Running Head: PLAN FOR IMPLEMENTING EPORTFOLIOS 1

Plan for Implementing ePortfolios in High School Video Production Classes

Essential Conditions:

The context of my ePortfolio implementation will be with high school students who are

taking my video production classes. The school is a private Christian school where they allow

me the flexibility to create my own curriculum while also aligning it to the school’s standards.

The classes that I teach are elective courses and since this is a smaller school, these classes can

be quite diverse. Students range from freshmen to seniors and they all are expected to share the

technological resources that our school have available for use. My classroom is complete with 15

computers equipped with Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro, as well as access to 8 Flip video

cameras. Students are familiar with their personal emails, social media and a teaching program

that my school uses called Moodle. This program is a place for students to access digital artifacts

such as documents or Powerpoint presentations. However, it is not reliable enough for students

to use this as a platform to hold their finished projects.

As I think of electronic portfolios, I realize that they have very similar components to the

social media applications that we use to communicate with our social communities. In the

article, Digital Portfolios: Guidelines for Beginners, the authors state, "The use of digital media

enables students to record and collect digitized artifacts including text, audio, video, and

multimedia that represent their ideas, learning experiences, expressions and reflections..." (p. 5).

The goal of electronic portfolios in education is to communicate with peers and work with the

content material of the classroom in a digital manner.

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Incentives:

The benefits of ePortfolios from a process/product perspective is that they allow space for

both outcomes. Educators through the Northwest Evaluation Association (1990) state, “A

portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student's efforts, progress

and achievements in one or more areas”. Portfolios are not only a showcase of student work that

they can share with others, it is also a method to track their progress towards reaching their

learning goals. This incorporates the “two faces” of ePortfolios and the multiple purposes that

these faces include. It is important when creating ePortfolios for classroom use to bring our

assumptions to the surface about what we want to achieve through the use of ePortfolios. The

end goal then creates the type of process for the students to complete their ePortfolios.

I want students to develop ePortfolios because it is a fantastic method to track student

progress in my video production classes. This showcase of their work is also something that they

can personalize and be quite proud of. In the past, students have wanted to share their finished

products with other peers and family members, but had a difficult time transporting files on flash

drives. This would be a single place that they could upload work to rather than using a variety of

different methods. I think that the nature of the video production classes that I teach gives an

open door for encouraging motivation. Students are creating work that they are proud of and it is

also a self-expression of who they are. They share their videos anyway; the use of ePortfolios

would simply give students a platform to better organize their work through. 

Vision Statement:

e-Portfolios are implemented in my junior high and high school video production classes

so that students can have a platform to showcase their work, track their learning process and

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receive feedback from myself and other peers. This provides an avenue for students to apply

what they are learning through a visual process, reflect on their growth, and engage in

collaboration as students encourage each other to reach their individual goals and classroom

objectives.

Stakeholders:

The stakeholders involved in my ePortfolio will be students, parents, teachers and

administrators. The students involved will be the freshmen-seniors who are enrolled in my video

production classes each semester. These students will be introduced to ePortfolios in the first

week of class. After we go through the syllabus, I will explain that the main platform of online

communication will be through Wordpress and Vimeo. Students will then be given step-by-step

instructions of how to set up their Wordpress site as well as a Vimeo account. I will be

communicating with parents so that they are aware of the online work that their students are

doing. Parents will be given access to their child’s accounts so that they can not only be a part of

what is happening in the classroom but also be able to monitor the student’s online actions.

Other teachers and administrators will be introduced to the portfolios that will be utilized

in my classroom through the use of email as a platform for communication. Whenever we have

an “online film festival”, teachers and administrators will be invited to view the student’s online

work. The use of Wordpress will provide the opportunity for anyone within our educational

community to be a part of my video production classes while also giving the students ownership

of their work and personal growth.

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Collection of Digital Artifacts Plan:

One of my primary needs in my video production classes is to have a digital place for

students to upload and store their finished videos. With that said, my plan is to have students

collect and store digital artifacts by utilizing Vimeo. When video projects are due, students can

embed their Vimeo link on their ePortfolio hosted through Wordpress. The usage of Vimeo will

give students the opportunity to continue to access their collection of work even after the class is

finished. My school does not have a server that is available where I could install customized

portfolio software, so I do believe that the best approach is to use a cloud based solution such as

Wordpress.

