totally set.

Check out my book with Ben Forta, 40 Ways to Inject Creativity in the Classroom with Adobe Spark for more ideas on using Adobe Spark in your classroom!

Creative Teacher Projects

You can leverage the power of EdTech tools like Adobe Spark to create lots of items for your classroom. Although I highlight four favorite teacher projects in the list below, don’t let my ideas limit you. 

Classroom Newsletters

A monthly classroom newsletter is a great way to stay in touch and communicate information with families. You might share a bunch of snapshots from a field trip or special event from the month. A newsletter is a great way to showcase all of the wonderful things that have happened in the weeks before the newsletter goes out. 

In addition to focusing on special events or a recap of the month, a newsletter can also include a call to action. Use the “button” feature in Spark Page to encourage families to fill out a Google Form to sign up to volunteer for an event. Additionally, you can add video links to your Page to share resources with families to help them have content-rich conversations with their children at home. 

Create Class Movies

You don’t need a camcorder or a fancy camera to make a great class movie. Spark Video is a fantastic tool that lets users combine images to form a slideshow. Although you also have the option to add video clips to your movie, I love how Spark Video makes it easy to combine images.

So if you took a lot of snapshots from a field trip this year, bring them all together with a Spark Video. If you have families that speak multiple languages at home, you can actually duplicate the movie project by clicking on the duplicate button on your Projects screen – subscribe to my YouTube channel or sign up for my newsletter to get notified when this tutorial goes live.

Design Your Own Posters

From flyers in a student folder to announcements posted online, a Spark Post creation is perfect for sharing. With Spark Post, you can make graphics in any size. You might use this tool for classroom posters, to share instructions with students, highlighting new strategies, or even sharing an inspiring quote like the one below. 

There is now the option to download your Spark Post as a PDF too. This new option especially makes Post an excellent tool for creating classroom posters, flyers, and any time of paper or digital communication with families. If you haven’t tried Post yet, make sure to check out the option to add icons to your creation. With the icon feature, you can choose symbols that grab the attention of readers and direct them to more information. In this blog post I discuss why I love to use icons in Spark Video too. 

Professional Portfolios

Keeping track of your growth as a professional and chronicling your success stories from the school year can seem like an overwhelming task. An online space to capture your professional accomplishments gives you the opportunity to add text, images, and links all in one place. All you have to do is start a new Spark Page, and then you can organize your content and feature any updates as the school year progresses. 

One thing I love about Spark Page is how easy it is to update the link to the published page after you’ve made a few edits. As you can see in the picture above, when you make changes to your Page all you have to do is press the Publish button again, and you’ll have the option to update the link. This option lets you share one link when you first get started with your Spark Page professional page, and not have to worry about replacing the link when you add updates throughout the school year.

Now of course I love the Adobe Spark tools for student creations – Ben Forta and I wrote a whole book about it! But for teacher projects like the ones mentioned above, Spark is certainly a standout. So many teachers tag me on social media (@classtechtips) when they share their Spark creations – I can’t wait to see what you make too.

Head over to Adobe Spark’s website to get started with one of these teacher projects!

I've had the pleasure of working with this company. All opinions are my own. 

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Dr. Monica Burns is a former classroom teacher, Speaker, and Curriculum & EdTech Consultant. She is the author of Tasks Before Apps (ASCD) and #FormativeTech (Corwin). Visit Monica's site ClassTechTips.com for more ideas on how to become a tech-savvy teacher.

bulb Digital Portfolios is joining the Google for Education Technology Partner Program. This new collaboration aims to make it easier for students and educators to interact with content and communicate their ideas in multidimensional ways between their bulb digital portfolio and Google Classroom.

Featured integrations include:

• Share to Classroom: Build portfolio work into lessons directly from Google Classroom. Students can share work completed in bulb directly back into Google Classroom. Lessons can be evaluated in bulb and graded in Google Classroom. 
• Google Sign-In:  Launch bulb right from Google Classroom. 
• Google Drive: Access any work in Google Drive to create and show process and progress within a bulb digital portfolio. 

At the Education World Forum, bulb Digital Portfolios announced its web application will be pre-loaded on screens of HP.edu devices giving students and teachers immediate access to the tool. 

