Report and Findings - EdVillage4Me - June 2015 by Roger Fuller

Report & Findings EdVillage4Me/AcaFolio - Oak Hill High School Roger Fuller 2015/06/29

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

Executive Summary This report details a pilot project held during April, May, and June of 2015 between Oak Hill High School/RSU4, and Gryphondale Education Services regarding the piloting of a learning environment called EdVillage4Me®. The school is a secondary school located in Wales, ME. The software is a platform and device independent learning environment in which students and teachers can create a digital learning community. The report examines the implementation and testing process from both an epic and epic perspective. These diﬀerent perspectives are occasioned by the unique perspective of the major researcher, Dr. Roger Fuller, who functions as the designer of the software and who had taught at the school from 1977-1999.

This report examines various observations and reflections of Dr. Fuller as he examines the process of implementing, evaluating, and assessing the software’s use in the secondary setting. Student reactions and observations are an important part of the report as they engaged in an evaluation at the end of the pilot project. Findings indicate that the software implementation was a success as students found the software to be useful when detailing daily lesson plans and providing opportunities for on-line quizzes and the subsequent retaking on on-line quizzes when needed. Students created and used blog/journals as daily writing activities in the English classroom, which was the primary setting for the pilot, and though students were not used to this kid of activity, they did complete the assignment and did particularly well once the concept of blogging themes was introduced. The creation of on-line digital portfolios was a primary reason for testing the software, and the creation of these e-portfolios was also a success.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

An Etic Perspective Oak Hill High School/RSU4 began the process of allowing a pilot/test of the software created by Gryphondale Education Services about April 10, 2015. Known as EdVillage4Me® or AcaFolio, the software creates an on-line learning ecosystem for students via evidence based assessment - with the purposes of encouraging students to be reflective about their work via the creation of e-portfolio. The students involved were those students in the classes of Dr. Roger Fuller, a full time substitute teacher hired by the school for the fourth quarter of the year. These students involved consisted of four classes of juniors and one class of freshmen, a total of 68 students in all.

Students at Oak Hill all have a one-to-one computing environment EdVillage4Me®.AcaFolio allows students to engage in a digital community of learners by providing them with opportunities to post blogs/journals, take quizzes and assessments, turn in assignments, check on learning plans and curriculum, and engage in the creation of the reflective portfolio. The central tenant behind the software is to have students create a body of work which can serve as evidence for determining proficiency. The software has built in proficiencies based on the Maine Learning Results, and assignments are tied to these learning results in order that the students know the purpose of learning. All students in Dr. Fuller’s classes were taught how to use the software, and after an initial introduction, the software was a part of the daily class routine. For all most all of the classes, Dr. Fuller prepared a daily lesson plan which was posted to the class forum and in this way students could check lesson plans at any time. An ancillary benefit

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

included the ability of these forums to be available from home - when a student was absent, he/she could check on the assignment or class work. Another feature worthy of early mention was the use of on-line quizzes. The software permits the creation of multiple choice, short answer, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple variety quizzes, which are configured to provide immediate feedback. Students were permitted to re-take quizzes for two times if their score was below 60% on any quiz. The quiz feature was renamed Learning Activities during the trial period as it quickly become apparent that the feature could be used for much more than quizzes alone. Another feature of the software concern messaging. The software permits messages to be sent among registered users, and it does not currently allow full Internet access for the sending or the receiving of email. This was a deliberate design decision as the software was created to form a protected community of users for registered users A special feature of the messaging system was created and was named “Teacher Notes.” Teacher Notes allowed Dr. Fuller to send updates on learning progress to students while copying their parents on the updates. In this way, parents were always part of the learning of the classroom. Every student received at least one Teacher Note during the term. At the end of the term, students were asked to complete two different Survey Monkey surveys on two separate days. The first survey asked students about their learning and experiences and the second survey asked students to respond to two different “scenarios” concerning the possible implementation of the software in a school setting. Some of the findings are listed below. Reflections - Several different kinds of reflections were created from this test/pilot. It is important to reflect on the principle learnings of the test/pilot. To do that, I’ve broken the various findings into themes and changed the perspective a bit. By reflecting as the primary researcher and adult participant, I hope that the themes to be discussed will be seen from the lens of the researcher/practitioner. In many ways what follows represents a shift from an etic perspective to an emic perspectives - as I functioned as the main researcher fully embedded into the culture and practice of the school in which I had taught from 1977-1999.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