The formats that learners will be collecting and posting are Quicktime (video) files. After

students export these files from Premiere Pro, they will then upload their finished videos to

Vimeo and copy and paste the link to Wordpress. Wordpress works well with Vimeo and

actually takes the link and creates a video box on the blog itself. This provides a clean and easy

way to view videos inside of their Wordpress blogs rather than opening a new window. The

hardware that students will be using are Flip video cameras to capture the raw footage. The USB

mechanism on the camera will then allow students to download the footage to their computers

where they can then edit and export the finished projects.

Reflection Plan:

Reflection is an important aspect of the portfolio development process because it

provides the opportunity for students to see their growth. The use of reflection prompts in

ePortfolios is almost like an online journal that tracks students’ progress throughout the

curriculum. This process deepens student learning because they are able to look at their growth

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over time and reflect on the content material. The teacher’s role in this process is to guide

students and teach them how to reflect. This type of thinking is not something that we should

assume students already know how to do. They need to understand that reflection is a skill that

will help them not only reach the objectives of the classroom, but it is also something that they

can implement in their every day lives.

At the beginning of each project, students will be given a set of instructions and

objectives to guide them through the learning process. These video projects will align with each

unit where students will be learning new concepts and skills that they can then utilize. At the end

of each video project, students will post a reflection on their Wordpress blog along with each

finished video. This reflection will be based upon how well students feel that they met the goals

and objectives of the project. Students will be given reflection prompts so that they can have

positive guidance. I will show students how to process their learning by asking good questions

and evaluating their growth. After students have posted their reflection, they will be asked to

reply to two other peer’s blogs. This reply could either be directed towards the student’s finished

video project or their reflection. This gives students the opportunity to see the perspectives of

other peers, receiving and providing encouragement or constructive criticism from their

community.

Showcase Plan:

Through the use of ePortfolios in my video production classes, students will first be

taught how to organize their Wordpress page. Their ePortfolios will be specifically organized to

showcase their finished videos at the end of each unit. As previously mentioned, students will

also be asked to reflect on their learning in each unit and their progress towards reaching the

project’s objectives. My role as a teacher in this process is to provide feedback not only directed

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towards the students’ completed video projects but also to their reflections. This is to validate the

student’s showcase of their work and their self-assessment of their growth.

Since the focus of my classes are on students learning video production concepts and

skills, the main artifacts that will demonstrate achievement of the portfolio’s goals will be the

video projects that students will post in Wordpress. The criteria for judging these artifacts will be

based on the instructions, objectives and grading rubrics that students will be given at the

beginning of each video project. Through the students’ reflections, I will be able to track their

growth and make necessary changes for upcoming objectives.

Skill Development Plan:

The ages of the learners that will utilize ePortfolios in my video production classes are

13-17 year old students. Concerning academic development, most of the students come into class

with general knowledge of video production from what they have learned from social culture.

This elective has a diverse range of learners from freshmen to high school students. These

students also understand how to work with the technology that they are familiar with like multi-

function devices. The students in this private school have experience with desktop computers and

are proficient in using programs such as Internet search engines and Microsoft Word. Students

are also familiar with uploading artifacts such as documents from computer hard drives to

Internet platforms.

Students will need to learn how to create a Wordpress blog as well as a Vimeo page.

Through this process, students will discover how to create pages and posts on their blog. They

will develop skills in collecting their digital videos and organizing them as a showcase of their

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work. Through the use of ePortfolios, students will become accustomed to self-reflection as they

reflect on their progress towards reaching each unit’s objectives.

Resources Plan:

The equipment available to me are 15 desktop computers equipped with Premiere

Elements (a video editing program), and the room is also stocked with 8 Flip cameras and 8

tripods. Since I do not have enough resources for students to each have a camera and a computer,

they will learn to share the class’ resources. The computers are available during the students’ 45-

minute class everyday as well as during the lunch period. Each computer has at least 2 gigabytes

of RAM, a 500 gigabyte hard drive and USB and Firewire inputs. If students need more space,

they also have access to the school’s server where they can store documents and video files.

The computers are connected to the Internet where students will have complete access to

Wordpress and Vimeo. There is no budget available for a portfolio system, which is why I have

chosen to use the free accounts available from Wordpress and Vimeo. The use of these programs

also gives students the opportunity to continue to access their ePortfolio after graduation.

Evaluation Plan:

The target of the implementation of ePortfolios in my video production classes is that students

will have a place to showcase their work as well as a platform for reflection. My expectations are

that students will post videos and reflections on time and meet the criteria of each assignment.

The reflections will be graded on the timeliness of each post, follow up postings, content

contribution, and clarity and mechanics. In conclusion, the implementation of ePortfolios in my

video production classes will not only provide a platform to showcase their work, but also a

space to reflect on their growth.