Welcome to my Elgg e-portfolio. I am exploring the capabilities of using this system to maintain electronic portfolios as part of my research on implementation of online electronic portfolio systems.

Click on the Contents above to see links to each section of this portfolio. Scroll down to see the sections that I have decided to include in this version of my portfolio. You can read my biography, see the artifacts that I have identified as my best work, and read my reflections about creating this portfolio and my future goals. If you want to see all of the artifacts in my portfolio, select Portfolio-at-a-glance. If you follow a link to an artifact and want to return, use the Back button on your browser.

Every portfolio has a purpose. My purpose for developing this portfolio is to show my skills in developing an electronic portfolio using any number of tools. After reviewing all of my artifacts (see my Portfolio at a Glance) I found five general categories of competencies:

• Writing & Assessment Competency (My Publications)
• Electronic Portfolio Competency - Knowledge, Skills and Experience
• Digital Storytelling Competency - Digital Video Editing Skills
• TechnologyCompetency - Multimedia & Web Page Authoring Skills
• Teaching & Instructional Design Competency - Presentations

My Vita can be viewed on my website athttp://electronicportfolios.org/2006Vita.pdf.

I recently retired from the faculty of the College of Education at the University of Alaska Anchorage and have been researching electronic portfolios since 1991, publishing a web site on Technology and Alternative Assessment since 1995 and an Apple Learning Interchange Exhibit (linked below). I was involved in Educational Technology and Staff Development in Alaska between 1983 and 2001, first as Staff Development Coordinator with the Fairbanks School District and then with the University of Alaska Anchorage. I was in charge of Educational Technology programs for the School of Education and initiated the development of UAA's New Media Center for campus-wide faculty development.

As the Assessment Coordinator for the International Society for Technology in Education's National Educational Technology Standards for teachers (ISTE NETS-T) Project (2000-2005), I developing strategies and resources to assess teacher technology competence. I also served as Vice President for Assessment and E-Folios for the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE). Through the Educause/NLII/AAHE Community of Practice, I provided early leadership to define pedagogical specifications for online portfolio systems.

Between 1999 and 2001, I wrote several successful federal technology grants, the most recent through ISTE to support technology and assessment in teacher education programs throughout the United States, providing training and technical assistance on using electronic portfolios to assess achievement of teaching standards. I was on loan to ISTE on a full time basis for the duration of this PT3 Catalyst Grant (2001-2005).

My presentations at numerous regional and national conferences have explored the emerging field of technology and alternative assessment and my authoritative articles have appeared in books, journals and proceedings published by ISTE, AACE, AAHE, and WCCE. I recently produced a multimedia CD-ROM-based Electronic Portfolio Handbook. My research about electronic portfolios began with a study of K-12 student portfolios for the Alaska Department of Education in the early 90s. In the mid-90s, my research focus changed to electronic teacher portfolios, and I am currently exploring both high school graduation portfolios and family involvement in e-portfolio development in early childhood education. This newest research focuses on how schools can meet the Parent Involvement goal of NCLB through the collaborative development of electronic portfolios to communicate authentic student learning related to standards, goals or outcomes.

In 2005, I became the Research Project Director for The REFLECT Initiative, an international research project, underwritten by TaskStream, to assess the impact of electronic portfolios on student learning, motivation and engagement in secondary schools.

I am currently working on several book projects on electronic portfolios. I am also an Apple Distinguished Educator and a George Lucas Educational Foundation Faculty Associate.

These publications were selected as evidence of my writing skills and my knowledge about portfolios that support assessment for learning. I chose examples of my publications from the early 1990s through to the summer of 2004. I can definitely see a change in my thinking about portfolios, from learning about e-portfolio tools, to learning about assessment for learning. The most recent articles reflect a real change in my thinking, profoundly impacted by the changes in technology between the early 90s and 2006 (pre-Internet through Web 2.0) as well as a greater awareness, through my reading and research, of the impact of portfolios and reflection on assessment for learning.

Purpose of Digital Stories in ePortfolios
http://electronicportfolios.org/digistory/purposes.html
This paper was developed for the Digital Storytelling Gathering, and provides examples of digital stories created for several purposes.