Bulb’s web application will be a featured education tool on the screens of every HP education devices. Having access to bulb will help school districts implement a digital portfolio initiative giving them the ability to:

• Document a student’s process and growth over time 
• Provide evidence of a student’s potential to a future school or employer 
• Make visible the  process work that goes into long projects and big ideas
• Help students to be agents of their education, increasing engagement, competitions and academic performance

Educators interested in seeing a demo of the bulb web application can visit them at the following upcoming events: 

Bett

January 23-26, 2019
Stand D350
London, UK

FETC

January 27-30, 2019
Booth #2931
Orlando, FL

TCEA

February 4-8, 2019
Booth #879
San Antonio, TX 

Seesaw: The Learning Journal

Versatile digital portfolio appeals to teachers, students, and parents  

Pros: Both student and teacher interfaces are intuitive, and there are tons of ideas up for grabs in the Activity Library.

Cons: In the paid skills feature, skills and standards must be manually entered.

Bottom Line: A powerful multimedia learning and communication tool that demonstrates student progress over time.

Read more here.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education  

In past years I always had students create either a blog or a website to publicly share their work and curate their progress. Click here for an example.

While I believe deeply in students archiving their work in a public space, after reading Show Your Work, an outstanding book by Austin Kleon, I began to put an incredible amount of pressure on myself to empower students to create beautiful space to showcase their work.

In short, I lost track of the pedagogy, in replace for aesthetics. It's not Austin's fault. It's mine. Please read his book, it's hecka inspiring.

I reflected on the lack of improved student metacognition despite my enhanced portfolio systems, and student comments such as "Do we have to do another portfolio post. I never look at it...".

I began to ask myself: What really actually works? (in my classroom, with MY students).

I remembered another comment from one student specifically: "Can we just put everything we did in this topic in a Google Slide presentation. It's SO much easier to include pictures and videos...".

[3 Ways to Simplify, Streamline, and Empower Your Lesson Design]

No way! Kleon calls us to share our work in a space we are proud of. Nobody is going to look at your Google Slides! Your work needs be in a beautiful website to be taken seriously!

Again, aesthetics before pedagogy. Not a good choice.

This year, I am putting down my tired attempts at doing what I think is the most "innovative" approach, and following my gut regarding what I feel and my students feel is the most impactful!

I am taking my students advice.

I created a Google Slide template for each unit, including spaces for students to link all of their major work (Labs, Case Studies, etc.) and a template for built in student reflection.

Click here to access the Google Slide portfolio template, and click here to access our class website which will house "view only" version os the portfolios.

Yes, not as beautiful as Weebly, SquareSpace, WIX, or even the NEW Google Sites. Ironically however, in just two days of class, I am already noticing a shift in student focus on the project at hand, and not where or how they report it.

cross posted at www.cyclesoflearning.com

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com.

Museum Box

Curate a bit of history in a box with this unique creation site

Pros: It's easy to create a box that fits your project perfectly; layers allow for real depth of learning.

Cons: It can be a little clunky interface-wise, and there's more guidance for teachers than students.

Bottom Line: The perfect place to show off a collection or put together a history project using multimedia.

[Teach Ethics, Critical Thinking With Today's Top App]

Read more.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education

At the beginning of the school year we can get students focused on setting and accomplishing learning goals and personal goals by getting them to create digital vision boards. Vision boards are basically collages of inspirational people, quotes, and visuals representing personal goals. Extremely successful people swear by them. In fact, this was an idea inspired by The Secret by Rhonda Byrne that I wrote about in 2014 and included in my book, The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators: Small Steps to Transform Your Teaching. I’ve been getting my students to create digital vision boards instead of poster vision collages and share two templates/versions with you below and my students’ examples. Find more student examples here. This is one free Buncee template I created for any teacher or student to copy and edit as they wish. This past year my students also chose One Word to inspire them and added this to the digital vision board. Read more about this in my post about One Word Digital Vision Boards. This is the free Buncee template for the One Word Vision Boards. Whichever idea you try the idea is for students to revisit their boards regularly to keep them focused on their goals and inspired. I get students to do this by getting them to reflect in their journals at least once a month on what they are doing to accomplish the goals they set in their vision boards. Below, are a list of additional free web tools and apps for creating vision boards with a few examples.