An Emic Perspective On Blogging Over the last several weeks, I've been lucky enough to be working at Oak Hill as a full time substitute in English. The experience to get into the classroom was valuable in itself - and Oak Hill made it more valuable by giving me the chance to test the software for EdVillage4Me®. In many ways, I had the opportunity to test many of theories behind "The New Classroom." We did run a fully digital classroom. There were times in this experience when I could see that the students were frustrated in having to learn new things, and in having to learn processes that were diﬀerent than what they were used to. Yet, the students were wonderful, engaged most of the time, and gave me precious feedback about what it meant to be more digital. Maybe that greatest change was my expectation that every student should be engaged in writing every day. Writing is the single most important activity, and my reasoning was rather simple - that writing is like working out, and we do it every day, even when we really don't want to do it. Writing a blog/journal became a real way to test the system and provide an opportunity for expression. Of course, there were students who just didn't believe that I would hold them to this standard. All in all, it meant twenty pieces of writing taken from any number of sources. We did spend time exploring sources, but none of that made any real diﬀerence. The single moment it became real was when one student discovered that she could use each blogging opportunity as a way to create a recipe book. She chose recipes from any number of sources, presented them along with pictures in the blog. What she discovered was "themes." A blog is best when it is dedicated to a theme; otherwise it is a random collection of random thoughts occasioned by random events. She saw and took advantage of themes - and as soon as I demonstrated that she had done this, the blog/journals became real to others.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

It would be worth an academic study to see what happened after the students realized that a thematic approach to their own work could be successful. There is evidence based on a scan of the blogs immediately past this date that the blogs became longer and more detailed. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that this made a huge diﬀerence for students, and with time, we can make that study; I'm also absolutely sure that some students waited till the last minute to do the work and crammed it together. Nonetheless, the assignment was completed and they learned something about writing, fluency, preparation, and presentation. At this point, at the end of the year, I have read about 1200 diﬀerent blog entries. The range and variety was awesome and impressive. Of course, some students took the assignment more seriously than others. Some student simply put in single line famous quotations and some students wrote things like the following. Hello, In times when people may be sad, angry, or confused it may not be all what it seems. Some may not like you, some may love you, and some may not have an opinion about you. But it's the people that care, and cherish you for who you are, not your actions, beliefs, and physical attributes. My name is Andy, and I don't fear what is feared. I only fear what you believe in. I fear what i don't know, i fear the unknown. But i respect all. I respect your beliefs, i respect you, but i also have a new found respect for the unknown. Taking a moderate risk may be scary, but fear and mystery is what life is about. So maybe in time everyone will learn to respect, and cherish everyone for who they are. And when it all boils down to the last drop, just be happy. or As junior year is coming to an end, many things have filled these long months. During football season out team was able to fulfill the shoes of the 2013 team. We took home the 2014 gold ball. During basketball our team was less successful. Although as baseball rolled around we all had high hopes. As our season went on or hopes started to fade as we weren't having the season we wished too. I was named first team all conference infield, along with a few other buddies who were named to similar lists. or

