Inspired by teachers who touted the benefits e-portfolios, I began to research various formats and methods. In June, I arranged to meet a colleague from another school who had been successfully using e-portfolios in his French Immersion classes for several years. He generously shared his resources and his time to provide me with an overview of the process. From that point, I began to scour twitter and various educational blogs and sites for resources and tips. Having used webnode for years for my teaching website, I decided to stick with a format that I was familiar with. Finally, I was given the encouraging news that a class set of PC laptops would be available to ensure that I could devote class time on a weekly basis to the creation and development of e-portfolios in the form of individual student websites. With all of the pieces of the puzzle in place, I was ready to integrate e-portfolios into all of my English classes. Or so I thought.
Reality soon set in during the early weeks of September. Logistically, collecting over one hundred internet parent permission forms from students in the first week of school was challenging, to say the least. Amidst the usual chaos of school start up, I now had now added an extra level of stress and aggravation. Miraculously, I was able to collect the majority of the permission forms by the second week of school, prior to our first e-portfolio block. Only a handful of students needed some gentle reminders, and additional copies, before they too returned their permission forms.
With parental approval in hand, and an introductory lesson in Digital Citizenship, I casually sauntered down the hall to fetch the newly acquired laptops, filled with confidence and anticipation. Challenge number two. The cart that stores the PC laptops weighs a million pounds (okay, hyperbole, but not far off) and I couldn't actually physically roll it up to the ramp that led to my room. No weakling, I had to quickly enlist the help of nearby students, who took pity on the "poor teacher" and helped me lug the beast of a cart up the ramp. Anticipating possible technical challenges, I had requested that a couple of "techie" students meet me at my room to facilitate the distribution of computers with my first class, thirty English 8 students.
Challenge number three. Many of the students had difficulty logging in despite being provided with their district usernames and emails. For several of those who were able to successfully log in, their laptops immediately began to cycle through numerous updates. About half way through the class, only three students had made their way to webnode.com to begin the relatively straight forward process of creating their website. Unfortunately, as more students began to access webnode.com they were unable to create their sites. Frustrated and disheartened, it was time to begin the rather arduous process of collecting and storing the bulky laptops and their cords in the cart. With assistance, this took about fifteen minutes of valuable class time.
Later that day, after having repeated a similar process with two more of my classes, English 11 and 12, I contacted webnode to determine the problem. Apparently, with numerous students accessing the site from the same server, we were perceived as "hackers" and locked out. The problem was quickly rectified by webnode "white listing" our district email address. Those few who still struggled with logging in created Weebly sites. What I couldn't fix, however, was the physical challenge of maneuvering the gigantic cart. It wouldn't always be feasible to enlist the help of bystanders. And so, I determined that although there were fewer Mac laptops available in our second cart, at least I was able to transport them easily, and the students did not have to go through the additional step of logging in.
Week three of e-portfolis and finally, the majority of my students had successfully created a personal website that would reflect their goals and learning journey in English. We were still juggling laptops between students to compensate for fewer Macs, but most were able to begin to personalize their websites, record their learning goals and complete their first few writing submissions. This past week I was able to record and hyperlink each student site in a Word document so that I can quickly and easily follow their progress throughout the semester. My intention is that students will share their e-portfolios with me during an interview at the end of the semester. During this interview, they will have an opportunity to reflect on their successes and challenges, and share why they included various digital artifacts along with their writing submissions. These artifacts are intended to demonstrate key learning outcomes from each unit.
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| English 12 students immersed in their writing. Success at last! |
So rather than a lesson on how to create e-porfolios, the real lesson for both my students and myself, was how to persevere despite numerous challenges and obstacles. I am under no misconception that it will be smoother sailing for the remainder of the year, but with the continued support of my colleagues (thanks for listening to all my gripes and moaning) and my amazingly patient students (thanks for not throwing in the towel after the first disastrous day), my hope is by integrating e-portfolios to supplement in-class writing, my students will have something that will extend and enhance their writing experience, that they can take pride in, and that they can share with friends and family for years to come.
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