[20+ Emoji Activities and Resources for Teaching Math, Science, and English]

Student One Word Vision Boards

Web Tools

• Buncee– educational web tool and iOS app where students add digital content (free images, audio clips, YouTube video, videos, voice recordings, stickers, etc.) to a board to create presentations, collages, posters, and so forth.
• Google Slides and Google Draw are other options. You could easily use this Buncee template in Google Slides.
• Genial.ly is a free multimedia tool for creating dynamic digital presentations and interactive images.
• Padlet and LinoIt are other ways to create a vision board or set goals with learners. Check out this example of my class goals here and an inspiration board here!
• Pinterest– free and popular curation web tool, iOS/Android app, and bookmarklet to easily pin inspiring posts, documents, videos, and images to a board.
• Canva– web tool and iPad app with a free library of stock images, stickers, and graphics.
• EduGlogster– web tool and app that allows students to combine their own images, graphics, audio, video and text to create a multimedia scrapbook.
• Smore– web tool to create digital flyers with videos, icons, and images. Some teachers have used this web tool to create infographics.
• Pic-Collage– iOS/Android app for creating visual collages that can include video. Also, find a library of stickers, frames, and templates.
• VisionBoard.cc– Chrome extension to create a vision board and set it as a homepage.

Challenge: Start the school year right by getting students to create vision boards.

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is an education consultant, technology trainer, and author. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

• Interested in generating dynamic, beautifully aesthetic websites DIRECTLY from your dropbox folder? Consider using Showlio for student portfolio generation. Folder organization become website "tabs" and folder content is embedded dynamically on your website. Showlio is great tool for student portfolios, and with Google Drive integration coming soon, I predict its use and popularity to rise.
• Looking an engaging way of connecting Robotics and Coding with elementary age students? Combining Lego Wedo and the Scratch programming language is a great way of doing just that! In Robotics, often we use code to create a function on a physical robot. Using the Scratch/Wedo extension, students can work in the reverse direction, using their physical robot to manipulate their code! Click here for an example, and click herefor a tutorial on the topic.

[5 Meaningful Ways to Leverage the "MakeyMakey" in Your Teaching]

• Want a projects management/communication structure for organizing PBL in your classroom? Although a tool that has been around for 10+ years in the business world, Basecamp offers free accounts for students and teachers, Slack and Google Drive integration, with all communication in one central location organization by project. Check it out!

cross posted at www.cyclesoflearning.com

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com.

There are those apps and tools that you know are magic as soon as you see them. They may do something no one has ever thought of, or they come up with a smart way to solve a problem. Seesaw was just that app for me.

[5 Tools to Teach Coding to Late Elementary Students]

Seesaw is a portfolio app. It allows kids to put all their work in one place and add reflections easily. It also has an easy login for your children as all they have to do is scan a QR code. To me, it gives you a multiuser tool that students can both create and turn in creation assignments on. It makes it easy to turn in on almost any device.If you want to know more check out there PD in your PJs series HERE.

cross posted at www.bigguyinabowtie.com

David Lockhart is an edtech presenter, speaker, advocate, and coach with over ten years' experience teaching high school social studies. As an Education Technology Specialist with the Iteach Center at Kennesaw State University, he works with a metro Atlanta school district to personalize learning for students with the aid of technology. Read his blog at bigguyinabowtie.com and follow him on Twitter @bigguyinabowtie.

FreshGrade, the portfolio and assessment platform, today announced the upcoming release of FreshGrade for Schools. The new offering supports principals’ pursuit of improved learning outcomes, engaged students and parents, and reduced teacher workload.

[What’s New: New Tools for Schools]

FreshGrade for Schools provides all the features of FreshGrade for Districts, without the need for Student Information System (SIS) integration. Instead, educators can upload students to the platform with a simple spreadsheet.

Schools, teachers and learners struggle with challenges in many shapes and forms when it comes to digital portfolios.

Digital Portfolio Challenges

When I work with schools, educators, and learners around the world, I discovered that they have many of the same challenges in common. It seems to make no difference if the digital portfolio owner is a student or a professional educator. The challenge is about:

• analog vs. digital writing
• seeing digital portfolio work as additional work to “curriculum work”
• visual communication and ethical use of images
• being open and transparent to an authentic global audience
• seeing branding as something beyond “look at me”.
• recognizing and understanding between display of what happened and evidence of learning through captured artifacts
• how to create a habit of consistently contributing to the digital portfolio
• finding time to create content and use the digital portfolio FOR learning

This blog post focuses on one of these challenges: creating content for digital portfolios. The content created and chosen to include in a digital portfolio can be free flowing or follow a more rigid structure. To me, it depends on what the learner craves and feels more comfortable with. The worst seems to be, when a portfolio owner feels a lack of ownership, is so paralyzed and constrained from a given structure or to the contrary, a lack thereof, that they don’t create and publish anything.

Don’t be too worried about what type of content you are creating in the beginning. In the worst case scenario, the earliest entries in a portfolio can serve as a starting point to begin seeing growth over time when compared to later entries.

