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Peer Review

Assessment for the 21st Century Learner

Reviewed:

Mar 20, 2014 by Teacher Education
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 2.8 stars
Content Quality: 2.8 stars
Effectiveness: 3.0 stars
Ease of Use: 3.0 stars
Overview:

This site provides a stand-alone lesson plan that describes a proposed 90-minute lesson on using ePortfolios as a primary assessment tool for 21st century learners.
Type of Material:

It is described as workshop and training material but I think it can be used as a reference as well.
Recommended Uses:

The lesson plan appears to be designed as a professional development class or workshop. A presenter could use the handout as a guide for a presentation on how to create ePortfolios.
Technical Requirements:

Standard Internet access and ability to access and watch YouTube videos; it is stated that a PDF reader is needed; however it can be viewed using IE8.
Identify Major Learning Goals:

To demonstrate the value of ePortfolios as effective tools for assessing learning for all students of the 21st century.
Target Student Population:

This lesson plan appears to be aimed at professional teachers at K-12 levels.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Knowledge of Google Applications and ePortfolios are needed to understand the presentation.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

Focus on the flexibility of e-Portfolios as effective assessment tools for life-long learning. The embedded links show examples of how ePortfolios can be used in high school classrooms and are informative.
Concerns:

The stated instructional objective presents an antithesis of instructional design best practices when it states "The objectives are based on the final outcome, activity, or test." The described learning activity used for the presentation does not provide opportunities for users to experience the e-Portfolio as a recording of learner progress over time. The handout is not complete and cannot be a stand-alone resource. Missing information such as examples of an ePortfolio and group work is mentioned in the handout but is not provided.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

Described content should provide targeted learners with a good overview of the strengths and flexibility of e-Portfolios in digitally recording learner progress through a combination of snapshots of experiences, presentations, personal reflections and general performances of learning activities in and out of standard classrooms.
Concerns:

Supporting content materials do not clearly provide the promised support of specific lesson concepts. Two different URLs are provided in different parts of the lesson that lead users to the same YouTube video. Links to examples are not clearly attributed to the creators of the content.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

Some of the supporting materials provide useful information that could be an effective foundation for class discussion about specific issues focused on the adoption and use of e-Portfolios as assessment tools. The handout is easy to access but difficult to understand without the presenter demonstrating the concepts.
Concerns:

The lesson plan itself would most likely present challenges to someone who wanted to use it as ready-made professional development tool. There is no overview, and some of the steps are confusing. There are also grammatical errors that can confuse the user.
Other Issues and Comments:

This learning object appears to be the results of a class assignment as it was turned in without the constructive comments and recommendations for improvement by the instructor. While there are some strengths to the lesson plan, the many weaknesses omissions and inconsistencies do not make it a reliable tool for others to use as is.
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