TTT 05.27.2020 Navigating Our New Reality with Badges, Micro-Credentials, Portfolios
Author: Teachers Teaching Teachers
What an exciting group of people we've invited to TTT on Wednesday, May 27, 2020.
The week before I had asked Niki Fayne, a professor at Lehman College and friend of the New York City Writing Project, to take a look at a couple of LRNG @WeAreLRNG portfolios that my students had just finished.
Two of the students, Abigail and Fatema, are planning to attend Lehman in the Fall.
This reminded me that Kiran Chaudhuri's and Dawn Reed's students also had LRNG portfolios, and we had never discussed them.
Always looking for an excuse to learn more from David Niguidula, I sent him a note, and he agreed to come to update us on his work at Richer Picture.
Remembering another unfinished conversation, I invited Suzanne Valenza to come to talk about the amazing multimodal portfolios that her students produce.
Adding an interesting dimension to all of this, I invited Tanya Baker to come to talk about the launch of badges or micro-credentials in the National Writing Project.
What a rich conversation this promises to be!
We invite you to join this conversation by annotating it here.
We look at what is happening with badges and portfolios in our own practice and what role this work might play as we move to a world where seat-time might not be possible anymore.
- Tanya Baker @tbakernwp Director, National Programs at National Writing Project. For the past twenty years, Tanya has been committed to and shaped by the National Writing Project’s mission (The National Writing Project focuses the knowledge, expertise, and leadership of our nation's educators on sustained efforts to improve writing and learning for all learners) and vision (The NWP envisions a future where every person is an accomplished writer, engaged learner, and active participant in a digital, interconnected world) and holds a deep commitment to practices that respect teachers and students. She strives throughout her work to design learning experiences that begin with a presumption of competence, are relentlessly collaborative, and deeply joyful. See more. Tanya will be highlighting a new micro-credential project that is about to be launched by the NWP.
- Kiran Chaudhuri. English Teacher at Harvest Collegiate High School. Kiran has been a pioneer of the progressive schools movement in New York City over the past two decades — she has extensive expertise in cultivating students’ lifelong love of reading, in field studies and experiential learning and in engaging students with the great texts of the world’s religions. Kiran has contributed to various professional circles including The Prospect Institute and The New York City Writing Project. She has published extensively in educational journals and in addition to teaching Humanities, now leads the Harvest Art and GSX club. Kiran will be sharing portfolios her students did in a recent poetry class. See Wendy's and George's portfolios.
- Dr. Harriet "Niki" Fayne. A leader and professor at Lehman College, CUNY, Niki Fayne has more than 30 years of experience in higher education, including her work as dean of the School of Professional Studies at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. As dean at Otterbein, she managed budgets of more than $7 million and supervised 57 full-time faculty. Before serving as dean, Fayne chaired Otterbein’s Education Department for 16 years. Fayne earned her B.A. from Barnard College, an M.A.T. from Harvard University, an M.A. and M.Ed. from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in educational psychology from Columbia. Fayne’s work has been published in The Professional Educator, New Directions for Teaching and Learning, Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research and other professional journals.
- Dr. David Niguidula @davidniguidula, founder of @Richer_Picture / Ideas Consulting, an educational research and development firm based in Providence, RI. David leads the software R&D for Richer Picture and provides professional development for schools. And we all know him for his work on digital portfolios in K-12 schools, leading the first research project on the topic while at Brown University's Coalition of Essential Schools. His most recent publication: "Demonstrating Student Mastery with Digital Badges and Portfolios," published by ASCD, 2019.
- Dawn Reed @dawnreed Writer. Reader. Learner. Inquirer. Author. English Teacher. Co-Director Red Cedar Writing Project at Michigan State University. Dawn is a co-author in "Real Writing: Modernizing the Old School Essay" and "Research Writing Rewired." Dawn will be sharing a portfolio of one of her student's developed in a recent Creative Writing class.
- Suzanne Valenza @suzannevalenza. Suzanne currently teaches English Language Arts at Jericho High School where she advises the video yearbook club and the award-winning online newspaper the JerEcho which has over 800 subscribers. She is a mentor and professional development facilitator, and she has also served as a teacher leader in a progressive alternative school and as an educational consultant. Check out Suzanne's portfolio: suzannevalenza.com.