Authentic Assessment with Electronic Portfolios using Common Software and Web 2.0 Tools
http://electronicportfolios.org/web20.html
This paper is accepted for an updated version of Coming of Age: an introduction to the new World Wide Web; it started initially as a handout for a workshop at the KIPP conference in New Orleans in early August 2006, that I co-facilitated with one of my REFLECT teacher leaders. I became very excited about the many Web 2.0 tools that I found to support IEPs (Interactive Electronic Portfolios) or what I refer to as ePortfolios 2.0.

AERA paper
http://electronicportfolios.org/reflect/AERAPaper2006.pdf
Roundtable Paper discussed at American Educational Research Association Conference (April 9, 2006). This paper presents the REFLECT Research Data Collection Plan, and options for questionnaire items to be included in the second round of data collection (for Spring 2006).

White Paper: Researching Electronic Portfolios and Learner Engagement
http://electronicportfolios.org/reflect/whitepaper.pdf
This 2005 paper was written for TaskStream to cover the literature for the REFLECT Initiative, a research project on implementing electronic portfolios in secondary schools.

Article for IRA JAAL Researching Electronic Portfolios and Learner Engagement: The REFLECT Initiative
http://electronicportfolios.org/portfolios/JAAL-REFLECT3.pdf
Accepted for upcoming Electronic Portfolio issue of the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (JAAL-International Reading Association) - July 2006. This paper is an update of the White Paper (below) that was written at the beginning of the REFLECT Initiative. This updated paper discusses some of the findings from the first year site visits.

Connected Newsletter article
http://electronicportfolios.org/portfolios/ConnectedNewsletter.pdf
Using Electronic Portfolios for Formative/Classroom-based Assessment. October 2006, Connected Newsletter (Classroom Connect), Volume 13, No.2, pp. 4-6. This paper was a re-write and update of the REFLECT Brief published in early 2005 as part of the RFP.

Create Your Own Electronic Portfolio
http://electronicportfolios.org/portfolios/iste2k.html
The latest article that I published in Learning & Leading with Technology, April 2000, focused on "Using Off-the-Shelf Software to Showcase Your Own or Student Work." In this article, I moved from commercial software to the use of common desktop software tools.

Technology-Supported Portfolio Assessment
http://electronicportfolios.org/portfolios/compteach0394.htm
This was my first publication on Electronic Portfolios, published in The Computing Teacher, March, 1994. Reprinted in Student Portfolios: A Collection of Articles edited by Robin Fogarty (1996). Palatine, Illinois: IRI/Skylight Training & Publishing, Inc., pp. 127-137.

This is my collection of artifacts that are selected to demonstrate specific competencies in portfolio development knowledge and skills. I have been researching, presenting and writing about electronic portfolios since 1991. This collection shows the growth in my thinking about electronic portfolio development between 1991 and 2004.

Apple Learning Interchange Exhibit on Electronic Portfolios
http://ali.apple.com/ali_sites/ali/exhibits/1000156/
I developed this Expert Exhibit on Electronic Portfolios for Apple Computer as an Apple Distringuished Educator. I was flown down to Apple's office in Austin to record the video clips, which I am not very pleased with the results. Some day I will redo the whole exhibit, with new video clips.

Publications on Electronic Portfolios
(click on the Publications in the Navigation Menu)
These specific papers published on my website highlight the change in my thinking about electronic portfolios between 1994 and 2006.

My Website on Electronic Portfolios
http://electronicportfolios.org/
This is my web site on electronic portfolios in education. I started working on this website in 1995, on the server that I set up for the University of Alaska Anchorage School of Education. I bought my own domain names in 2000, and have been updating it ever since. You might say that this web site contains the archive of my professional work in electronic portfolio development since my research started in 1991. I actually have three URLs that point to this same page: http://electronicportfolios.com, http://electronicportfolios.org, http://helenbarrett.com

My 'Blogger' blog
http://electronicportfolios.org/blog/
I started to experiment with blogs in the spring of 2004. Within a couple of months, this blog has been highlighted on several lists of recommended educational blogs. I have enjoyed writing in this blog, to use it as a way to explore my own thoughts and reflections on my experiences. As a result of writing in this blog, I am experimenting with other tools, as well, to see how various blogging software would work to construct e-portfolios.

