Your Best Work

When approaching this question, the piece of work that first sprang to mind was not initially my best piece of work, and is, in fact, a piece that is still in need of revision. However, I am drawn to write about this piece due to my experience with the given feedback and the entire learning process. This piece of work was my infographic, created in module 3.

I was initially a little skeptical with the assignment set. Although I am a particularly visual person, I do not see myself as an artist. Having seen examples of beautiful pieces of work regarding various different topics through social media I was extremely skeptical that I would be able to create something visually worthy. I was also concerned with the level of detail required and was worried I would add too much information resulting in a cluttered product or an oversight of important details, both of which would culminate in a lower grade.

During the creation process I was surprised to find how simple the program was to use and found myself quickly coming to grips with the tool; however, I did have a number of issues with regards to internet access and work not saving. On completion I was extremely pleased with my product and quickly rushed to show my partner – I hadn’t been so pleased with a piece of work in quite a while! I realised at this point that if I could attain such a level of satisfaction with a product that I had created then my students would also love the tool.

My learning experience came however when I read my feedback from Paul; he had sent a quick message followed by a link to a screencast. “What a novel idea” I remember thinking “but how could I create one of these for all 500 students in my classroom?!”. I was enamoured by the way in which Paul explained his approach to the infographic: which section caught his eye, how the graphic followed from one area to another, how he understood the concepts covered. It was like having the opportunity to view my work through another set of eyes and I truly enjoyed the experience. At first I was disappointed with how my work had come across, but I was able to use Paul’s extremely thoughtful and visual response to fully review my own work and thereby create a far superior product. Thus, this way of receiving feedback and the level of detail became my biggest learning curve of the entire class. Thank you Paul!

My final (although not perfect!) infographic can be found here.

Sandbox for Professional Growth

As a music teacher working in a mixed ability environment, I have always felt assessment was my strength. As mentioned in other posts, I enrolled in this class with the idea to expand my knowledge and use of digital portfolios, and to identify the ways in which they could be used most effectively in a classroom setting. In addition to this, I often feel that music is a subject often forgotten in education settings, especially with regards to online tools – more often than not, these tools are embedded in a surface manner purely for the aim of meeting the criteria of having used technology. I wish to go further than this in my own practice and find ways to use technology in order to enhance learning experiences. However, with the reality of a full time job it is often difficult to have the time to find, trial and explore the tools available.

Through this class I have realised that I have often overlooked key areas when designing assessments and have certainly lacked thought with the feedback that students are given. The first module of 813 opened my eyes to the assumptions I make as an educator when setting an assessment. Through my teacher training and subsequent leadership of teacher training, I am used to checking for things like reading ages and the level of literacy required to access material; however, this was the first time I had looked into other assumptions that I make when designing testing material. I find that I am often driven by the final product. Students are generally working on the completion of a performance or composition and, while formative verbal assessment by both peers and myself is an integrated part of my lessons, I have become stuck in a rut with regards to how feedback is given. I am often found giving verbal quick feedback when listening to student work, and demonstrating ways in which ideas can be musically developed or improved and give formal written feedback via FAweb for summative assessments. We often also use peer feedback through via coloured post-it notes and my students are used to discussing each others work which happen regularly in every lesson. This particular experience has led me to look at my own practice with renewed enthusiasm and fully evaluate assessment and feedback processes throughout all year groups. I am looking forward to exploring the new tools available within Frog to assist with feedback and would definitely like to utilise more digital tools such as Google Classroom and the afore mentioned development into the world of digital portfolios.

One significant change in my own practice is one that I would not have expected. Through designing my own formative assessment I realized that I had fallen into my own trap of integrating technology for technology’s sake. This particular experience has shown me the extent to which my thinking has changed and also the extent of my exploration within this sphere of thinking. I realized that throughout the addition of embedded technology, I had begun to take away the personal interaction that is so important between teacher and student, especially at the initial stages. I have also come to realize that I had not been writing about this project in sufficient detail – an oversight that would not have come to my attention were it not for my work on the design plan of the digital portfolio. This has especially highlighted for me the necessity to reflect fully on my decisions as an educator, and allowed me to place more value on self-refection and assessment though portfolios.

