Using Google Sites to build online portfolios (K-12) Video Lecture | Teach Online: A Comprehensive Approach for Teaching Online - Professional Skills

my name is Fiona McDonald I am a head
teacher of tests faculty which is
technology and applied studies at Sir
Luke's Grammar School @dy in the tests
faculty we project work is the main
focus and we do a product system or an
environment and it's always supported by
a design portfolio and they've always
been a paper portfolio my name is
Donnell ro and I am head of information
services at st. Luke's Grammar School in
dy the main reason we started teaching
using online tools or I guess in this
slightly blended approach of face to
face and online components is to enable
students to think outside of the square
what might be also worth mentioning is
that in your seven technology students
are working on projects that involve a
lot of hands-on work so a lot of tactile
handling of materials so what the
teachers really wanted was for students
to have the time in the classroom to
really get engaged with those materials
but then to also make their learning
visible through the online sites and
online portfolios where they're
commenting discussing doing a lot of
that work in their own time in a way so
that the lesson time is not spent typing
and thinking and thinking about
reflecting on the process for the entire
duration of the lesson not that that
wouldn't be happening in the lesson but
just that so there's a lot more time
devoted to that practical component we
decided to go with Google Sites in the
end for the flexibility and adaptability
of the site and the ability to for
students to share with each other
with their teachers to embed other
elements of the Google Apps platform
which we have available I guess we were
thinking if the students could use a
tool with that they had complete control
over would we give them that and what
that tool be and that was Google Sites
for us with all of our projects and that
students do it
Zion portfolio and the e-portfolio
includes pages which show our design
process I'll go through quickly the site
with you the title page then they go
through an action time plan which they
do in the table format so they project
their actions their ID generation where
they um do some mind mapping and they do
storyboard and concept boards and they
do some drawings and sketches of their
ideas and then they come up with their
final solutions what's important of
course is their final of value valuation
and their learning assessment and this
is where they're able to collaborate
with their fellow peers and their other
student members so that they can give
comments and feedback on on their site
and also I'm learning about the process
as well
the pre-flight checklist for us would
definitely involve that planning time
getting the team together talking about
what the purpose is what we're trying to
achieve making sure that we've got some
planning time and then considering the
tools making sure that the tools are not
driving the pedagogy but the pedagogy is
actually supporting supported by the
tools that we're going to use and then
covering those technical components
getting the help from anybody you need
at that crucial initial planning stage
also making sure that there is a
solution for what to do when you run
into technical problems because you
don't want that to take away from the
learning and the problem-solving in
terms of the design process and the
pedagogy and the outcomes that are
actually behind me we've had to get our
teacher skills up and running of - for
the e-portfolios we've had to have
meetings we've had to have
demonstrations I've been able to access
the the help of our an IT specialist
there is certainly a bit of extra work
to consider particularly in the planning
stage if you're not used to marking
online work or some teachers don't like
marking on the screen because they're
just not used to that practice then that
can be an added problem or I guess a
complication something to consider I
guess instead of having the online
environment being an extra we wanted to
be embedded and embedded practice a
transformation of of something that
they're already doing
certain teachers may have decided to
approach it in a way that allows
students to work more to deliver a lot
of the instruction using the online
component where the students come to the
lessons to problem-solve so they might
be doing quite a little bit of a flipped
learning approach if you like but others
other teachers depending on their
students needs might be doing a lot more
of the face-to-face instruction with
those online components in the classroom
being discussed or demoed or modeled if
you like just to really be upfront with
students in terms of what the purpose is
what is the benefit what is the purpose
why we're doing it is and how to how to
get their skills up in a fairly quick
amount of time so that they're not
feeling the pressure of trying to master
a particular skill as well as the course
content if you like so that the
technology doesn't get in a way and we
really consciously wanted to make sure
that that doesn't happen and try to
provide as much in class support as
possible
are the benefits to teaching this way is
it it's an exciting way the students are
really really engaged because they they
use this technology at home they're
embracing and they're linking to what's
actually happening in in the world today
the discussion work because like we
could save one's answers and then we
could learn from them and like change
our answer and it's like discuss with
the class differences between working
online and working face-to-face is like
some kids like talking and speaking out
and sharing their results whether as
some like some kids prefer saying things
not face-to-face and that way you can
really get everyone's opinion including
maybe kids who don't really like aren't
that confidence like face-to-face
speaking and then also you can access
everyone like you can learn from others
mistakes and instead of individually
going out and asking everyone in your
class what do you think of this you can
just put it out there and they can give
you your comments which is could
suddenly see every minor detail that the
student was working on at any given
point in time they could then pose
comments and questions about their work
that you wouldn't normally do in a
physical form with a portfolio that
might go home or stay in the classroom
and I guess to ask them also about their
fears and their and what they might
possibly be excited about just to spend
a little bit of time brainstorming that
who is really helpful because at least
that way you know exactly where the
students are coming from who might need
some extra help and who might need the
the online component possibly designed a
little bit differently the advice I'd
give the new teacher would be maybe like
tell us what we're gonna do so we like
know what we're trying to do and then
she can also help us with it and show us
what to do and so brief them brief them
and like what how to use everything
because it saves time later on make sure
you know everything about all the apps
because that will because once you are
different apps do different things and
then you can sort of use them together
to make and that comes in really handy
when you're trying to make a project so
yeah that's my advice
and my comment yeah
I think it has been a very worthwhile
experience and not only seeing students
tackle something that they haven't
worked with before but also seeing staff
I guess work in new ways with with the
students and develop new ways of
thinking about approaching teaching and
learning we still always keep learning
we or the scope of the program we still
start to we still need to keep our
skills going
you