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

One of my favorite hobbies is Snowboarding. I like snowboarding because it feels really cool going really fast down a slope of all white powdery snow. It is also really fun going snowboarding with a big group of friends. This year was a weird year for snowboarding. At first there was barely any snow that lost valley only had a couple of trails open for the beginning of the season. Then at the end of winter Maine got piled with snow and the mountains were great. That is the bad thing about snowboarding, you never know what the conditions will be like. or Junior year has probably been my best year in high school, I have achieved better grades than ever before. My junior year has been important because we have done many serious things, like taking the SAT going on college tours and finding out what we want to do for the rest of our life. This year I have learned to manage my time, last year I had trouble with managing my time in math, I ended up failing second semester of Geometry because I didn't manage my time eﬃciently. This year I have learned how to manage my time, instead of going home and watching tv getting a snack and taking a nap, I go home do all the homework I need to do and then do things I want to do. That is why I am already done with Algebra 2, because I have learned how to manage my time and I'm proud of that. This year is also important because I just received my first job, it's fun and gives me a taste of the real world. I have to get up at 630 so I can be at work by 745. It's hard but it's getting me ready for college and my future life.

Blog/Journals are diﬀerent, and as I read them over the weekend, I discovered many diﬀerent kinds of rationales about education. It's important to be writing every day. It's important to be reflective on what is being learned every day. It's important to be involved in the community or learners, and that we learn from each other as well as by completing just the assignment. It does take a village to educate a child. The evaluations on the survey confirmed some of the suspicion from having s involved in the process. The question stem was "When the teacher asked us to keep blogs/journals, at first it seemed to me that"

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

or in graphic form

It's pretty clear from this that the idea of writing every day was new to them, and yet they completed it - and they did it more than I personally thought they would. Perhaps it was for a grade; perhaps it was because they finally saw that I was serious, perhaps it was because they found themes. In any event, for a first endeavor at daily writing, the results are very pleasing. I do know that if I were given a chance to do this again, I would not have them write for every class- in what amounted to a blog every other day. In combination with other classes, I can see that a school might work to set patterns of writing

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME速/ACAFOLIO

activity such that many different classes completed writing and that the writing served as a platform for classroom discussion. What I am left with is the idea that we have more to learn about the benefits of a consistent, regular, and integrated writing program which involves the whole school. As an English teacher, students in my class have always kept journals. Daily writing is part of my belief system about regular practice and regular writing and regular reflection. On the other hand, I have never had students keep blogs in a public or semi-public way such as that offered by the blogging experience. As we had to make decisions about access and availability of this pilot program, we did make the decision to create a "closed" Intranet community around the students in the school alone. This served to protect participants from outside intrusion, but it also created a community of users within the cultural context of the school. Students wrote and kept blogs, writing one for each day that the class met, for six weeks. It amounted to about 20 blogs per student. With approximately 70 students, that effort created lots and lots of reading. While students were not used to sharing or creating critical circles, the opportunity was there and I could see the potential. There were times when I assigned blog postings, and there were times that I asked them to use paragraphs from their current work on various papers as entires for blogs. This in turn created a great diversity of blog posting, but more importantly, a great range of student writing. While this pilot and test was limited by design to the classes which I taught, the implications I could see were tremendous. In a school that made blogging and writing a part of the regular routine of instruction, the potential for learning is immense. In fact, that potential would need to be governed, as no school would want every student blogging or writing every day in each class. Some students would be wiped out. But a plan that saw an equal distribution and assignment of blogging and writing would create a school culture of shared academic purpose.

On-Line Learning Activities One of the features that we explored with the implementation of EdVillage4Me® was the on-line learning activities. These included quizzes, short answer options, longer answer options. Quizzes could consist of any number of formats such as multiple choice, short answer, fill in the blank, or combinations of the above. One