Personally, at times, I still become stuck between exploring fantastic ideas for education (Minecraft, for example) and making them work for music education. Parts of me want to be able to develop tools for myself and other arts colleagues. Although my coding and understanding of html and JavaScript have come a long way in the last few years, I still wonder if this is an area I should pursue next. Who knows, perhaps software development should be next on my list for a second Masters’ degree!

Theory to Practice

Digital portfolios are something I have occasionally explored in my music teaching and a concept that I have tried to implement during my current employment. I have met with resistance from various colleagues regarding this move, mainly due to network instability and privacy issues. Prior to taking this class I dabbled with the use of school accounts to create portfolios within the sites of NuMu and SoundCloud, using these to highlight effective work and for students to give informal peer feedback. I currently share outstanding work through social media (Twitter/YouTube/SoundCloud/Instagram), release a termly digital magazine and write a department blog. I have not, however, fully utilized digital portfolios to include digital assessment or feedback, or given students control of their own portfolio. I began this class initially as a way to explore the options available in this area, with the intention of implementing digital portfolios in the next academic year, or as soon as realistically possible. As a side consideration I also wanted to be able to justify to colleagues the decision to move the assessment process online. Throughout this class, I have had my own notion of assessment challenged and found new ideas to incorporate into my proposed portfolios.

My long-term goals for digital portfolios:

• Every student taught will have access to their own portfolio
• Students will have a private portfolio which can be viewed by myself and the student, and a public portfolio in which they can share projects to their community (class), others in school and the general public in a safe environment
• All practical work will be stored in the private portfolio and will follow them for their entire music curriculum
• All practical work will be assessed with quality feedback and graded with national curriculum guidelines within the private portfolio
• Students will develop a reflective blog within their private portfolio to record their understanding and development of creative work as well as acting as a self-reflection tool and a form of self assessment
• Students will use the public portfolio to showcase their best work and create a lasting record of their music education, whether this finishes at age 14, 16 or 18
• Students will be encouraged or required to upload completed and in-progress pieces of work
• Students will give peer feedback to those within their class and year through the portfolio
• Feedback (teacher and peer) will be encouraged for both completed end of topic summative assessments in order to inform students for their next assessment and in-progress pieces of work to guide and refine their creativity
• Students can add to their portfolio with work created outside the classroom, giving recognition and value to extra-curricular commitments and outside study
• Homework and classwork will become embedded within the portfolio to act as an ongoing and continuous curriculum, e.g. practical work completed and uploaded during class time, reflections, feedback and management of the portfolio as home work and class work.

The key development in my use of digital portfolios is the inclusion of feedback at all levels. Feedback is so often given verbally throughout the lesson, especially in music, with written feedback only given after summative assessments. Students are rarely given the opportunity to record verbal feedback, reflect personally and, most worryingly, keep all feedback and work together. Many researchers have identified quality feedback as one of the most important ways in which to improve learning. However, feedback must be specific, include both strengths and weaknesses and be specific to each individual (Black & Wiliam, 1998). In addition to this, students must be able to reflect upon their own learning and be given the opportunity to improve based on quality feedback. My long-term goal, therefore, is to have the portfolio fully integrated into the daily running of the classroom and to encourage a complete crossover between the digital world and the practical creative and rehearsal process. In this way the portfolio will become not only a showcase for work, but also a powerful tool for ongoing assessments while contributing to the professional growth and learning of my students.

In order to successfully implement digital portfolios it is not possible to start at once with a fully integrated approach, especially for students that are in higher grades. The portfolio must be designed, and implemented, in such a way that it is accessible for all students.

At this stage I am still unsure of how this will work in progress. As noted in an earlier blog post, my school is in the process of implementing a new VLE, and the launch of digital portfolios could be introduced effectively alongside the school wide launch, provided that Frog meets the needs that I have already identified. At present, my aim is to work with the younger students in order to develop a basic digital portfolio with which they can showcase their work and receive feedback, alongside a separate reflection journal. This can then, at a later date, be trialed as a fully integrated portfolio.

CEP 813

Electronic Assessment

Welcome to my online portfolio for CEP 813. Here you will find all the completed assignments for this class. Blog posts, embedded activities and links will appear under the above module headings as and when they are completed, so keep stopping by to see my progress!