Guest Kristine Posted March 29, 2009 Posted March 29, 2009 I know all you wonderful Early Years teachers out there will understand the value of the 'sticky note' observations, the photos, the learning stories and the next steps that accompany them.... (Obviously, all this has to be manageable in order for it to work) ... and for years I have had all this in a scrap book. but... as we now seem have our feet firmly set in the ground of the IT age, our school is now using digital portfolios. Does anyone else do these? If so, please share with me how you present your early years portfolios? Powerpoint? Photostory? What does everyone else do? What do you scan in? How often? Do you import sound files? How many slides would you aim for for the year? What would you look to include? etc. I plan to set up a template once I have looked into this more fully, in order to save myself some time. That way I could just copy the template file and input data into the template - photos, videos of school trips, scanned work, music etc for each child. Has anyone else created templates? Maybe we could start sharing templates on the forum? What does everyone else think? thanks Kristine x
Guest Posted March 29, 2009 Posted March 29, 2009 I think it sounds like a great idea........ But (Theres always a but!!!) How will the children access their stories? Will they be able/ allowed to access them as freely as when they were in a scrap book or folder? Also how will you present to the parents......... especially those who usually rush in and out of the building with no time for chat let alone a power point!! I am not disagreeing I am just interested in the whys and the hows!!!! I will be interested in posts re this subject!!!
Guest Kristine Posted March 29, 2009 Posted March 29, 2009 Hi Scarlett! Thanks for the reply... I totally see where you are coming from with the BUTS as I have raised them myself. I do think this may not work for every setting. In my particular school, all the children are bused in and out each day, so I have to call the mums and dads in regularly for a chat. I use that time to go over the children's work. Also, we have extra large screen macs in the class so the children themselves could look at their portfolio work whenever they wanted to.... 'in theory it should work' ... I know I don't sound 100% yet, but I DO think being digital, there are possibilities for speech and other sound files to be included, video etc... making it a memorable and permanent treasure! all ideas welcome... thanks Kristine x
Guest Agyness Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 Fantastic. I am planning on introducing some kind of website/intranet for nursery age 0-5 children accessible and forumable (!?) for parents and children to add to from home as well so will definately track this thread!
Guest Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 I too think it's a good idea, and also think never underestimate the childrens abilities as I am sure they would access this media as well as, if not better than some adults. However, I think I would want this alongside a 'hard copy' learning journey, there are just some things that cannot be re-produced digitally, ie: a childs example of weaving, or a particularly aesthetic collage etc. I do like the idea of voice recordings, these could be used for recording childrens 'self assessment' comments as well as songs, rhymes etc. I use Microsoft Office One Note 2007 on my home computer which has the facility to record onto a page that can also have images, text etc. I'm quite new to this programme but it may be something useful for you to look at, it has tabulated pages quite like a 'portfolio' . I've attached a pic from it's help files. It is a bit like 'Publisher' but very much more advanced, you can move 'objects' text boxes, pictures, etc around the page. To record just press the microphone icon and a box appears, click this box afterwards to 'play back' you can then write a short text of the context of the recording for example. Pages from One Note can be emailed, you can also transfer One Note into PDF (not tried this yet myself). I'm glad you made your post because it's made me realise I need to 'play around' with this programme a lot more than I have done so up to now. Peggy
Guest Posted March 31, 2009 Posted March 31, 2009 couldn't attach the pic so I'll try a pdf of One Note basics. Peggy 1._OneNote_basics.pdf 2._How_can_OneNote_help_me.pdf
Guest Posted March 31, 2009 Posted March 31, 2009 We are using a digital voice recorder in nursery to capture and keep the children chatting and their music. Haven't figured that one out totally yet as had to wait for school tech guy to come install software.. but I am hopeful it will offer us more evidence of what the children have done!!
Cait Posted March 31, 2009 Posted March 31, 2009 couldn't attach the pic so I'll try a pdf of One Note basics. Peggy That looks quite useful Peggy, I might have a play during Easter whilst I'm meant to be doing the SEF
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