Byron English Classes Switch to ePortfolios

In Minnesota, the head of the English Department at Byron High School read an article about career portfolios several years ago. The story shared that by their senior year, students uploaded resumés, cover letters and their high school exit project to an electronic portfolio.

The English Department thought that was a great idea.

"We had paper portfolios here," said Stacy Warneke, English teacher and department chair. "Nobody really looked at them, reflected or saw student progress; it was just something you handed to them at the end of the year."

The district also wiped out student network drives every year, which meant that students couldn't access previous work, said Jen Hegna, director of information and learning technology at Byron Public Schools. Electronic portfolios would make student work accessible through Google accounts after they graduate.

By moving to ePortfolios, Byron High School encourages students to reflect on what they learn, see how their skills progress and prepare for career opportunities.

"We want them to reflect so that they can then take what they've learned and apply it to the next level the next time they have a project," said Justin Jourdan, English teacher.

In fall 2010, the Department's five English teachers and Hegna conducted a small pilot program with seniors through Google Apps for Education. The seniors enjoyed creating Google Sites to display their work, but wanted more time to spend on them.

After expanding the pilot in the spring, the team decided to make ePortfolios available to all students in fall 2011. By the end of the 2011-12 school year, every student will have an ePortfolio with learning artifacts and reflections in it.

Students at each grade level develop a bio and set academic goals. In storage portfolios, ninth- through 11th-graders post writing samples, work from other classes and learning from outside school. They also reflect on each project.

The seniors develop showcase portfolios of their best high school work and include reflections on what they learned. They create a resumé and cover letter as well.

By using page-level permissions, teachers decide who sees each page of students' portfolios. Initially, ninth- through 11th-graders only share their portfolio with their teacher. They can make some student portfolio pages public, but they're still working out the permission policies.

"Now this has opened up a conversation to talk about the Internet, social media and privacy," Hegna said.

It's also provided an opportunity for teachers to overcome challenges. Students don't always put their information where they should on the Google Site template. Teachers receive 30 to 50 extra emails when students share Google Docs with them. And some teachers struggle with admitting to students that they don't know how to do something.

With Gmail filters and labels, teachers deal with the flood of emails. They also created a spreadsheet that keeps student names and portfolio links in one place.

As the oldest male teacher in the school district, Craig Bucknell said students were willing to help him when he admitted his lack of knowledge on technical issues.

"Just because you're getting say farther into your career doesn't mean you have to be stuck in a rut," said the English and social studies teacher.

During the summer, the English Department took a Creative Commons-licensed course on MoodleShare that Hegna developed so they could hash out philosophical differences and learn more about ePortfolios.

"When school started, we were all on the same page," said Jen Green, an English and math teacher who plans to have her geometry students start using ePortfolios. "We came in really fairly focused for English teachers."