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

feature set that we discovered had other implications - the time that could be set to take the quiz, as well as the option to retake the quiz for a set number of occasions. In the design of what we came to call Learning Activities, we found that quizzes should be limited to a maximum of 20 items. There were several educational and pedagogical reasons for this. First, a "quiz" should be a formative assessment not having the weight of a "test." Common assumptions about the two activities here prevailed. A quiz fundamentally concerns a limited amount of material, used to check for understanding, or a comprehension check, or as a practice to a larger unit assessment. A test covers a whole unit of material, such as a chapter, or a number of smaller units. In some ways a test should address higher order thinking skills as a predisposition toward assessments whereas a quiz can address higher order thinking skills, but focuses on lower order thinking skills in a more direct way. This is not to say that a quiz must avoid higher order thinking skill questions, but that a quiz must have the ability to do both, but in less time. For all these reasons, we set a limited number of questions for a quiz, and did not develop a testing module, though such a testing module would be easy to develop. We are also including an option in the creation of a quiz to "disinclude" a question, an option that allows the teacher to create a "question bank" of materials for each quiz. The software allows quizzes and learning activities to be shared between teachers, so that a school is able to build its own repository or share question bank materials, a labor saving and customization plan for each school or district. Learning Activities and quizzes could be taken multiple times by students. In my own classroom, I set the parameters so that any student who scored less than a 60 could retake the quiz one more time and in doing so, I would take the higher score. The quiz was diďŹ&#x20AC;erent for the second attempt and so students had an option to improve and demonstrate proficiency after restudying the material. One feature that that proved successful was the immediate feedback provided by the online quizzes. Because the online quiz creation process mandates specifying an answer, the quiz auto-corrects on submission and the student can receive immediate feedback. This then sets the path for future action, determining whether the student needs to retake the quiz or can go on the next section or learning.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4MEÂŽ/ACAFOLIO

Survey results showed the value of these options.

These results indicate several realities. It is interesting to note that students found more acceptance of the program when they could retake some of the quizzes, and the attitude change reflected in response one indicates that the students could see value in the program. Yet, the most interesting response is seen in the

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME速/ACAFOLIO

combination of responses for choices three and four. It is obvious that online question delivery was beneficial from a student perspective as they could have a second chance, yet they also saw that mastery of material sometimes takes more than a single attempt. Philosophically, this is very important. Students need the chance to "try" things, and yet they also recognize a limitation to trying. They are trying and learning as opposed to having many multiple attempts. They recognize the value of boundaries and the responsibility to complete learning. The limitations on retakes enforces the need for responsibility, rather than a haphazard entitlement to retake quizzes forever.

Lesson Planning During the pilot test this spring at Oak Hill, one of the most surprising and seemingly unusual finds concerned the provision of digital daily lesson plans. EdVillage4Me速 contains the ability to provide any number of online "forums" or "discussion centers." We reserved at least one forum for each class, and this forum became the place to provide lesson plans. This feature set in part derived from my own experiences as a teacher - in that I think it most important to inform everyone at the beginning of the class, "Today we will learn and explore." For me, this beginning is essential, and "Today we will learn and explore" is always followed by the order of the lesson plan with notes about the content of the lesson plans. For example, it might very well be "Today we will learn and explore - how conflict is developed in a short story." This metacognitive task lets the students know the subject of the learning in advance so that they can build an anticipatory set. We were able to transfer this to EdVillage4Me速 by using the class forums. What was interesting about the class forums for learning was the ability to include any number of digital multi-media items. These could include references to video, audio, web links, PDFs - in fact any digital content at all. The short story, "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" is a classic in American fiction, but not an easy read for many. The stream of consciousness narration can

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME速/ACAFOLIO

be challenging for the first time reader. Yet, for that story I was able to provide the following introductory forum discussion.

