Wikis and Electronic Portfolios

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The snow is falling gently in Northwestern Massachusetts as voters head to the polls to choose the successor to Ted Kennedy--the liberal lion.  The semester is almost upon me, so what better way to spend the day than working on my online classes, and, in particular, on my plan for Electronic Portfolios.

I have to thank Buddy (Alan) Peshkin for this idea. As a doctoral student in his course on qualitative research interviewing, he had us create a notebook of all of our work that was set-up like a textbook with a Table of Contents and Introduction.  I still have that final notebook--it is a very precious document.  I was so intrigued with the idea that every time I take a class, I am writing my own textbook.  I found much value in having to think back over the whole as I did when I wrote the introduction to my textbook of the class. 

Over the years, I have tried to implement Peshkin's innovative idea in a variety of ways.   In the core course for doctoral students, a kind of educational foundations course, that I taught for several years, in some of the classes I had them create a similar hard-copy notebook. Students regarded those notebooks with great pride. 

As I moved into on-line teaching, I discovered a way to create a similar electronic portfolio in Intralearn (the first Learning Management System with which I worked).  While I would like to say my goal was good pedagogy, a large part of the impetus was simply trying to find better ways to manage the online texts.  My class assignments usually possess multiple components and unfold over time with peer review, and revision.  I like to be able to see where students started and the process by which they got to the end product.  This means that each assignment is really equivalent to a folder of work.  Another feature that has evolved in my classes is that most assignments build on each other and at certain times in the semester, you need to return to earlier assignments and work with that material to create a later assignment.  Thus, having access to the full corpus of the work you develop over the semester is important.  Intralearn was not designed to do this, so I had to figure out a work around, which I did by creating individual teams (I know that sounds contradictory, but that was the work around).  It worked, but barely. 

It must have looked good to someone because the description of what I was doing with electronic portfolios won a mention from the Sloan Foundation as a notable practice.  As luck would have it, however, shortly thereafter our online program switched to Web CT, which then morphed into Blackboard.  Try as I might, I couldn't find a way to create anything like an electronic portfolio in this new system, so I gave up for a few semesters.

But then wiki's came on the scene, and they are a lovely, flexible tool that can make electronic portfolios with ease.  Moreover, there are no problems allowing students access to each others' work because they are built around principles of access and collaboration, unlike Learning Management Systems which seem to be built on the model of some old prison system.  I am in heaven! 

This semester each of my three classes will have a wiki connected to our Blackboard workspace.  The wiki will be the site for the development of the electronic portfolios.  I'm still trying to figure out the in's and out's of this particular wiki system (see my earlier blog on wikis),  the right kind of shell/template for each class, and how to provide support for individual use. 

Having each individual's electronic portfolio visible to the whole class does several things, in my opinion.  First, it is a great teaching tool.  If you have a question about what is required, or what it might look like, you can look into a range of electronic portfolios and see what is going up and how others approach the same issues.  Secondly, you've got access to everything you've done in the course, which is valuable because I've found that many students do not know how to organize their work to get the full benefit of review and reflection.   Third, I think it sparks creativity as the electronic portfolios develop and become more individualized.  Fourth, your progress is visible to all--including you.  The old fashioned assignment submission system leaves everyone in the dark about who is completing what, but this system makes it visible.  If you are missing a whole section of assignments that everyone else has posted, it's not just the instructor who is aware, but the whole class.    In my classes, students need access to each others' assignments because we review drafts, etc., so the wiki makes access easy, but it also makes it clear who is falling behind.  I would call this technique:  Useful Shame.  It's a kind of silent accountability. 

So, on to the wikis.  Long live electronic portfolios in some form or another! 


For more information on Alan Peshkin, you may want to look at Vol 6, Issue 2 of Qualitative Research Journal for a special memorial section of discussion of his work. 
Special Memorial Section on Alan Peshkin

Visual Memos in Qualitative Research

In yesterday's blog, I talked about the Journal Project and my attempts to stretch myself using arts-based research.  Today, I'll share an example--a Visual Memo

As I was writing in the Journal about the Journal Project, I was led to consider the issue of how the journal is a very different container from the academic prose into which I've been so deeply socialized.  Later I extracted this set of entries (xeroxed them out) and sat down to work with them in visual form.  The result of which is what I would consider a Visual Memo.  

Here's where it starts.  I used an old collage.  I cut it up and used the back of it.

My next thought, see below, was about the way I conceptualize the two genres.  Imaginatively speaking, I see the containers as different looking. 

