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Altahair Attia Adelkarim

H817 Activity 10 STARR analysis

Friday, 30 May 2014, 20:39
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EYPS


EYPS - e-portfolio and blog
Situation
The Early Years teachers, when training for EYPS status are required to create an e-portfolio showing evidence of their abilities, capabilities and progress. There is a linked 'journal' page, where in addition to their own notes and diary entries, some feedback from instructors and examiners can be received.     This seems to me to be in line with the aims of our organisation; the link between the e-portfolio and the journal is the key, since it allows an ongoing and continuous review of the competence of the individual.    

Task
The designers were trying to ensure that although the student EYP was busy with work and with study, they would remember to do two things, virtually daily; 1. provide evidence that they had done specific work tasks and 2. to reflect on the usefulness (or otherwise) of that task.     I believe that this is the kind of ideal situation that we should be aiming for, where the process of recording evidence of practice and reflections on that evidence become a routine - checking back is easy, predicting future trends is possible.

Actions
From the very beginning of the course of study, the student EYP was told that this process was essential and compulsory. It was explained in detail, that each entry in the journal could only be accessed by the student or by trainers/examiners, and that feedback in the journal may be about written work, or disputing the value of supplied evidence, etc., but the feedback would not be part of the assessment. The trainers and examiners emphasised that they would be able to have more individual communication with the student, since the training was work-based not classroom based. The system was intended to reduce the need for face to face meetings, and the need for classroom training.

Results
This seemed largely successful, particularly towards the end of the course with assessment looming. It was easy for the student to quickly review their own progress through the course and spot any areas where evidence was weak or did not exist. This could then be rectified, by tracking back and re-documenting some exercises. It helped the assessors too, as they were able to see immediately where a particular student struggled, or was ahead.
Reflections
The journal pages of this scheme were actually quite difficult to use, with students having difficulty aligning answers with evidence or dates. This is only a minor problem and can easily be amended and overcome.
 
Tags: education, blogs, e-portfolio
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Altahair Attia Adelkarim

Mapping Tools

Friday, 4 Apr 2014, 20:46
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John and Emily's approach to this is very clear and this looks to me like a very good way of expressing the multi-dimensional aspects of a great many learning aids and tools. 

I do agree that a blog used to support an e-portfolio is a strong idea, since the entries are all dated, which means it helps the blogger to recall other things that were learned that week as well as showing their participation.

Tags: education, mapping, blogs
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