Danny's+Technology+Assignment

Learning, Reflection, and Electronic Portfolio's: Stepping Towards an Assessment Practice can be found on the following link:

http://0-muse.jhu.edu.patris.apu.edu/journals/journal_of_general_education/v057/57.1.rickards01.htm

In the article entitled: Learning, Reflection, and Electronic Portfolio's: stepping towards an assessment practice it goes over the common belief that though there are many efficient assessment systems in place there is not a great system for self assessment at all. According to the article that it is essential for students to not only turn in assesments to thier teachers but that they get a sense of self improvement and progress (or degression). Therefore "Learning, reflection and electronic portfolios" suggest that the best way students can go about this missing assessment is through electronic portfolios.

The article goes on to say that electronic portfolios that can be accessed anywhere on the web are not only a great source for learning but help the student create a learning identity, earning a working sense of self. Furthermore portfolios help take a picture of the students progress so that they can better understand their experiences. The article hopes that eventually the students will see progress of their own learning in patterns showcased in their work so that they may perform better in the near future. Ultimately these online portfolios (or any portfolios) would help students understand that they are improving in their skills over time

• Content Knowledge Question: Describe what you learned about diagnostic and assessment strategies that fit your target population. (Write a minimum of 50 words for this question.) (CK)

What was mostly taken away from this article was the fact that students are assessed constantly. we as educators are constantly taking in information and creating lessons based on our students progress, as we should be. However what is generally missing is that students are never able to see their own progress. Students may be taking in new information every single day but there is not meta-cognitive process where students are allowed to see their progression in our content as well as HOW they learn in the first place. A portfolio (especially an electronic one) allows students to see their performance and how they take in information so that the next lesson can be improved. Many would consider this type of assessment sumative, however it becomes diagnostic in that the students take the information they discover about themselves from the previous lesson and get to start all over with the next lesson, with fresh new ideas on how to tackle the coming unit. Personally this would be wonderful for my own content area as I currently teach a remedial reading class where students are convinced they both don't know how to read and will never enjoy reading at all. A portfolio would be a wonderful way to assess my students as it would help provide a time-line of their progress in reading. This type of assessment would certainly boost the confidence of my students, who are convinced that they will never be good readers at all.

• Pedagogical Knowledge Question: Describe in what way/s assessment data would determine how you planned your curriculum and lessons for the specific special needs population? (Write a minimum of 50 words for this question.) (PK)

For the most part my students are to some degree special needs students. Many of my students are not only low level readers but are ELL students and a few are even special education. But I suppose I would use student portfolios as a way of having all the students work in one place. The portfolio is not just a tool for the student to see their own progress and methods of learning but a way for me to see how my students learn as well. By having all of my students work in a singular place I can see their progress like a time line and see which areas they may need improvement. This was equally true of special needs students as I can have the students portfolios made up of modified assignments such as having students draw pictures instead of writing. here I would take the information given to me in the portfolio and assess what was actually getting to the students (despite their physical or psychological difficulties) and where I might need to tweak the next lessons further to meet these students needs.