 Within the genre of the journal, I see the contents represented in a different way from that of academic prose.  It's colorful, filled with curved lines.  It has accents, punctuation, and places of heat, depth, and surfacing. 

Academic prose, on the other hand...well you can see for yourself in this visual that is dominated by the structure of the outline, the lines of text, and comments that are carefully separated from the body of the text.

Two things that seem particularly different to me between these two genres--are at the heart of the Journal Project--emotion!  [Feelings, subjectivity, sensitivity, personal concerns and reactions--how else can I name thee?] 

In the journal--I would refer to it as emotion, and it feels, like it looks like, this:

In academic prose, specifically the world of qualitative research, I conceptualize it as subjectivity, a boxed item that has a place within the outline.  Within that box, there seems to be emotional content, but it is carefully contained--like a kind of hazardous waste!

A goal of the journal project is to help me bring these two different worlds of prose (and ideas) together in some meaningful way.  I imagine that this will have to be a process. In this illustration they are just beginning to touch, but they are being drawn together by some kind of surrounding net. 

Over time, I can assume that the forms will create a closer and more integrated merger.  In the merger depicted below--the outline and text of academic prose are distinct and yet one with the curves and colors of the journal...the journal content is held within the framework of the academic prose, which has also expanded in new ways. 

 Thinking about the containers of the journal vs the kind of container formed by academic prose...leads me to my other big container:  the E-Project.  As mentioned earlier, this is a term that I am using to describe the electronic container that Qualitative Data Analysis Software provides as a place to store, organize, and interpret qualitative research materials.  I've given a lot of thought to how I, and my students, came to visualize the E-Project as we used them over time for different kinds of qualitative research work.  Here is a visualization of my sense of the E-Project:

 And now the trick for me is going to be how to think with visual memos in the E-Project.

If you are interested in the notion of Visual Memos, I highly recommend the graphic novel and work available on illustrated journals.  Two sources that I really like are:
1.  Linda Barry's book:  What It Is

2.   Danny Gregory's book:  An Illustrated Life♠

 

Homage to Undergraduates

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On this second day of 2010, I have been thinking back with fondness to the last term of school, and, in particular about my undergraduate course:  Understanding Education, 01.391, the first offering in a new minor in education that my program is offering. This entry is written in homage to the 18 young people that joined me in that journey Fall 2009.  May their futures be bright, and may they light the lives of the young people with whom they work.  

It was the second undergraduate course I have taught in my time in higher education--the first was 10 years ago!  I developed the course with a university colleague.  We were both intrigued with the idea of digital storytelling and how it might serve as a bridge between students and their educational pasts and futures.  We were anchored in a good text
(Educational Foundations: An Anthology of Critical Readings by Dr. Alan S. Canestrari and Bruce A. Marlowe) that asked ask good, big questions like:  What is a good teacher?  What does a good school look like?  Why assess? 

For 15 weeks we joined together--students and two instructors--to explore the basics of education and the educational experiences of these young people and to consider a future for them in education.   Many of the what and who about education were new to them (Coalition of Essential Schools, progressive education, etc.).  As they learned about these movements and individuals for the first time, I heard and saw this known world in new ways--it was exciting to hear them debate the qualities of good instruction or consider what components they would add to a good school.  

But what I am pondering this morning as the snow builds outside are the words they wrote to us in the last reflective memo.  Three things stand out in my mind from their comments. 


1.  It was inspiriting.  
My co-teacher and I were excited about education, its possibilities and potential.  We were promoters and advocates for the field.  We believed that education was a good field to go into and we wanted to recruit them for this honorable work. 


2.  The instructors enjoyed themselves.  
We were excited and pleased to be there every class. We enjoyed the class, the content, the activities, and the discussions.  They said they felt this.  They noted that we smiled and joked, and that it made them happy to come to class because we were happy to see them.



3.  We treated them like human beings.   
Students noted that we didn't keep an uneasy distance between them and us (a distance often reflective of fear or uncertainty).  We treated them as real people--caring about them, listening to them, and showing concern about them...not just our class goals.  

Sure--I think they did learn in this environment, but these words written at the end of the semester remind me of the basic elements that we/they must provide to every student: safety, care, respect, trust, dignity, truth, and hope.  I am honored that they thought we were able to do this.  My thanks to the students of UE 01.390 for reminding me of what is needed in every class...and my thanks to Kerry, an incredible educator who undertook this journey with me.