With that being said, don’t create content for content sake. The content of your digital portfolio needs to be seen as an attempt in learning, evidence of learning, the process of learning, and/or growth in learning.

Let’s also think about the option of using a different language when we think about digital portfolios. A new language might inspire a different approach to content creation to fulfill the promise of these words. Let’s think of digital portfolios as a combination of a:

• longitudinal learning inventory (Holly Clark)
• curated learning journal (John Spencer)
• learning stories through curation (Anthony Devine)
• global communication hub
• visible thinking journal
• documentation of/for/as learning journey (Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano)

If you crave structure for your digital portfolios (your own professional one or your students), you can use the following categories to guide the creation of your content.

• Experiment and use different types of media when creating content
• Look at different areas in the learner’s life to create and choose content from
• Be cognizant of the type of portfolio you are aiming for and its characteristics to create related content
• Be aware of the logistics of the portfolio (save, archive, categorize, tag, link) to create content that supports the curation, organization and presentation of the learning story
• Be strategic in keeping the purpose(s) of the portfolio in mind and match these with the content you are creating. The content should be supportive and give evidence that purpose has been/is being fulfilled.
• Use reflection prompts and/or routines as a starting point or support as you create content
• Scout the web, look at blogging challenges for ideas that can inspire you to create content, read other public digital portfolios, look for ideas that allow you to connect to previous artifacts, entries and reflections,

[10 Tips for Embedding Digital Portfolios as Part of Your Classroom Habits]

Types of Digital Portfolios

Traditionally, the content for portfolios would fall under the following categories connected to the types of portfolios:

• showcase– uploading of final artifacts, best work, best achievement, outcome of a project
• process– highlights, as the name says, the process of learning. Upload snapshots of moments in time, the stages of a project, first (second, third, etc.) drafts,
• hybrid– a combination of showcase and process portfolio

When looking at learner’s digital portfolios, I want to add the following types to the mix (without excluding the previous three mentioned or the numerous others that can be found online, such as assessment portfolios, reflective portfolios, developmental portfolios, etc.)

• Classroom Portfolios: collaborative portfolio, content created by teachers and students of a classroom. Entries are tagged/categorized with individual authors.
• (Individual) Student Portfolios: each student maintains their own portfolio, being the sole author of the site.
• Professional Learning Portfolios: Educators seeing themselves as lifelong learners, recognizing the value of documenting for their own learning and the learning of others.

The content for a portfolio can be informed by the purpose of the portfolio.

• documentation of the learning journey: we all know that “learning” can’t necessarily be demonstrated with a one time exam. We gain a better perspective of the learner (and also of ourselves as the learner) when the learner has documented evidence of where he/she has been, what connections they have made, what knowledge and understanding were they able to demonstrate in a variety of ways, and by following along their process. The content is a snapshot of the learner’s thinking, ability and competency at a given moment in time.
• visible thinking: if the learner wants to make their thinking visible, experiment with different strategies that allow the creation of content to be shared with others.
• metacognition: thinking about your thinking is a crucial component in a portfolio to aid in the learner’s thought process and growth. Create content that make that thinking process visible. Show content that make your understanding apparent at different moments in time along the way.
• branding is no longer reserved for big companies. There is educational and academic branding. Who are you as a learner? What is your story? What areas of innovation, research, learning do you contribute to? What do others in your learning network know you to be a quality contributor/curator for?
• if assessment is the purpose or one of the purposes of the portfolio, what are the learning objectives, standards, benchmarks? How can the content that is being created give evidence that these objectives/ standards/benchmarks are being addressed?
• the now literacies & skills are good guidelines for documenting their development and proficiency as the learner is developing content
• when the digital portfolio is used as a global communication hub to document, express and communicate the learner’s thinking and ideas to an authentic global audience, then content creation is also guided with that global audience in mind.
• communication with parents or colleagues can be a powerful content creator guideline. As the portfolio owner thinks about how to best connect and communicate their learning for the intended audience. While parents want to be informed about their student’s learning and progress, colleagues benefit from content created in a profesional learning portfolio that contributes to their own learning in terms of documentation, reflection, resource curation and ideas.
• in-school learning: required school assignments, curriculum content related/ teacher required
• out-of-school learning: extra curriculum, webucation
• passion: What area is the learner passionate about? Could be curriculum related or out-of-school area… Could be an in-school passion based project or an area the learner is passionate about outside of school.
• skills, habit, and literacies: consider creating content that show awareness of, progress in, development of the “now” skills, habits of mind, and literacies
• over time: amplify your area of content to include a time variable.

