ePortfolios: showcasing student voice and choice (ACEC 2010)

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Christine Haynes - ePortfolios: showcasing student voice and choice

Christine showcased some of the work that students (reception to year 6) are doing with multmodal texts, digital storytelling, and ePortfolios. She shared some rich examples of student work and comments. Students used either their own photos or images from places such as the "Australian photo library". In addition, the class created the podcasts using their own voices as well as others from interviews.

Visual explanations were used a lot to encourage oral literacy. Students themselves created much of the resources and explanations too. Data was translated into graphs and charts, which were shared with and commented on by peers. Awareness was raised of audience and appropriacy as well as creation of resources for authentic audiences. As such the students created artefacts and images around concepts such as, for example, peace. Animation, and other hands-on creation were seen as really important.

Reflection was encouraged, and students were assisted in reflective practice. For instance, commenting on book chapters as they read them. Students were also asked to explain choices around images, colours and backgrounds. Parents could also visit the resources, and leave comments.

The link with Alan November's keynote was strong, with ePortfolios being populated by student created resources, which were then shared. The primary years examples shared were indicative of the creativity and engagement of learners once they are given the choice and forum to share.