Interactive Porfolios

Not even 20 years, when I was a high school student, the use of the notebook was imperative. Notebooks with squares, lines, double lines, etc. Writing, re-writing, using pens in different colors, drawing and more, were regular activities during my school life. I’m sure that millions of students in most parts of the world did the same. We were all used to work that way.In 1991, during my senior year in high school, the Internet was not known in my area. It was only a couple of years later that the Web started its rampant popularity.

Notebooks continue being a significant part of today’s education system. It is undeniable the importance of notebook when kids learn to write. However, a question comes to my mind, how much do we write as adults nowadays? I thought about this last semester when I went back to University to get my MEd and I had to answer an extensive test. My hand became sore after a few minutes, at that point I realized that I hadn’t hand-written so much in years.

I reformulate my previous question, is it necessary to push kids' to have the perfect hand-writing style if they’ll quit it very early in life? As I said at the beginning, it is undenniable that learning hand-writing at an early age is a necessity, but as long as kids write clearly, should we keep pushing them?

I prepare all my classes using the Notebook software for SMART Board (Interactive Whiteboard), ironic right? And all theses classes are published in my wiki and available to be downloaded at anytime by my students or any person in the world. So, why should they keep using a regular paper notebook?

The immediate answer is because they should be able to take notes in class from the discussions we have about Science topics and the information that is not included in the class files, also supplementing it with additional information, following a constructivist model to build up knowledge and contributing in their own education. As an adult student, it is something implicit for me. However, in school, the implicit is not always evident or practiced.

My classes requested students to work on their paper notebooks the same way. But the results I obtained were not the best. So if the paper notebook as a working or evaluation tool lost its purpose. So, I decided to replace it with something new.

Thinking and browsing information, I found a concept that I liked, Notebooks as Interactive Portfolios. Making a notebook as if it was a web page, a blog, or as Web 2.0 page.

It is kind of difficult to do it on paper, but my first assignment obtained a siginificant gfood response from students. it was going from the darkness of paper notebooks, to the enlightment of Interactive Portfolios, or iPortfolios.

As a necessary activity, I’m planning to request it on a regular basis, but without pushing them.

I have designed a format following the sides of the brain, a “classic” left side with analytical parts, and an “Interactive” right side, where creativity and audiovisual aspects are key.

Here are some examples that I found and the formats that I created: