Digital Me

Throughout my career I have been asked to keep samples of my student's work (portfolio) to show parents at student-led conferences or to prove they have mastered the skills taught throughout the year. This portfolio was always full of written tests and worksheets. Parents would look through the portfolio and only see a score, in my opinion. They would say, "Good job, looks like you have all A's." Other parents saying, "Hmmm. . . what happened? It looks like you made a bad grade." I found this heartbreaking. . . for both students. Yes, I know it is wonderful that the first student was able to make all A's, but the parents missed the point. Did you see the strategies your child used? Did you see he/she created their own word problem on the back of the test? Did you know she can teach how to solve all those problems to her peers? the answer was, "No." In the case of the other student, yes, it is a concern that this child is not mastering all the skills, but the parents are missing all the growth this child has made!! Did you see that your child can now use a picture to represent their word problem? Did you see the only reason the problem was incorrect was because they miscounted the circles they drew? Did you see that your child can explain how to use EVERY single strategy that I taught, but makes simple mistakes when they use the strategy? The answer was still, "No."

For the past three years I have been lucky enough to be 1:1 with iPads!  Even though I haven’t used digital portfolios per say, my kids started providing evidence of their learning through the use of digital tools.  This past year, my students were able to share their KidBlog with their parents.  Their blog showed their learning throughout the year in a variety of ways.  We had science notebooking with pictures and videos of our science investigations, we had videos of students explaining how to solve problems in math, as well as posts showing their growth in writing.  These posts were very sporadic throughout the year, so they were more just posts on their blog than an e-portfolio, but their parents were blown away by what their child had learned throughout the year.  I didn’t hear a single comment about grades or about the lack of knowledge they were seeing in their child’s work.  Instead, I heard comments like, “Wow!!  That was awesome!  I can’t believe you can create your own word problems!”  or “I don’t even understand what you did to solve that problem, but that was great!”  Haha!!

This year my goal was to have an e-Portfolio for every student. . . this goal has changed!  This year I changed grade levels, so my focus has been on using best instructional practices and figuring out what I can expect from a first grader when it comes to technology.  Even though it doesn’t look like we will have a digital portfolio for all subjects, we have finally started a digital portfolio in math!  Yay!!

We are using the 3D GameLab for part of our math instruction.  My students work through a variety of quests at their own pace.  These quests offer review videos, differentiated math prompts, as well as opportunities to code or play math games.  Each quest requires the student to submit some type of artifact to show their understanding.  So far we have used pictures, videos, and text.  These artifacts may be a snapshot of their work on a digital “worksheet”, a picture of their work as they use a specific app to show understanding (base ten blocks), or a video as they explain they solved a problem, as they created a problem, or maybe they are teaching how to solve the problem.  As my students submit quests, I try to give immediate feedback.  Sometimes I call them over and verbally discuss what they turned in and other times I type in a response and send the quest back to them for them to review at their seats.  I would love to provide video feedback, but I’m usually checking quests as I work with a small group, so that isn’t feasible at this time.  

Even though I LOVE the 3D GameLab, I have definitely come across some challenges.  We have been working in the 3D GameLab for over three weeks, and I still have students who will ask me EVERY single day, “What do I do now”?  Ugh!!  I now have a few “go to” students who will help with these problems, but it’s still an issue I deal with every day.  Another challenge is getting quality videos.  My students usually video each other as they are explaining how to solve problems for their math journal.  Sometimes these videos aren’t close enough to the journal so I can’t see the work or they may have their hand over the microphone so I can’t hear what the student is saying.  I applied for and received an innovative grant from my school system for a Pro Account in Educreations, so once I receive that account my students will be able to record multiple sessions and upload the link to the 3D GameLab, so hopefully that will help with math journal recordings.

We still have a long way to go, but I’m so proud of my students!  Hopefully, our “Digital Me” portfolios will be a huge success at student-led conferences at the end of the school year!!

Here is a student explaining how to solve a word problem that was posted as a math journal option.

Here is another student sharing the word problem he created and showing how he solved the problem.

Below is a snapshot of a 3D GameLab portfolio. My students can click on any of the quests and share the work that was submitted as well as the feedback I provided.

**No worries, I have permission from parents to post these specific videos on my blog. :)