Being strategically aware of different types of media for your content, make sure that you are not always sticking to the same type. If you are pretty text or image heavy in your content creation, let other media types guide your next content for your portfolio. Stretch yourself outside of your comfort zone when it comes to your content and media types.

• text
• images
• video
• audio
• embedded multi-media content from other tools/platforms

The value of digital portfolios can be amplified when you are creating connections between the content you have, are, and will be creating. These connections should be made visible in your digital portfolio and add another layer of learning and added value to your portfolio.

• connect to your own learning, which you have previously documented and shared in your portfolio.
• use hyperlinked writing to logistically create a breadcrumb trail of the connections you have and are making
• look for connections to other subjects. Learning does not happen from 8:45- 9:36 during Language Arts class alone. It does not represent life outside school campus. How does the learner strategically look for connections to other classes they are taking or have taken? How can the connections the learner makes to other areas/subjects be made visible?
• Not every photo, document, or video can or should be considered evidence of learning. Every artifact included as content in the portfolio should have a connection to learning and in some shape or form show evidence (or lack thereof) of learning.
• create content that make connections to other learners. Learning is social. It is not meant to be kept in isolation. Who are others that contribute to your own learning? What is the breadcrumb trail that led you to new insights, new knowledge, new ideas or have pushed your learning in new directions? Make sure you create content that make these connections and ties visible and part of the content you are creating (with proper credit of course).
• organization: How you are organizing your digital content to be archived, to be able to be found at a later time, to be able to be linked to from and to other content? Being strategic about your organization, can give you a guideline what content to create next or where holes in your content coverage are
• curation: curation of content is different than a collection of content(which unfortunately many digital portfolio content is in the category of artifact collection). The act of curation supports the act of content creation, since the added value curation brings to a collection

• visible thinking routines: Use the already established routines by Project Zero or create your own to guide your content creation according to the routine or a protocol.
• use any of the reflection prompts or routines to inspire and guide your content creation
• create content that make connections to other relevant content or the learner’s personal life visible,
• memes (ex. My life as a reader)
• book reviews, book snaps & recommendations

cross posted at langwitches.org/blog

Silvia Tolisano is a Curriculum21 faculty member, author of the book Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators and founder of the Around the World with 80 Schools project. Read more at langwitches.org/blog

Pathbrite

Create, organize, assess sleek digital portfolios

Pros: Can serve as a stand-alone tool or integrate nicely into existing curriculum. Encourages student self-reflection.

Cons: The cost for course and institutional use may deter some users.

Bottom Line: A simple PBL tool that promotes digital literacy and lets kids create flexible, accessible digital portfolios.

[Manage & Organize All Steps of Project-Based Learning]

Read more here.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education

LiveBinders

Cool organization and eportfolio tool; watch out for privacy features

[Online Social Platform Lets Students be Authors]

Pros: Nice features for creating eportfolios, sharing class materials, and finding student and teacher resources.

Cons: Sometimes-complex tools and limited visual appeal might hinder interest, and binders are public with a free account.

Bottom Line: A good tool for its organizational, storage, and digital publishing features.

Read more here.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education

“The adolescent mind is essentially a mind or moratorium, a psychosocial stage between childhood and adulthood, and between the morality learned by the child, and the ethics to be developed by the adult” (Erikson, 1963, p. 245).

I began teaching teenagers in 2004 in Texas. I really enjoy teaching teenagers and supporting them in becoming strong individuals ready to conquer the world as adults when they leave my classes. Teaching teenagers is much harder today than when I was a teenager. With social media, teens are constantly evaluated by peers and people worldwide. Bullying is a rampant problem and impacts millions of teenagers. according to the famous theorist, Erikson, teenagers are at the 5th Stage of Development, called the Identity vs. Role Confusion (12-18 yrs. old) stage. Teens are developing their identities, focused on fitting in, establishing beliefs, and defining their values and goals. My new book, Hacking Digital Learning Strategies with EdTech Missions, has 10 digital missions to help teachers support their teenage students in establishing their identities and defining their goals using technology and digital devices. Below, find 10 different types of activities and tons of resources to address the developmental needs of your teenage students.

