IWEB: Electronic Portfolios

As the year is winding down, I've been reflecting on my purpose for having my students create Iweb portfolios.  Originally, our tech specialist asked my class to experiment on this application and see what all it could do.  So, we focused second trimester creating, adding, experimenting, and sharing ideas together.

When my colleagues and I had a brainstorming session, a big disadvantage was that students could not work on these at home because it was solely intranet.  If we truly want students to internalize and apply classroom learning, bridging that home/school connection is a must.  That's why so many Web 2.0 tools are becoming ever popular with students to explore.  It matters not what platform you use, PC or MAC, one only needs access to the internet.

Now my scope has changed.  The IWEB has become a centralized place to house their learning.  Whether working on Pages, ComicLife, Kidspiration, or more, my students transfer their finished products to their Iweb pages.  They have even imported quick movies to document their reflections and to keep book lists of all they read.    My student, N, is learning how to import Garageband into Iweb.  It's an application I'm playing with and want my students to try this year.  The latest step was to connect our pages together and create a more website look.  The last week of school, parents will be coming in to see what all they have done and we'll burn everything to a cd.    As I think about next year, my goal is to begin early enough and keep adding all throughout the year.  

My passion has always been primary students and their learning.   The possibilities with this application are endless.  If first and second graders created their portfolio with a couple pages, continue on throughout their elementary career, think about the growth we would see when they left as fifth graders!!  As a fourth grader, they could look at something they created in first or second grade.  It may spark ideas for other projects or new ideas.  But, what an authentic Mentor Text. This is also a wonderful tool for parent/teacher conferences.  I showed each students' portfolio on the smartboard to parents and they enjoyed seeing a visual snapshot into their child's learning.

Thinking about my Big Ideas for learning next year,  the IWEB is going to be a place to begin learning together, and a continuum of learning throughout the year.

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.  ~Chinese Proverb

IWEB WONDER: Part Deux

These past few weeks, my treasures have been working diligently creating their Iweb portfolios.  They've been adding pages, graphics, and text to make this project completely personalized.  Some have created movies where they've read their own writing.  Others learned how to import documents they've created from other applications.  There are some drawbacks, but it's something that is working for my students.  All in all, it's been a learning experience for everyone, including myself.

I am grateful for our tech specialist.  She is truly a gem and I am thankful for all her help and guidance.  I can throw out an idea and she knows how to get it from my head to their computers.  I wanted their portfolios published to the intranet and linked to mine so that I could share them at parent- teacher conferences last evening.  By 3pm, we were good to go.  Thank you, Laura.

I projected their iwebs onto the smart board for each conference.  My favorite moments were watching the parents' eyes light up as they read about their child and what they had created.  They were able to see a "Books They've Read" page, science experiment reflections, writings, and more.  I shared the process, purpose, and evaluation tools of the project.  I shared how we'll burn this to a dvd at the end of the year.  I shared how I'm going to use this from here on out.  All the parents were excited about this project.

However, some concerns were brought to my attention about the security and safety of children during one meeting and together we found some alternative ways for the child to continue.  Since then, I've been doing some heavy thinking in the last 24 hours.

First, this new 21st Century world is scary and unknown for those who grew up in the 20th Century.  The "what could possibly happen" in the online world, whether INTRANET or INTERNET, is a valid concern for parents that cannot be discounted by educators.  If we want to be 21st Century thinkers, we also need to be prepared to find some alternatives that would serve the same purpose if parents are uncomfortable with some of our projects.

Second, I need to learn and move at the speed that works for my needs and comfort level. Lately, I've felt so inadequate with my Smartboard knowledge and other online learning tools.  BUT,  I am doing something that will move my students to 21st Century thinking.  I may not be doing everything out there, but I am doing something.

Lastly, TRY.  Some ideas may work for you, and some may not.  But, be willing, open, and flexible to try.  It's what we'd want our students to do.

Iweb Wonder Adventure

  Iweb is an intranet site (I think...?) that can be viewed throughout our district and our tech specialist shared some of the possibilities with me.  So Monday, my treasures and I began what I am titling, "The Iweb Wonder Adventure."  She showed us what are some of the possibilities with the project, and off they went.  They have already figured out how to add video and podcasts to their page.

Since I had not created my own, I was learning with them. (After all, they need to see us take risks in our learning, too!)  They chose their theme, created a Welcome and About Me page, and then their own blog page.  My goal is for them to write their narrative as they go through the process on the blog page, and create other blog pages for different purposes.  This will be the place where their poetic literary essay will be published.

Some of the things we learned:
1.  Some themes will only type in all caps.  That's an issue once we begin composing and publishing authentic writing works.
2.  We had some difficulty linking everyone's site together, so that will need to be worked out.

Tomorrow, I'm going to let them play and figure some things out on their own.  They are definitely tech savy!  Has anyone used this application?  Any hints, comments, suggestions would be appreciated!