I remember having to put together a teaching portfolio in grad school for one of my classes. Being that it was for my museum education class, the portfolio (which still exists and is in use) showcases lesson plans, special events materials, school contact samples, and various media created for events. I think there’s even a section for thank you-notes and evaluations, and then another section that focuses on curret articles I personally found relevant and interesting.
It’s an interesting little window on what I have actually done, something my paper resume can only hint at.
Through ELGG, I’ve been trying to learn about the concept and application of e-portfolios (something I’d like to develop for myself). I’m learning a lot about the concept of a personal space blended from various social networking tools, and it’s actually guiding in the development of seveal personal projects, including my web site and a wiki.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time reading on the subject, and I discovered this post that describes for a high school student the benefits of taking the time to build and maintain an e-portfolio. I just felt it was a great explanation of some of the potential uses for an e-portfolio.
Posted by Rebecca as e-learning at 9:57 AM EST
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Last month, I shared this great post on why education reform wasn’t succeeding.
Today, I’d like to point you toward this interesting post on the speed of that failing reform process.
Change is naturally a slow process unless a radical change is needed and a group can deliver it swiftly (even though it’s more often than not in a painful manner). Perhaps what we need is a group that can find a better, and perhaps radical, path and implement it swiftly and pain-reducedly (how’s that for a made-up word!) before the current system completely fails those we’ve entrusted to its care.
Too bad I haven’t an idea where to begin.
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 7:51 AM EST
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I don’t remember much beyond a brief unit on fact and opinion in learning how to determine the validity of a source, despite the fact that I’ve spent so much of my life doing research and reading. The closest I’ve ever come to going on a tour of a library was twice in college, both times the entire tour was five minutes and amounted to, "The stacks are that direction. The periodicals are that direction. The restrooms are that way."
Somehow, despite all that, i grew up loving libraries, and even working in some. There are days when i think I’d even like to be a librarian.
These things together probably explain why I don’t understand how students in this age of overly available information aren’t learning how to discern whether or not a resource is trustworthy. This is a time when it seems to me that information literacy should be a focus of classes starting in middle school where extensive research papers are being assigned.
Found via Library Link of the Day
Posted by Rebecca as Teaching methods at 6:30 PM EST
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Frequently, when explaining my background to people, I’m asked what a museum educator does. Some of the guesses are always amusing, my favorite being if I teach the actual building. I thought it might be fun to present an average week that I’ve worked in many of the museums and planetariums I’ve either volunterred or worked in. Keep in mind that I generally worked 10-20 hours a week, and was generally assigned tasks that focused on curriculum development and event planning (my strengths).
For me, a typical week was six days long because I was often involved in some sort of special programming. The planning more often than not would have already started a few weeks before, but it wasn’t an odd Monday when I’d walk in and be asked to prepare some activities around a specific theme for an event on Saturday. I’d spend a couple of hours on Monday researching the theme and developing a starting list of ideas to build activities from. If it was a topic I knew nothing about, I’d usually hit up a few of the lesson plan sites to see if there were any neat ones that we could use.
From there, I generally spent about an hour or two on Tuesday writing up a formal plan. Being trained in a teacher prep program, my planning always took the shape of a lesson or unit plan. (Oddly enough, my traveling trunk designs, workshop designs, and special event designs all look like lesson plans!) I’d present the plan to my director, and we’d figure out what was on hand and what we needed to acquire.
In the midst of my lesson plan writing, it wasn’t unusual to find me fielding reservation requests and questions about our programming and facilities on the phone.
By the time Wednesday rolled around, I was often creating flyers and wayfinders to help people find their way to or around the events. If I wasn’t working on event materials, then I was helping with newsletters and exhibit materials for the temporary exhibits.
Thursday and Friday were often spent making sure we had all the resources we needed for the event. I usually got really comfy in the workspace and just copied for an hour on one of the days. This was also usually when my director would turn to me and say something to the effect of, "I have this traveling trunk/workshop/special project coming up on (topic I may or may not know anything about). Do you want it?" Of course, I’d squeal and take it on.
On Saturday, I’d arrive anywhere between one to two hours early (depending on whether I was running the event or just working it), work the event, and then help with the clean up and go home. I’d do anything from presentations and demonstrations to helping teach and direct an activity, to just making sure everyone was doing all right and that our supplies were staying well-stocked.
It was a great job for me because it allowed a lot of freedom and creativity, plus I got to play! It was flexible and had days where it could be quite adventurous because you never knew what was coming next.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:54 AM EST
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I’ve spent some time recently learning about e-Portfolios. I have an account over at Elgg, which I haven’t really developed to be anything more than another weblog. It has, however, made me think more about the website I’ve been playing at building in my free time.
If I understand the concept of an e-portfolio correctly, it’s a space dedicated to foster reflection on the part of the person who maintains the space while showing others the person’s gained knowledge and skills. This can be in the form of weblogs, files, wikis, and galleries. The site I have been working on already had plans for an electronic version of my teaching portfolio and my graphic design portfolio (such as it is). I also had plans for a personal encyclopedia, a project inspired by a friend who coplained that he needed on to keep up with me, that is now taking shape in an account on JotSpot.
Eventually, the website I’m working on is expected to be a conglomeration of various tools to help people learn and understand about me, or more precisely, topics that I’m interested in. Does this potentially qualify as an e-portfolio?
Posted by Rebecca as Learning methods at 7:20 PM EST
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Following last week’s post on the use of video games in training, elearningpost’s newsletter highlighted a series of posts on the use of computer games in teaching situations, including this one on the link between computer games and learning.
I don’t know if I agree with this entirely, although I do support the belief that computer games do not facilitate retention. There are games that do require some skill-building to move from one level to the next. However, in most cases, the apparent scaffolding of the tasks becomes so repetitious that the player is no longer analyzing and applying, but instead engaging rote memory.
Posted by Rebecca as Games at 1:41 PM EST
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A theme that keep coming up in my readings is trying to address the learning needs and modalities of those who grew up with video game consoles and computers as routine items in their house. Some organizations have addressed this need by creating video game-type simulations.
What’s interesting in most of these readings is the line between a game and a simulation. There is a difference, although something might actually have qualities of both. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but using either as a means to transfer knowledge should be handled with the same care you would use to create a lesson plan intended to be taught in a classroom. They also need to be used in tandem with other training methods.
Found via Library Link of the Day
Posted by Rebecca as Games at 11:40 AM EST
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Taking notes has long been a standard practice by students everywhere, but this article offers some interesting thoughts on how the means by which those notes influence retention.
Found via Angie McKaig
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 7:08 PM EST
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