This is interesting because the lesson plan was transparently available to all students before the beginning of class, and they were able to check the lesson plan in advance of the class meeting. Additionally, the lesson plan could be tied to the standards. This too was an important feature of the forums as the standards of learning were often, but not always, important to show and discuss. As we shall see, the presence of the lesson plans became an important feature for the student body. Lesson Planning is just what teachers do, or it is what they should do. What I found in the pilot test was that lesson planning is far more important and significant to students than I had previously thought.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME速/ACAFOLIO

After the pilot implementation, I was sure to ask students about the feedback that they had on the system through two sets of survey questions using Survey Monkey. The two sets of questions were designed to solicit information from a series of diﬀerent perspectives. The first was designed to solicit feedback from a purely individual student perspective. The second survey was divided into two halves, the first half of which was designed to solicit feedback from the perspective of a grade nine student whose school had adopted the software; the second half of the second survey was designed with a teacher in mind who was also meeting the software for the first time and being trained on the software. The results regarding transparency of lesson plans were very interesting. In fact, it was quite surprising. In the first survey, I posed the question - "Class lesson plans were stored in your class folders for almost every day. What was your response to these lesson plans?" The results for this question were as follows:

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

It is so apparent that many students never used them; however, countervailing evidence suggests that they had never had reasons to use them when almost 12% of the students had no prior experience in using lesson plans, and so would not have looked to see them. Equally interesting was the response that almost 36% of the students recorded that they learned to use the lesson plans in the pilot program as the lesson plans contained other resources and support materials.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME速/ACAFOLIO

While this view was taken from the first survey during which only their individual observations and responses mattered, the second survey results yielded additional information. The question posed was the following: “As a grade nine student using the software for the first time, which of the following features would be most important to you?”

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

These results indicate that checking assignments was the most important feature to stress with new students and these assignment are stored in the lesson plan forum. It seems clear that students in the class who piloted the program recognize the value of having assignments available to them. This was surprising as many students previously recorded that they didn't used the forum or that they learned to use the lesson plan forum. Second, it's also interesting to note here that students just don't care to keep blogs - students don't like daily writing. Finally, in the second part of the second survey, students were asked to pretend that they were a teacher being trained in the software for the first time. The question posed was as follows: "As a teacher who is using the software for the first time, which of the following things do you think is most important to learn first?"

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME速/ACAFOLIO

The overwhelming majority of students and almost 52% of the respondents replied that the most important activity for teachers to learn was how to write lesson plans. This was an even more surprising finding, as it indicates to me that the majority of students recognize the need for good lesson planning, for transparent lesson planning. The finding was so unexpected that I had to ask students how they would explain the survey results. Their anecdotal remarks were also interesting. Some students REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME速/ACAFOLIO

remarked that having lesson plans available means that they can go to them at any time to review class proceedings. Some students remarked that they could return to the lesson plan to review the content of the class. Some other students remarked that if they had to miss a class that they knew the lesson plan would allow them to catch up quickly. One student remarked that having lesson plans available like this meant that his parents could check them at any time. In conclusion, it is the work of good transparent lesson plans that serves to carry the learning. Ironically perhaps, any teacher knows this; however, perhaps we also take for granted that students can figure out lesson plans on their own. Clear, transparent, and easily accessed lesson plans which contain other class resources are far more important to learning that we may have assumed.

Parent Communication One of the features contained within EdVillage4Me速 is called "Teacher Notes." For me, Teacher Notes has a long history and was originally inspired by a coworker at Milken. In the "old days," all communication with home was either done by mail, by phone, or in a meeting. Teachers had to write "updates," make three copies, mail one copy home, file one copy with the school, and retain one copy for their own records. The only regular communication with home was with report cards which were processed four times a year, and which often took at least a week for teacher preparation and then another week for school administrative preparation. With the advent of email and parent email addresses, it became apparent that we could do something more immediate, and perhaps more meaningful. The Teacher Notes program embedded into EdVillage4Me速速 met the need during the implementation pilot for communication to students, to parents, and to other teachers or administrators as needed. Teacher Notes are written to the student, and copied to the parents and other school personnel as needed or established by the school. The focus of Teacher Notes is always on the student and on the learning, and as such they are reports about learning progress or learning challenges. Because a Teacher Note is sent as an email, the student and parent each know the content and can discuss the Teacher Note at home.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME速/ACAFOLIO

