Princeton+Friends+School

**Action Research Project**
** Team Name : PFS ** ** Team members : Chris Searle; Dave Gibson; Sal Scafidi ** ** School : Princeton Friends School **

** Abstract ** ** Digital Portfolios ** As a progressive Quaker school, we have long believed in the use of portfolios to demonstrate the learning of our students over the limitations of grades. We believe it is important that students develop the 21st century skill of being able to share their work and collaborate with others in a professional manner using digital technologies. Digital portfolios allow students to keep a virtual record of their work from the time they enter PFS to the time they graduate and beyond. This gives students a greater opportunity to act as self-directed learners and learn from their peers as they acquire the skills necessary to present their individual voice to the world in a digital age.

Digital portfolios also enable teachers to view the work of students across the grade levels in order to better know them as learners and people. This type of easily accessible running record across the subject areas is an invaluable tool for educators, who often might only see a child through the lens of their particular subject area.

** Objectives and Assessment ** // Desired Outcomes: // • Digital portfolios can be accessed and supported by teachers and advisors throughout the careers of students. • It creates a secure, searchable digital copy of their work that they can access from home or at school. • The digital copy can also be made available to the parents and teachers of students. • Teachers and advisors will be able to see work samples of new students when they enter a new class. • Students will be able to write reflective introductions to specific pieces of work earlier than with the current portfolio process (November of their 8th grade year),allowing students to write those descriptive, reflective passages in a more accurate manner. • In their 8th grade year, students will be able to present their digital portfolios alongside their physical ones on visits to prospective high schools. • Students will gain the ability to independently develop, organize, and maintain a digital body of work. • Students will be able to take their digital portfolios with them after they leave 8th grade. • The school will institutionalize a faculty led support structure that will allow teachers to mentor their peers in the use of digital portfolios and other educational technologies.

// Assessment: // Feedback will be elicited through the use of Quaker process during faculty and administrative meetings. Our project will be implemented using a phased approach. The team, along with the faculty as a whole, will reflect on the project's progress at each stage of its implementation.

** Implementation Plan ** // Milestones: // April 2011 · Train Kindergarten Teacher in usage of scanner · Scan digital portfolio samples from Kindergarten into Faculty drive

May-June 2011 · Select PreK-3rd grade website to hold student work · Establishing 4th/5th Grade Wiki with the ability to lock individual pages. · Present our PLP project to administration for feedback · Present PLP project to faculty for discussion and feedback

Summer 2011 · Use feedback from administration and faculty to make any necessary revisions to the project · Meet with administration to create 2011-2012 timeline for training teachers in grades 3rd-8th to participate in using digital portfolios with their students · Create clear easy to understand instructions for students to select, organize, and reflect on their work in a digital format. · Determine the best web service for 6-8th graders to use for their individual websites. · Create a time within next year's schedule for the current PLP team to deliver support to teachers implementing the digital portfolio project

** Evaluation and Results ** Currently, we are experimenting with using two sites to host our school's digital portfolios: Google's Sites and wikispaces.com. We decided to try Google Sites for our lower school portfolio because it was very easy to setup and had a simple interface that allowed a student's portfolio to be moved easily from one grade to another. See our experimental page for more details.

We chose to use wikispaces for our 4th/5th grade site because it does not require email addresses for students and allows teachers to lock individual pages for a small fee. See our experimental page that is still under construction. We are currently experimenting with using wikispaces for 6th-8th graders' individual websites that they will take with them when they leave the school. So far, we have found it a little cumbersome to embed student work in a visually appealing manner.

Thus far, faculty and administration have been very supportive of the project in its intentions. We are very mindful of trying not to burden faculty with "one more thing to do." To this end, we have sought to evolve our PLP working group into an Ed Tech committee whose mission is to support teachers in implementing this project. In addition, this working group could help facilitate teachers experimenting with new technologies and get funding in order to try out new ideas.

** Artifacts and Documentation **

=
**See links: [|Digital portfolio procedures] [|Ed Tech Mission] [|Lower School Portfolio Site]** 4/5 Grade Wiki, Example of 8th grade student website, [|Prezi Presentation] =====

=
// *Please share any and all materials developed throughout the project. Artifacts can include videos, meeting notes, surveys used, presentations, pictures, supporting documents, URLs, slide sets, etc.* // =====