In the past few weeks, I’ve shifted my thinking, once again, about the use of e-portfolios in the classroom. There were two moments that helped evolve my thought process. The first was a group presentation on e-portfolios. Listening to others speak about the benefits of digital portfolios got my gears turning.

The second was an e-portfolio unicorn moment. You know that one teacher at every school who claims they will never use an e-portfolio? The one who has a million reasons why they won’t work as efficiently as the system they currently have in place, and are likely right? The one who has been doing this long enough to know what works for them so you don’t even push it? THAT teacher gave them a try this week. This teacher has had reservations about using Spaces for very legitimate reasons, which I won’t presuppose here. But we’ve had conversations about the vulnerability that comes from putting all of your assessments on a portfolio without always being able to discuss it with those who see them. That can be scary. But then I thought about it. Why do portfolios of student’s work always have to be public- to either the student or the families? Why can’t the teacher keep the portfolio to ensure the students are meeting the outcomes and to use it for data collection? Should they wish to share them later, that option is always there. But, can a portfolio of student work be used to help the teacher collect data instead of including the selection and reflective feedback of the student?

Most aspects of e-portfolios are studied in regards to the student, which makes sense. But when students are young, couldn’t there be some value to having the teacher curate the work, assess it against competencies, and use it to provide data for reporting? How many teachers currently keep data folder or samples of student work? How many have a checklist of all the curricular competencies and content for each student in each subject to ensure they are meeting the goals of the new curriculum? What about using an e-portfolio to collect samples of student work for IEPs? Adjudication? District assessments? While having the students involved can be great, could we not also use their portfolios without them?

Here are some advantages that I can see to SpacesEdu as a teacher tool:

  1. Teachers could track student competency across a subject area without putting pressure on the student to perform at a certain level.
  2. Teachers could ensure they are meeting the learning outcomes of their subject area.
  3. Teachers would have a collection of evidence to support the grades they’d assign at report card time.
  4. Teachers could see what learning outcomes a group of students have mastered, and which need a reteach, at a glance.
  5. Teachers could document IEP goals and adjudication data for the SPED teacher without paper copies. Often, videos work better for behaviour tracking anyway.
  6. Teachers would have examples of student work to share with parents at conferencing without having to rely on the student’s executive functioning skills to keep work.
  7. Growth would become evident over the course of a term or year, and teachers would have visual access to it.
  8. Teacher’s could look at their class data and plan their instruction accordingly.

Obviously, there are more ways that an e-portfolio can benefit teachers. I’ll continue to discuss this in further posts. But most of the research on e-portfolios centers on how they can transform student learning. I love that, and I think as educators we need to remain student-centered. That being said, the advantages to education in general, and teachers specifically, is too good not to think about. Could making e-portfolios a teacher tool make more teachers comfortable using them? Could this process remove some of the barriers for teachers who are not comfortable sharing their gradebook? Could using e-portfolios as a teacher tool help teachers embrace the learning outcomes of the new curriculum and track their student’s progress more efficiently? I’m excited to find out.