More importantly, the Teacher Note system allows the school to build a support network around the child and the child's learning. Because the system is transparent, and because the system can involve school guidance counselors, school administrators, the student's advisor - as well as the child, the parent, and the teacher, everyone is literally "on the same page." The adults who know and care about the child can serve to support the cognitive, aﬀective, and behavioral needs that any child faces in growing up. In EdVillage4Me®®, we do say, "It takes a village to educate a child." The students who were engaged in the pilot program recognized this as well. In the second survey concerning a school wide implementation, the students were asked the following question: "As a grade nine student using the software for the first time, what will be your attitude toward sharing your learning with your parents?"

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

The responses on this question point toward the quintessential issues of adolescence. Twenty-four percent of the respondents said directly that they do not want their parents to be involved in the system, and only 12% indicated that they would want their parents to be involved. On the other hand, almost 64% indicated that they felt Teacher Notes would be the best way to keep parents informed. While adolescents strive for independence, self-eďŹ&#x192;cacy, and individuality, they also know, and perhaps want, a measure of parent involvement.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4MEÂŽ/ACAFOLIO

In the pilot, every student received at least one Teacher Note as a mid-quarter update. Apparently that one note was successful enough to show students and parents that Teacher Notes is indeed a valuable addition to EdVillage4Me®®. Assembling Portfolios This spring's pilot test of the software for EdVillage4Me® was designed to see how students could work in the digital world to assemble and build e-portfolios. An e-portfolio can only be build after a period of time working in the digital world - one doesn't build a portfolio from scratch, but from the assembled collections of learning. In some ways the building of an e-portfolio is like "digital bricolage," as the portfolio is the collected pieces of work. It was important then that students have a collection of work to draw from when building the portfolio. In fact, the notion of a digital portfolio was only introduced to them in the last two weeks of the term. They had spent the beginning of the pilot program learning how to use the software, how to post and respond to blogs, how to create and edit essays, and how to use multimedia in these various options. For the work in portfolios, the students were given a "table of specifications" for the contents of the portfolio. This included the directions based on “3-2-1” - three of their favorite blog postings, two "items" from any other source including other classes, outside interests, or previous work, and one reflection based on the question, "What was the most important or significant learning of this academic year?" The students very quickly learned that they could use materials from any of their other classes, a science lab or a history term paper, or a project for example. They pasted the content into the appropriate places of the e-portfolio container in what was by then a known and easy process. Most importantly, the reflective piece had to be the last piece and the students created some interesting reflections and commentary. Some of the posts were honest and candid - there were about 65 diﬀerent reflections - it is impossible to list them all here. These reflections are interesting for a host of reasons and have not been edited.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

Over the school year, I was a very lazy student. I barely did homework, didn't study for anything, fell asleep in classes (mostly math). But thanks to how the grading system is I was able to pass everything because there's only about 5 to 10 grades that go into the grade book. Being the old system, I would of been failing everything. While it has it flaws, I could of took time to do work, and pay attention when I was suppose to. When I did essay's, they where bare minimum, little to no effort put into them. The most important thing I learned in junior year was not to procrastinate, do not wait till the last minute. That you must do everything on time. Doing things when they are do makes things so much easier than waiting. When you wait till the last minute, there is a certain stress that surrounds you. A stress that along with a fear and motivation there is a compulsion to give up and accept defeat. This want to give up just allows to procrastinate even farther even when you know that you can’t. In this situation your brain is in a tug-of-war with itself whether to get things done of ultimately give up. This stress will effect your body, it will make you tired all the time, it will sadden you, and it will show you your shortcomings and allow you to better yourself. I will take this knowledge with me for the rest of my life. Hm, what have I learned this year that is most important to me. Well the first thing would be that you should never put your work off. Life is way too damn short for you to lallygag in school. Next would be to trust in you friends and teachers, Just because you think that you know everything doesn't mean you do. Trust me teachers know something they went to college, and their older and wiser than you. A skill that I have learned is how to invoke peoples emotions with the piano. Some people start to sing songs. There are a lot of things I learned during this school year that are quite notable. I learned to paraphrase, how American government works, and the world through the eyes of economics. I also learned a lot about how to work out and make gains. But the most important thing I learned is not necessarily related to any one subject. The most important thing I learned is about society. There are a lot of people with different opinions on different subjects. Whenever someone is Liberal of Conservative, animal rights activist, or an atheist, they will have things they believe strongly that are right. Those are the subjects of politics, and religion cannot always have the right answer, it all depends what's the situation is. The thing I learned with so many people with different views s is to not get involved in the issues and just keep your views to yourself. It helps to avoid unnecessary arguments that might get in a way of good conversations and friendships. Just keep your opinions to yourself and you will do fine.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

