This afternoon I attended the first ePortfolio open lab. We discussed a lot, and I received many good ideas. In the interest of getting the information down before I forget it, I'm simply going to list what we talked about.
- Handouts and information will be forthcoming. Honestly, I want to put my syllabus and rubrics together sooner than later, so I will work on my own handouts for now and modify as needed.
- I asked about students grading one another. Samantha suggested peer groups. Peer groups would be assigned by me and they would meet weekly. Not sure if peer groups would shift over course of semester.
- Samantha suggests students' ePortfolio links should be linked to in BB. I agree completely.
- We also talked about password protection. Wordpress and Wix both offer password protection for free. We're not so sure about Weebly.
- We talked particulars about assignments- one suggestion was an exploration or response to a science essay (i.e. Asimov, Sagan, or perhaps a Nautilus essay?).
- Another suggestion was to have students reflect on why it's important to study astronomy. This question might be a good one for the first assignment.
- Having students look at astronomy in the news and reflect on how astronomy fits into their lives could be another assignment.
- Samantha emphasized students should have some choices.
- My thinking now is that I want a final project of their choosing- ideally a three-minute video. Samantha also suggested infogram (piktochart), cartoon, or essay.
- We also talked about reflections and the importance of going deeper, beyond "what I learned", to "did I enjoy it?", "what surprised me?" Salt Lake Community College has a information on reflection statements here, including a handout for faculty.
- Finally, this book looked good: "The Learning Portfolio" by Zubizarreta.