• One way to help your teenage students set goals for their future is with vision boards and dream boards! Check out resources and lesson ideas here.
• Get students to reflect on their identities with selfie challenges which is one of the missions in my book. Find selfie activities, resources, and apps here. Find a free Epic Selfie Adventure template here.
  • Students can create selfie comics with the Comics Head (iOS/Android) app, Friendstrip (iOS/Android) app, or selfie comic videos with the Lomics (iOS/Android) app.
  • Teens can create selfie avatar videos with Gabsee (iOS/Android) app.
• Students can create selfie comics with the Comics Head (iOS/Android) app, Friendstrip (iOS/Android) app, or selfie comic videos with the Lomics (iOS/Android) app.
• Teens can create selfie avatar videos with Gabsee (iOS/Android) app.
• Host collaborative video discussions and debates using the
  Flipgrid (iOS/Android) app and web tool or VoiceThread (web/iPad) app. Flipgrid is especially motivating for teens with emoji reactions and other cool features.
• Get your teenage learners to create podcasts, host a radio talk show, or create other audio projects. Find resources and web tools and apps here.
  • Students can learn how to conduct interviews with the lesson plans and questioning tips from StoryCorps.
• Students can learn how to conduct interviews with the lesson plans and questioning tips from StoryCorps.
• Teens communicate and express themselves with emojis, text speak and emoticons. Bill Nye has a new video series #EmojiScience where students can snap an emoji and receive science videos. Find more emoji resources and activities here.
• Teens love creating videos. Get them working in small groups to produce animated movies, claymation videos, tv commercials, news reports, documentaries, DIY/How-to videos, tutorials, silent films, and other types of films. Find resources and web tools and apps here.
• Teens are motivated by game based learning and gamification. Find resources and web tools here.
• Teenagers love creating playlists and discovering music. Check out these resources for getting students to learn with popular music and hip hop.
• Students also enjoy memes. Get them to create memes about the rules or to express how various characters feel with Meme Generator. Students can also find several math and science memes as well.
• Teens love puns and gifs. Get them to learn with gifs with the following resources:
  • 15 Mesmerizing Science GIFs Explained
  • 17 Mathematical GIFs That Are Deeply Soothing
  • Gif Lingua is a website to learn English with Gifs.
  • Get teens to create their own gifs with Giphy, Gif, Gif Paint, or turn Google Slides into Gifs.
• 15 Mesmerizing Science GIFs Explained
• 17 Mathematical GIFs That Are Deeply Soothing
• Gif Lingua is a website to learn English with Gifs.
• Get teens to create their own gifs with Giphy, Gif, Gif Paint, or turn Google Slides into Gifs.

Challenge: Try one of these ideas to engage learners in your classroom this year!

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is an education consultant, technology trainer, and author. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

Teachers and schools are dipping their toes into the world of Digital Portfolios. They are using platforms such as edublogs, Blogger, SeeSaw, Bloomz or Google Sites, to document and archive student work. BUT….the simple act of having digital portfolios for your students doesn’t necessarily mean they are working. The learners need to own them and see benefits for documenting4learning, use them to learn and think about their own thinking. Digital Portfolios can’t be used in isolation, an add on, or as homework assignments.

Disclaimer: For the sake of this blog post, I might be using the terms “Digital Portfolios”, “blogging”, and “Blogfolios” ( Digital Portfolios on a blogging platform) interchangeably.

I often get asked how to make blogs, blogging, blogfolios or digital portfolio work a regular part of the classroom. Previously, I answered the following way:

I believe the most important piece is a mindshift in believing that blogging is not an add-on activity nor a project (with a beginning date and end) in your classroom. Blogging is seen as a process that documents learning over time, creates a global communication hub, and supports the learner’s meta-cognition and reflective practices. No matter if you have a classroom blog or individual student blogs, use the blog to document learning, reflect on learning, share learning and amplify learning. Make blogging a tool how you accomplish these goals. When you see blogging FOR and AS learning, you will have made it a regular part of how things (learning) are (is) done in your classroom.

It can be hard to get used to the logistics of the platform and getting into a routine when first starting out with digital portfolios in the classroom. The temptation is great to:

• simply substitute to a digital format what was done for years and with what one is comfortable with from the days of paper/analog portfolios
• leave the portfolio work as an afterthought to be done when a project is over, when an assignment has been completed, when a unit or lesson is finished or when a parent/teacher conference is approaching.
• have students add artifacts and reflections to their portfolios as homework assignment, when time runs out during the school day
• lock the portfolio behind a password, only visible to the student, teacher and potentially their parents.

Resist the temptation of simply having portfolios for your students without giving them ownership and taking advantage of their pedagogical (strategies, techniques and methods for teaching) and heutagogical (self-directed and self-motivated learning) potential.

