2.
The Knowledge Log:
The Knowledge Log
is a students reflection on their own learning and how they feel they
are going in each of the units of work, themes, subjects or integrated
learning processes that they are engaged in. The Knowledge Log provides
an insight into the students perception of what they see as barriers
to their learning, areas that they have found interesting and intriguing,
areas which the like more extension and whether the work they are engaged
in is at an appropriate level of difficulty and degree of interest.
In the trials to
date it has taken at least four attempts (over eight months), in order
to have most of the students being able to reflect on their learning
without deviating into talking about personal issues, personalities
in the classroom, teacher capability or composing another inappropriate
material.
It has also taken
the classroom teacher a lot of time in order to teach the students how
to compose brief summaries as opposed to writing long dissertations,
profiling their class rather than writing brief commentaries about their
learning journey. However, once these skills are mastered the value
of the commentaries surpasses any other previous form of self assessment.
3.
The Knowledge Project:
The Knowledge Project
tool allow students to carry out some simple strategic planning in terms
of appreciating the number of projects/assignments which are due as
well as the homework demands that are being made on them. Initially
the "time left" column had a due date until we realised that
most 10-14-year-olds had no idea of what the date actually was at any
given time. This is now been replaced by blue line which gradually fills
up as the due date approaches.
4.
The Knowledge Showcase:
The Knowledge Showcase
is an online repository which allows students to highlight a range of
artefacts which are hyperlinked to their Knowledge Journal and/or their
knowledge Log as well as the various assignments that they are given.
The Knowledge showcase also contains a "highlights" section
where students can display their very best work to an external audience
such as parents/caregivers, friends, extended family and the general
public. Students are able to set the permissions for the "showcase
highlights" and can decide who is able to see these artefacts (teachers
get to see these by default).
5.
Knowledge Life:
Although not included
in the web-folio at the moment there are presently discussions going
on which are looking at creating a repository with a limited capacity,
where students can store music, photographs, video . . . . material
that may not necessarily be directly related to their classroom work.
The ever decreasing price associated with computer storage means that
increasingly this concept is becoming a practical reality. We presently
have no schedule for implementing this aspect at present.
