PROJECT BACKGROUND INFORMATION Introduction for the Innovation Portal ("iPortal") Pilot Testing Group… One of the goals of the Innovation Portal is to offer teachers and students a means of easily creating and managing web based portfolios for their students as early in the construction of the entire Innovation Portal as possible. The ability to build and manage portfolios is only one half of the equation. The rest of the equation involves building a secure system that will allow the many organizations interested in original student design work to create competitions, scholarships and resources around the portfolios as well as a system that will connect the student works to these competitions, scholarships and resources that are being referred to in this effort as “Opportunity Modules”. The Innovation Portal then will be a single online hub where students and teachers can build and manage their work from any computer privately and then when ready, choose to enter their work in any number of the “Opportunity Modules” . To WEEBLY or not to WEEBLY… We have found a product that is certainly worth exploring as part of this pilot program. This product is called “The Education Campus” by WEEBLY. The Education Campus is specifically designed for teachers to offer and manage a simple way for their students to create web pages using a server side drag and drop software. The work can be kept at a private level that only the teachers and students are able to see and access. Though an excellent product, the WEEBLY software and management system cannot likely be made to connect easily with the rest of the system envisioned and necessary for creating the entire Innovation Portal. It does however have many of the features and functionality that we believe teachers and students would want us to include in the final version of the Innovation Portal. As part of the “Pilot Testing Team” we are asking you and your students to try this product and help us learn what functionality should be retained and what is missing from the point of view of the classroom. We have purchased a one year subscription for this pilot project and are able to include twenty teachers and up to 500 students. With your help we can learn a great deal from actual student use and experience with the software that will make the Innovation Portal very successful from the day of its release. The Worst Case scenario for you and your students as participants…. The very worst case scenario for you and your students is that you your students may have to “drag and drop” a second copy of their portfolio into the Innovation Portal ‘s final format in the spring in order to participate in and Opportunity Module. As a teacher you will still have been able to access and manage all of your student’s work throughout the year, the students will have a unique web page that will not be lost and will be their own when your class is finished. This is something that most classrooms do not currently have and is another reason we believed that even in the worst case scenario, it would add up to a win-win for you and your students. This site contains information on how to get started on the web based portfolios and how to build the template for participation in Opportunity Modules.
Students doing original engineering design work are asked to present their work using an on-line portfolio template structured around the Engineering Design Portfolio Assessment Rubric. For this pilot phase of the project, the portfolios are kept private and managed through individual teacher accounts.
Teachers can see and manage student portfolios in their own classes via a protected web interface site. Students can build and continually modify their site as their project progresses also via a protected web site. ( Click here to see the WEEBLY Demo Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AqR6vo0pno)