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| An Electronic Portfolio uses
multimedia technology that allows students to collect and organize
portfolio components in a variety of media types, such as audio,
video, text, and graphics. Hyperlinks contained in an electronic
portfolio can provide clear connections between the portfolio
components and the professional standards that must be met. When
completed, electronic portfolios can be published on paper,
computer disk, or over the Internet, making them both portable and
easily distributable.
Technological advances in
educational media and computing have made possible new approaches
to instruction and assessment, and have improved older methods of
communication. Schools, educators, trainers, students, and
managers are seeking new and improved methods of instruction in
and out of classrooms. The responsibility to seek new
communication tools, to experiment with classroom techniques, and
to improve learning environments is a requirement of today's
professional educators. Coping with a changing society, the
information explosion, and the advancement
of technology requires a systematic examination of curriculum
strategies and content as well as the manner in which they are
presented and assessed. To be successful, new strategies of
instruction based on emerging technological support systems must
be developed. These innovations require informed, creative
contributions to the intellectual and practical information bases.
Experience indicates that the electronic portfolio
has been able to play the following roles in students' educational
journey:
| Context |
The creation
of the portfolio itself serves as a very concrete context
for learning and applying the targeted skills. In
addition, the public nature of the portfolios serves as an
example for various instructional experiences. |
| Reflection |
Because all of
the portfolio components reflect each student's personal
experiences, the planning, development, and implementation
of the portfolio components necessitates ongoing
reflection about what is being learned. |
| Assessment |
The actual
portfolio artifacts created represent direct evidence of
specific skills learned and applied that meet state,
national, and professional standards. In addition, the
public nature of the web-based portfolio components makes
assessing other student work from a distance much easier. |
| Professional
Presence |
The web-based
electronic portfolio represents a rich professional
presence by making public evidence of technical and
pedagogical abilities. it also affords the educators an
opportunity to present best practices as well as provide
resources for other educators. |
The process of developing electronic portfolios
also serves to provide meaningful learning contexts for the
acquisition and application of professional educational skills. In
addition, the portfolio can serve as a primary means of assessing
and evaluating what each student has learned from a program.
Finally, the process of creating an electronic portfolio can help
students develop skills in using various multimedia technologies.
In addition to content area standards, the teacher education
electronic portfolios are designed to showcase the general technology-related
standards described in the Guidelines for Technology in
the Commonwealth’s State-Approved Teacher Education Programs as
well as the specific standards identified by the International
Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). The ISTE standards
represent recommended foundations in technology for all teachers,
and they constitute the core of NCATE's professional education
program technology standards.
The portfolio development portion
of the program affords maximum flexibility for students. Students
will identify their own technology strengths and weaknesses and
seek the help they need in order to successfully develop their own
portfolios.
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