Here are 10 Tips of Embedding Digital Portfolios as Part of your Classroom Habits

1. Routines are essential for developing habits. Use Visible Thinking Routines from Project Zero, or create your own that will help learners settle into the habit of digital portfolio work.

2. All habits, all routines need and take time to develop and take hold. Don’t expect the habit to develop overnight and on its own. Don’t give up after a few weeks or when you notice that your students are not enthusiastic and screaming for more “blogfolio work”. As with other habits you are trying to instill in your students, they might resist when they notice that blogfolios are about metacognition, new skills, and new forms of learning, which is often harder than filling out worksheets. You need to be consistent. Don’t let negative comments or protests by your students “re-affirm” some of your own insecurities on these new digital platforms. Create habits by modeling the behavior over time you want to see in your students.

3. Portfolios are not projects, their full potential is revealed over time. Rhonda Mitchell eloquently said “The power of the portfolio is in the revisiting.” Get used to NOT seeing portfolios entries as individual and separate. Don’t let them stand alone. Allow the learner to create connections between content, process, and across time and make them demonstrate evidence of these connections through narrative, hyperlinks and categories, tags or labels. Create habits by using the Four Dimensions of Reflective Learning by Karen Barnstable . Also look at 40 Reflection question to help you look back, forward, inward and outward. The more you practice seeing and making these connections the more a habit forms

4. Adopt a Documenting OF/FOR/AS Learning mindset. Create habits that make the learners DO SOMETHING with their documentation artifacts that are placed on the digital portfolio. Don’t let these artifacts become display, but dig deeper. Find ways to upgrade traditional assignments, assessments, and routines that are embedded in the digital portfolio process of documenting learning: look for learning, capture learning, reflect on learning, share learning, and amplify learning.

5. See portfolio work as a way to introduce, support and amplify the “now” literacies. Create habits that support them as digital readers, writers and digital citizens who are aware of ethical use and creation of digital content. Embed (don’t teach in isolation) mini-lessons on hyperlinked writing, amplified writing, copyright issues, curation, critical feedback, global awareness, self-assessment, visible thinking, reflection, and .

6. Give your students ownership of their digital portfolios. Don’t let the content be only required assignments. Create habits, that encourage the learner’s self-motivated contributions around topics of their own choosing, interest and passion. Ask them to become experts on a topic, curators of information about information that interests them. Reward entries by being invited to be showcased on a classroom blog as a special feature.

7. Build in regular times into your lesson plan to document, reflect, share and give each other feedback. No one wants to create and share into a vacuum. Develop the habit of mentioning student work that can be found on portfolios with your colleagues, referencing posts or artifacts during lessons, at faculty meetings, at PD opportunities, school wide assemblies, home-school communication, etc. Also share the learner’s digital portfolio beyond your local community to reach the world. Invite authentic feedback in and fuel interest in continuing to create and publish. Help students see that their work, their learning and thinking can be taken seriously by a global audience. Support them in promoting, referencing, and disseminating their work through a learning network.

8. Be and stay consistent. Consistency is the key most bloggers list as the reason for successful blog. Consistency applies to reading, writing, commenting and connecting AND enthusiasm! If you don’t show enthusiasm for your students’ portfolios and their potential, they won’t have enthusiasm for their work either. Create a publishing calendar for the rest of the school year with your students to make sure there is always fresh content on the sites. Brainstorm ways to facilitate consistency and continued enthusiasm: guest posts, participating in blogging challenges (such as My Life as a Reader, 100 Word Challenge, Quad-blogging), document current events, their significance and connections to a bigger picture.

9. Don’t forget that it’s not about creating beautiful digital portfolio entries, but about supporting learning! Create a process that look at all contributions to the portfolio ad their connections (or potential connections) to learning!

10. Understand the potential of digital portfolios for your own professional learning. Create a habit of regularly think about your thinking, reflect on your teaching and learning, capture your own learning, make it visible and share with a wider audience. Become aware of your own development of regularly creating and sharing a professional portfolio.

cross posted at langwitches.org/blog

Silvia Tolisano is a Curriculum21 faculty member, author of the book Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators and founder of the Around the World with 80 Schools project. Read more at langwitches.org/blog

Here's a quick, side-by-side comparison of two popular options for digital portfolios and assessment: Seesaw and FreshGrade. Which one is best for your classroom? Share your views at www.commonsense.org/education.

By Commonsense Education

Here are five big ideas I’ve been thinking about for my classroom—the seeds of innovation I intend to develop this year.