The QuickTime movies below provide examples of digital stories that I have created over the last three years. I attended the Center for Digital Storytelling workshop in January 2003, and have been exploring the practice since then. I have designed and delivered workshops to help Teacher Education students and faculty to develop digital stories as reflective artifacts in their electronic portfolios.

Family Portfolios and Digital Stories
http://electronicportfolios.org/families/index.html
These documents contain portfolios developed with my granddaughter for her Kindergarten, First and Second Grade years. The digital stories for K & 1 are reflections on the year. The digital story for 2nd grade is her autobiography written as part of a school project. The "Dad" story is the project we created at the Center for Digital Storytelling.

Prepare for a Digital Storytelling Workshop (.mov)
http://homepage.mac.com/eportfolios/iMovieTheater4.html
I created this digital story to help participants prepare for a digital storytelling workshop.

Electronic Portfolios as Digital Stories of Learning (.mov)
http://homepage.mac.com/eportfolios/iMovieTheater13.html
This narrated slide show presents the content of my article posted at http://electronicportfolios.org/digistory/epstory.html This presentation looks at technologies that are engaging forstudents to foster intrinsic motivation, specifically digital storytelling.

Choices - A Digital Story of Learning (.mov)
http://homepage.mac.com/eportfolios/iMovieTheater11.html
Seventh grade provided one of my most vivid memories of learning. I have made sense of this experience with a reflective digital story.
Reflecting back on that learning experience as a professional educator, I realize that the problem was not with me, but with the assignment. What a difficult task I was given... it takes time to build those synapses in the brain. Memorization has its place in learning, but I didn't derive the true meaning of the poem I had to memorize until much later in life.

These artifacts represent my skills in multimedia development and web page authoring. I have developed a CD-ROM using Adobe Acrobat and QuickTime movies. In addition, there are Digital Stories that are posted in another collection, and my web site which showcases my knowledge and skills in electronic portfolio development.

At-a-Glance Guides
http://electronicportfolios.org/ALI/index.html
Common Software Tools for Creating and Publishing Electronic Portfolios. These short guides were developed to support the stages of electronic portfolio development, from the collection/digitization process, through the selection/reflection construction/hyperlinking process to the final publication process. I developed these guides as part of the Apple Learning Interchange Exhibit.

CD-ROM-based Handbook
http://electronicportfolios.org/handbook/index.html
I developed a CD-ROM in 2002 to use in workshops and to sell on my website. I made a major revision in the spring of 2004, adding Digital Storytelling to support deep learning.

Using Adobe Acrobat for Electronic Portfolio Development
http://electronicportfolios.org/portfolios/sitepaper2001.html
This paper outlines Adobe's Portable Document Format as the ideal container for electronic portfolio reflections connected to digital artifacts, describes the software environment, and then describes the process for converting digital artifacts from many applications into the Portable Document Format, and maintaining a cross-platform, web-accesible, hyperlinked digital portfolio. I received an award at the SITE 2001 Conference as "Best Technical Paper."

These documents were selected to showcase my competencies in teaching and instructional design. I have developed and delivered workshops on electronic portfolio development, from three hours to three days, and most have been evaluated through my PT3 grant. I have also developed a set of two-day workshops on electronic portfolios and digital storytelling for a major technology company.

Descriptions of presentations and workshops available
http://electronicportfolios.org/workshops.html
These are descriptions of the presentations and workshops that I have developed.

Workshop Outlines on Electronic Portfolios and Digital Storytelling
http://homepage.mac.com/eportfolios/workshop/index.html
These two-day workshops were developed in the winter of 2004 for a major technology company. The Digital Storytelling workshop was piloted twice in 2004 through my PT3 grant. The evaluation report from Rockman et.al. demonstrates the success of the first workshop.

