ERIC Identifier: ED390377
Publication Date: 1995-12-00
Author: Lankes, Anna Maria D.
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse
on Information and Technology Syracuse NY.
Electronic Portfolios: A New Idea in Assessment. ERIC Digest.
Teachers and administrators are showing increased interest in becoming part
of a "new wave" of assessment in the classroom; assessment which includes
authentic and performance-based measures. These methods of assessment allow
students to demonstrate desired performance through real-life situations (Meyer,
1992). Such methods of assessment are not limited to multiple-choice and
standardized tests, but include projects which require students to demonstrate
their problem-solving skills as well as their skills in analyzing and
synthesizing information. Several school districts across the United States have
reported improved student performance associated with new assessment programs
(Herman, 1992). Many schools are developing new methods for measuring students'
progress in both the elementary and secondary classroom. One of these new
assessment measures, the portfolio, has become increasingly popular, and
technology is helping with its creation and management.
WHAT IS A PORTFOLIO?
A portfolio at the K-12 education
level is essentially a collection of a student's work which can be used to
demonstrate his or her skills and accomplishments. An educational portfolio is
more than just a group of projects and papers stored in a file folder. It
includes other features such as teachers' evaluations and student
self-reflections. According to the Northwest Evaluation Association, a portfolio
is "a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student's efforts,
progress, and achievements. The collection must include student participation in
selecting contents, the criteria for selection, the criteria for judging merit,
and evidence of student self-reflection" (Paulson, Paulson, & Meyer, 1991).
A portfolio may be used to demonstrate a student's achievements in specific
subject areas such as mathematics and science or it may be used across the
curriculum to assess abilities in all subject areas.
WHY USE A PORTFOLIO?
Developmental portfolios. A teacher
who is interested in documenting a student's improvements in writing or
mathematics throughout a school year can have the student keep a developmental
portfolio containing samples of the student's work along with self-evaluations
of specific assignments. Such a portfolio provides specific documentation which
can be used for student evaluations and parent conferences.
Teacher planning. Teachers may use an existing portfolio system in order to
receive information about an incoming class of students. The teacher may gain a
better understanding of the ability levels of his or her students prior to the
start of the school year and plan accordingly.
Proficiency portfolios. Central Park East Secondary School in New York City
uses portfolios as a means for determining graduation eligibility. Students at
this school are required to complete fourteen portfolios which demonstrate their
competence and performance in areas such as science and technology, ethics and
social issues, community service, and history (Gold & Lanzoni, 1993).
Showcase portfolios. A showcase portfolio can document a student's best work
accomplished during an entire educational career. It can include the research
papers, art work, and science experiments which best represent the student's
skills and abilities.
Employment skills portfolios. Businesses across the country are increasingly
interested in viewing student portfolios in order to evaluate a prospective
employee's work readiness skills. Students in the Michigan public schools, for
example, are creating employability skills portfolios to demonstrate their
skills to prospective employers (Stemmer, Brown, & Smith, 1992).
College admission portfolios. Colleges and universities are using showcase
portfolios to determine eligibility for admission. By requiring portfolios from
prospective students, college or university admissions officers are better able
to assess applicants' potential for success at their institutions.
TECHNOLOGY AND THE CREATION OF COMPUTER-BASED
How to store and manage portfolio materials is a concern shared
by many educators interested in implementing portfolio programs. In order to
keep portfolios which would include papers, projects, and video and audio tapes
for a class of students for 13 years (K-12), a school would need several
additional classrooms to store this wealth of information. Many educators have
been reluctant to implement portfolio assessment programs in their schools
because of storage concerns like these. A likely solution to this problem is the
creation and storage of portfolios using computer technology.
The terms "computer-based portfolio" and "electronic portfolio" are used to
describe portfolios saved in electronic format. Electronic portfolios contain
the same types of information as the portfolios discussed earlier, but the
information is collected, stored, and managed electronically. Since current
technology allows for the capture and storage of information in the form of
text, graphics, sound, and video, students can save writing samples, solutions
to mathematics problems, samples of art work, science projects and multimedia
presentations in one coherent document. A single computer with a large storage
capacity can store portfolios for all of the students in a class. With more
students creating multimedia projects, however, a floppy or even a hard disk
might not suffice for storage. An alternative is to store student portfolios on
a CD-ROM (a compact disk which stores text, sound, graphics and video). A CD-ROM
can store approximately 650 MB of information or 300,000 sheets of typed text.
This might include all of the portfolios for an entire grade level of students.
A computer-based portfolio program also allows for easy transfer of information.
An individual computer disk or CD-ROM could be created to transport a student's
documents from teacher to teacher or school to school.
SOLUTIONS AND EXAMPLES
There are several commercially
available portfolio programs which offer teachers the ability to track student
achievement. Aurbach's "Grady Profile" is one program which provides a template
for teachers and students to enter work samples. Programs may include writing
samples, standardized test scores, oral communication skills, and mathematics
assessments. Other software programs, such as Roger Wagner Publishing's
"HyperStudio" and Claris' "FileMaker Pro," allow teachers to create their own
templates for portfolio assessment. Educators can use these programs to
customize portfolios to suit the needs of their classes. For example, one high
school English portfolio might include outlines and drafts for each writing
assignment, while another might include only the finished product along with
self-reflections by the student.
One school which is involved in creating electronic portfolios for all its
students is East Syracuse-Minoa High School in East Syracuse, New York. Students
at this high school are creating electronic portfolios which can be sent to
colleges as part of the admissions process and to potential employers to
determine workplace readiness. This electronic portfolio, called "The Portfolio
Manger," was created in "HyperStudio" and contains traditional information about
students (transcripts, letters of recommendation, and work history) as well as
student-selected work samples (writing samples, multimedia research papers, art
work, and video clips from a performance in the school play). The students are
responsible for updating and selecting the work samples they include in the
portfolio and can select virtually any piece of work that they believe best
represents their skills and abilities. Currently, students begin creating
portfolios during their sophomore year and continue updating and revising the
work samples throughout their high school careers. Upon completion, the
portfolio can be distributed in computer disk, CD-ROM, video tape, or print
The implementation of computer-based portfolios for
student assessment is an exciting educational innovation. This method of
assessment not only offers an authentic demonstration of accomplishments, but
also allows students to take responsibility for the work they have done. In
turn, this motivates them to accomplish more in the future. A computer-based
portfolio system offers many advantages for both the education and the business
communities and should continue to be a popular assessment tool in the "information age."
"Alternative assessment and technology."
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