1. Rethinking Grades
I’m leaning towards a system with more project-based work, where students set their own goals and deadlines and self-assess and peer-assess.

2. Portfolios, Publishing, and Growth
This year, I want students to document their own growth, reflection, and successes—maybe through individual student blogs, class blogs, or a Google Sites portfolio.

3. Project-Based Learning
I’ve moved from direct instruction towards a student-centered approach, but I want to create an environment where students can actively create and manage meaningful learning experiences.

4. From Engagement to Empowerment
I can keep my students engaged, but empowerment is another story. I want my students to have the power to direct their learning, to want to have that power, and to want to learn.

5. Failing Forward (no one left behind!)
I want my students to embrace iteration, creation, and growth—and sometimes that means failure. I want a classroom culture where failure is never an endpoint, growth and innovation are the norm, and everyone succeeds.

FOR THE FULL STORY GO TO: HTTP://WWW.TECHLEARNING.COM/SEP16

In my recent visit to Melbourne, Australia , I had the opportunity to chat with Edna Sackson (Teaching and Learning Coordinator) and Linda Wollan (e-Learning Coordinator) at Mount Scopus Memorial College about their work around using digital portfolios on a blogging platform (blogfolios), such as edublogs and on the Seesaw platform.

This conversation came about as the school was/is trying to decide to put their efforts into using one platform over the other or if they would use both for different purposes. I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that these types of decisions were taken to the faculty to involve them into the decision making process.
Edna shares:

According to Silvia it’s not all that common for teachers for be involved in decision making. To us it’s imperative. We met during Silvia’s visit to clarify the purpose of blogs as compared with Seesaw, so that we could add her voice to the other perspectives. Each team discussed and recorded their views on the advantages and disadvantages of blogs and Seesaw, the digital portfolio app we’ve been exploring this year. As always, we will use the data gathered from the teams to decide how to proceed.

I also invited Edna and Linda to collaborate on this blog post with me in order to share out a snapshot of the discussion as well as a summary of the collaborative brainstorming session around the following:

• purposes of each platform
  do we need one or the other or do we need both platforms?
• advantages of each platform
  what does one platform allow us to do that the other one might not?
• disadvantages of each platform

Having been a blogger for the past 10 years, I am very familiar with the blogging platform such as edublogs which is based on wordpress. Just recently, I started learning about the Seesaw platform by attending several workshops at different conferences and by creating a “family classroom” that I share with my daughter and son-in-law to document and keep track of my grandchildren’s growth and learning.

Below you will find my preliminary thoughts about the platform’s individual purpose for the Pre K-6 context.

Listen in on the faculty meeting sharing out their experience and points of view from different grade levels and subject areas.

image credit: Edna Sackson

image credit: Edna Sackson

image credit: Edna Sackson

image credit: Edna Sackson

image credit: Edna Sackson

Edna and Linda, collected the large pieces of paper created by individual groups and unpacked the content, summarizing the purpose, advantages and disadvantages of each platform in their school context. You can find their summary in the two tables below.

Further Questions to ponder?

• Might Seesaw be a great way of introducing students to the world of digital portfolios and blogging? K-2 Seesaw, then students graduate firstly to posting on a class blog (names used as categories), then to their own blogfolios?
• How is each platform used to “do something” with the documentation artifacts? On teacher side? On student side?

Have you looked into or are using Seesaw? Has or is your school contemplating moving from blogs to Seesaw or have you decided to stick with the blogging platform? We would love to hear from you. Please add your perspective to the conversation.

cross posted at langwitches.org/blog

Silvia Tolisano is a Curriculum21 faculty member, author of the book Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators and founder of the Around the World with 80 Schools project. Read more at http://langwitches.org/blog.

Edusight is a standards-based portfolio to help teachers document student learning with grades, notes, photos, and audio/video comments. Edusight Notes for iOS (iPad and iPhone) lets you capture learning evidence in the classroom as it happens – quickly take a note or record a video of students as they learn, tag standards, and instantly add it to their portfolios.

At any time, teachers can log in to Edusight on the web to see a comprehensive profile for any student. Edusight keeps all of your grades, notes, and photos for each student in one place so you can gauge student understanding and provide the right help at the right time. This data can be shared with students and parents so everyone stays informed.

Check out their website to learn more, or watch this video to see how Edusight works with teachers every day!

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Monica Burns is a fifth grade teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Visit her website at classtechtips.com for creative education technology tips and technology lesson plans aligned to the Common Core Standards.