1A. Rationale

Write about why you chose the topic that you did, being sure to answer the question, “What need does this meet?”

At the school I work, the Target Setting process for Key Stage 3 and 4 students is performed on paper or MS Word Doc. With our move toward one-to-one, an opportunity has arisen to meet the needs of the Pastoral Head of Key Stage 4 and the needs of the Key Stage 5 students by implementing a more effective target setting process that fully involves the students, their teachers and parents, and that generates a journal of the students’ behaviour in reaching their targets.

Currently, the students are expected to complete a MS Word document that is retained by their Form Tutor, which lists three academic areas the students feel they need to improve. The students, after discussing with the teacher, write down actions they intend to take to meet their target. The Form Tutor files this document or saves it to the school’s server; it is reviewed by the Form Tutor and student at the end of each term. The students do not look at the Target Setting document between their meeting with their Form Tutor and are only in contact with the process at the times when the Form Tutor makes available.

In stark contrast to this system and behaviour, the Key Stage 5 students are expected to evidence and evaluate all of their behaviour, both in and out of class, in order to meet the requirements of the AQA Baccalaureate Qualification. For the majority of students, this is the first time they have been asked to behave in this manner and they are unprepared and ill-equipped.

For some time I have listened to the complaints of the students who are not used to these foreign expectations of evidencing what they do and of critically evaluating their behaviour and performances. Likewise, I have heard the desperation of the Pastoral Head of Key Stage 4 as she has wanted to implement a technological system that would meet the needs of the students.

As a technology integrator at my school, I am in a position to build these systems but I am constrained by what is physically possible and what I am permitted to do by the Senior Leadership Team. Finally, with the advent of Google Apps For Education, I can begin to move forward in designing a system that will be simple for the students to use and simple for the Form Tutors and IT Support to manage. As a techie geek, I personally am interested in the scripting capabilities of the Google Apps and have used this project to further investigate the possibility of automatically generating the GSites and GDrive folders that will be used in the portfolios.

When the Target Setting and Enrichment Portfolios are released to the Key Stage 4 students, they will be able to use their mobile devices to photograph and video their work in class and during their extra-curricular activities. With the use of Apps such as Blogger and GDrive they will be able to upload the evidence and enter text and comments to their evidence. These portfolios can be shared with the academic teachers the students are taught by, and with their parents so that the parents can be involved in the process.

From a teaching perspective, I want the marking that I do to mean something. I have trialled Blogger, GSites and GDrive with my students and have used them to successfully hold a conversation with my students through the commenting features; if a student doesn’t read my comments and respond to them, there is no point in marking as they aren’t thinking about the improvements. I would expect my students to not only use the Portfolio to evidence their best work, but also use it as a digital “schoolbag” that holds all of their work.

1B. Learning Goal(s)

Year 10 and 11 students who will be taking the AQA Baccalaureate Qualification in Year 12 will compose reflective entries that demonstrate thoughts about and progress toward academic and extracurricular goals.

Students will be able to:

1. Discuss the attributes of quality reflective writing and the merits of this kind of writing for helping one set and track goals.

2. Articulate the elements of a rubric that might be used to help judge the quality of a reflective entry.

3. Set realistic targets for their future performances both in academics and extracurricular activities and compose reflective entries that describe behaviors necessary to meet a goal.

4. Document actions that help meet a given goal by providing evidence of those actions.

The scope of this project is beyond the requirements of the Final ID Project for 503, therefore I will focus on the elements of the project that I as a Subject Matter Expert will play a part i.e. Objective 4. The SMEs for objectives 1, 2 and 3 will have already completed their parts of the instruction; the final instruction for the students will be to guide them in creating and maintaining their online Portfolio.

1C. Learning Objective(s) and Sub-Objectives

4 - Students will be able to document actions that help meet a given goal by providing evidence of those actions.

4.1.1 - Log in to Gmail and create a Blogger/Edublog account. Alter the privacy settings and invite parents and relevant teachers to read their first post.

(Using a screencast as a guide, students will create their blog and set the appropriate privacy settings to restrict who can access and comment on their blog. Students will provide their peers with the address to test the privacy settings are functioning)

4.1.2 - Use SMART Phones/Digital cameras to take images and video relevant to original post. Upload to Google Drive and YouTube

(Given a set of instructions/screencast and using their own devices or the school’s, students will photograph written work, or video their activities, and upload these to their Google Drive account or YouTube channel, setting the appropriate privacy and sharing settings; peers will test the privacy settings and sharing settings)

4.1.3 - Edit original post and embed images and video. Demonstrate how other Web2 style websites can have their content embedded into Blogger and their Google Site Portfolio e.g. Google Docs, SoundCloud, SpiderScribe, VoiceThread, etc.

(Using a laptop/PC and given instructions/screencast, students will embed their evidence into their first target setting blog post/Google Site to support their journey. Success will be measured by the student having their peers/mentor/teacher comment on the blog post)