The power of portfolios in any classroom lies in the ability for students to engage in reflection within the community of learners What I saw most powerfully in this test was that students could create such a reflective learning community. Badges EdVillage4Me®® uses a system of digital badges to acknowledge proficiencies and to acknowledge good work. The badging system is contained within the software but is customizable to the school. On one level, the software contains “Teacher Inspired” badges, and these can be sent to any student for good work or emulating good habits of mind. These badges are developed by the teacher and customized for the school. They included “Good Work,” “Great Ideas” and “Guts” award badges at Oak Hill. I sent them to students who in my estimation were pushing the boundaries of commonly held beliefs and work. On a second level, EdVillage4Me®® also uses “Proficiency” based badges, again customized to the school and based on school needs. Currently, we used Gryphons in bronze, silver, gold, and platinum to indicate a level of accomplishment on the school standards. As it turned out, I did not give this level of badge because I did not want to imply proficiency in a school which was using the software as a pilot and in which I was working as a substitute. I could however see that the granting of proficiency involves more than just a single teacher’s recommendation as it implies proficiency toward graduation, and this area of work needs further work and research.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

Conclusions The purpose for this pilot/test involved putting a theory into action. The idea of an ecological approach to learning and to evidence based assessment as a strategy for determining proficiency based education is a new consideration. Often schools use Learning Management Systems (LMS) to chart the progress of students as they work toward proficiency. These systems are largely external to the lived experience of the students, as if the learning were something “done to them by adults” rather than something “done by them.” EdVillage4Me®®/AcaFolio attempts to create a learning system, a digital environment and hence an ecosystem where the students are engaged in a process of digital learning and a place where the work they produce is part of the assessment process to determine proficiency. Evidence based assessment and e-portfolio creation have the benefit of creating a body of work to which the student and the teacher can refer, and from which the teacher can make decisions about proficiency. The process by practice is transparent and collaborative, engaging students both in the process of learning and assessment. Learning is a social activity, and learning is best when it involves a community of learners who engage is supportive critical commentary. In the process of this pilot/test, EdVillage4Me®4M®/AcaFolio served to create a community of learners. It is though the interaction of this community that we are able to see, analyze, and reflect on earning. It takes a community to educate a child.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME®/ACAFOLIO

Summary of Graphs and Tables from Survey Monkey

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME速/ACAFOLIO

Sample Comments taken directly from the Survey Monkey instrument.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME速/ACAFOLIO

From the second Survey Monkey survey. Scenario One - Student were asked to envision what it would be like to be a grade 9 student in a school which had decided to use AcaFolio as its main digital learning environment.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME速/ACAFOLIO

Scenario Two The students were asked to view the implementation from a teacher training perspective for a school which had decided to adopt AcaFolio as the primary digital learning environment.

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME速/ACAFOLIO

Questions? If you have questions, please feel free to contact me at: roger.fuller@gryphondale.org

REPORT OF FINDINGS EDVILLAGE4ME速/ACAFOLIO