Creating Learning with Videos and ePortfolios- Media Project & Publication Article

In today's digital world, student ePortfolios are a great way to showcase skills and accomplishments. With the pervasiveness of digital devices and social media in schools, many educators are looking for ways to harness this technology to improve student learning. According to Hay & Xu (2019), through a range of material, including presentation slides, video clips, podcasts or other audio files, images, diagrams, and more, ePortfolios can demonstrate the real-world performances and skills of student work. One way to enhance a student ePortfolio is to integrate campus video-based announcements. 

 

Why video-based morning announcements?

   The benefits of implementing video-based announcements are that they offer more engaging, informative, and interactive learning environments. Video-based announcements are a great way to engage with the staff and student-based audience. They are informative and interactive, making them an excellent tool for communication. Video-based announcements allow you to communicate with your audience more engagingly and interactively. They are also more informative than traditional announcements, making them an excellent tool for communication. 

 

   Planning, using technology, and being creative when implementing video-based announcements are essential. Establishing clear expectations with students before starting announcements and keeping the announcements focused and concise will also help make them successful. In addition, educators should consider using their school or district websites, social media platforms, or password-protected sites when posting videos.

 

Why the ePortfolio?

   An ePortfolio is an online platform that allows users to showcase their work, skills, and achievements. There are a few reasons why students need to showcase their work. First, it will enable them to share their creations with others and receive feedback. Feedback from others, such as teachers and peers, can be valued because they get a different perspective. This can be helpful in terms of improving their skills and refining their ideas. Secondly, displaying their work can help build confidence and give them a sense of pride in what they do. 

 

   Electronic portfolios provide a way for students to reflect on their learning, track learning progress, and set goals. Campbell and Tran also found that self-reflection positively impacts student performance and enhances student self-efficacy and resilience(Campbell & Tran, 2021). Reflection allows students to take stock of what they have accomplished and identify areas where they need improvement. Additionally, reflecting on one's work can help develop a sense of pride and satisfaction with completing a task well. Students tracking their learning progress allows them to see how far they have come and what they have accomplished. This can be motivating and help them stay on track. Finally, monitoring learning progress over time can give insights into trends or patterns that may not be immediately apparent.

 

How can we integrate the two?

   Integrating video-based morning announcements into a K-5 student's ePortfolio is a great way to modernize your morning announcements and better engage your students. Our school has a Tech Club that meets daily. The students in the Tech Club are responsible for creating the morning announcements. They use a video camera to film and edit the announcements using iMovie. The finished product is then uploaded to the campus Microsoft Stream and YouTube channel. Teachers and students can view the announcements on video projection equipment in the classroom or through their learning management systems. Each segment of the video includes a mix of instructional and non-instructional. For the instructional segments, we propose various questions to students, from STAAR questions of the day to current lesson objectives from the TEKs learning standards. For the non-instructional segments, we present the students with birthday shoutouts or upcoming calendar events.

 

Future Proof learning!

Our next step in the evolution of this learning process is to digitalize the student learning process by shifting away from hand-written journals and moving to ePortfolios. This method of instruction will enable students to respond at any place at any time while allowing them to choose their preferred means of conveying their opinions, such as typing, recording a video, or recording audio. Providing students with these various ways of responding will allow all students to respond. The addition of closed captioning will help students with cognitive disabilities by providing them with additional visual information to enhance their learning (Alber, 2019). K-2 students will utilize the Seesaw LMS platform for ePortfolios, and 3-5 will use the Schoology LMS platform to document their learning.