Distance Courses on Electronic Portfolios and Digital Storytelling
http://electronicportfolios.org/distance/index.html
I developed this series of courses on electronic portfolios and digital storytelling, which were piloted with Wichita State University in 2003 using Blackboard. The courses need to be updated, but can be offered using any web-based environment.

Professional Development for Implementing Electronic Portfolios
http://electronicportfolios.org/teachers/profdev.html
My most recent web page on my website, responding to requests by school districts for information on how to help teachers who need to support student electronic portfolio development. Includes Change theory, portfolio and technology skills assessments.

An evaluation of a workshop that I did in Arizona for Maricopa Community Colleges in 2005:
http://electronicportfolios.org/evals/ePort-dday-eval.pdf

Before creating a portfolio, it is good to create an advanced organizer, to identify the specific artifacts that I wanted to include in my portfolio. Below are three versions of my portfolio: the original Excel version, a PDF version, and a scanned copy of my original worksheet that was used to classify the artifacts.

After selecting the artifacts, I tried to identify which competencies or skills each artifact demonstrates. I found five or six major categories right now, maybe more when I think about it. But the major categories have emerged. Now, all I have to do is create a collection for each grouping, and write an overall reflection plus record the captions. Since I had all of the artifacts on one of my websites, all I had to do was capture the URL.

From start to finish this project took me an evening, and most of the time was spent in selecting the artifacts and writing the captions. Those aren't really technology issues...they are portfolio issues.

I believe that all portfolios need to include three forms of reflection, focusing on the past, present, and future. These questions are:

• What? (the artifacts that I have collected from the past)
• So What? (what these artifacts show about my learning at the present time)
• Now What? (my future learning goals)

So, here are my future goals. This version of my portfolio was created after I retired from the University of Alaska Anchorage. I am using this portfolio to help me reflect on my strengths and how that will contribute to my future professional direction.

Researching Electronic Portfolios

I am interested in continuing my research on electronic portfolios in education with an emphasis on exploring and changing the predominant paradigm:
•    from an institutional focus to a more family and/or individual focus
•    from a metaphor of “portfolio as test of skills” to “portfolio as story of deep learning”
•    from institution-centered data management systems to more individual-centered Web 2.0-based, lifelong/life wide interactive personal learning environments

I have spent the 2005-2006 school year conducting the REFLECT Initiative, the first in a two-year research project on electronic portfolios in secondary schools, sponsored by TaskStream. I am really excited about what we are finding in this research, and would like to do much more of this work in the future. I am looking forward to the second year of REFLECT, when I will have an opportunity to conduct focus groups with the high school students who have been using TaskStream for the last year. I have also begun an informal study of high school electronic portfolio implementation in my home state of Washington.

I am interested in writing grants and conducting funded research that will extend the knowledge about electronic portfolios and Web 2.0-based tools that would allow learners of all ages to:
•    Create digital archives of personal and professional development (collection)
•    Maintain purposeful journals/blogs that document the learning journey (reflection)
•    Present selected works for a particular purpose and audience (selection/presentation)
•    Receive feedback on portfolios to support lifelong learning (collaboration/assessment)

Digital Storytelling

After I finally retire, I want to encourage "baby boomers" and senior citizens to use digital storytelling to preserve their memories and life stories for future generations; a mission statement: "using today's technology to tell yesterday's stories to tomorrow's generations." The current popularity of scrapbooking and genealogy all indicate that there is an interest to preserve these memories. But those who study genealogy know that we can find the dates and facts about a life, but stories that are not preserved are lost forever. Everyone has a story to tell. Digital storytelling is one way to preserve and share our family legacies.

Perhaps I can also work into the process a "retirement transition" focus, using digital family stories as a way of finding a new purpose in retirement after a very busy working life. Learning to share digital stories could become a powerful transition activity. And in the process, new retirees could learn technology skills that they might have missed in their professional careers.

Here is an opportunity for schools, as well, to bring this digital storytelling process to their communities, to match young people who have the technology skills with older people who have the stories to be preserved. Then, we can truly become a community of lifelong learners who share our knowledge and wisdom with each other.