Chat transcript from Zoom
20:56:11
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! : How are YOUUUU Paul?! Hello everyone from Delaware!
21:02:09
From Paul Allison : https://www.lrng.org/portfolio/3fae1c610e9aafddafa1e5e7e4493f06e6f1d8ea8cb6691ca6a05578696063eb
21:03:42
From Peggy George : Hi everyone! So great to see so many familiar faces! Greetings from Phoenix AZ.
21:03:44
From Jeremy Hyler : Hi Dawn. Glad to see you!
21:04:08
From Christina C. : Hello everyone!
21:04:18
From Jeff Dierking : Hi!
21:04:44
From dawnm : HI all
21:05:00
From Peggy George : haha! a recovering administrator! I guess I might be one too!
21:05:53
From Peggy George : totally agree about portfolios!
21:06:50
From Christina C. : Oh wow … two screens of folks … 30
21:08:50
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! : I never heard an administrator say there was a better way to test - I am still recovering from THAT statement
21:09:02
From Peggy George : great to hear about NWP badges!! Exciting!
21:09:16
From Christina C. : Teacher Consultant badges too!
21:09:29
From Bud Hunt : TC. Badges!
21:10:12
From Peggy George : awesome!
21:10:28
From Tanya Baker : I didn’t see you here, Bud, I would have totally called you out as a designer!
21:11:09
From Peggy George : what an amazing panel tonight!!! wow!
21:11:44
From Bud Hunt : @tanya - Naw. I’m a badges critical friend.
21:11:59
From Peggy George : so great to see Dawn again!
21:12:09
From Tanya Baker : Fair, in general, but as to that TC badge, you had some hands on that project.
21:12:19
From Bud Hunt : Well…true.
21:12:42
From Paul Allison : https://www.lrng.org/o/youth-voices?resource=portfolio
21:13:33
From Peggy George : thanks for that link Paul!
21:15:51
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! To Paul Allison(privately) : Paul do you have a contributor named Jessica that was in this session - 05.13.2020- she asked me for a sample of a podcast I recorded and I cannot find her email anywhere, and not sure if you know who I am talking about?
21:21:10
From Peggy George : https://ideasconsulting.com/digital_badges.html
21:22:18
From Rich Novack : That’s really helpful to see laid out like that. Thanks, David
21:22:28
From Peggy George : haha! we have nothing but seat time now!
21:23:55
From Christina C. : What platform are you using David? Was it developed for the state?
21:24:08
From David Niguidula : We developed our own platform - called "Richer Picture"
21:24:11
From Bud Hunt : David seems to have built his own platform.
21:24:15
From Bud Hunt : Looks cool.
21:24:34
From Christina C. : It does look cool. I really like the ability for the kids to create their own.
21:25:32
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! : We have been struggling on how to bring students back from a CUB (Classic Upward Bound) program we do over the summer. After doing a town hall with over 40 over them and them all saying they are DONE with online virtual classes, this might be a very good approach, like the comments made about seat time versus outcomes David.
21:25:36
From Peggy George : this is really great to see!
21:26:23
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! : We have been told that we will be needing to use Google Classroom for a platform for summer classes for two different college campuses, anyone see any problems in doing this with Google Classroom?
21:27:05
From Peggy George : impressive Paul!!
21:27:53
From Bud Hunt : How do we measure the lost moments of deep exploration? (Those don’t translate well to seat time. But they’re highly satisfying AND time intensive.)
21:28:04
From David Niguidula : google classroom is fine for students to storing work. If you want to have a portfolio, though, the things the student can select are confined to the work within that specific class. That's not inherently bad, but it is a limitation - it's hard to select work across multiple classes
21:28:35
From Trey Smith (he/him), Philadelphia : I’m wondering about teacher / peer feedback that might be part of this portfolio creation process. What does / could that look like?
21:28:42
From Peggy George : don’t you love having students like that!!! get them started and they run with it!
21:28:58
From Tanya Baker : @Bud. These are the kinds of questions I like to ponder, especially right now since I’m staining the deck and have a lot of time to think about such things.
21:29:35
From David Niguidula : Very cool, Dawn - it's great to capture their excitement and interest
21:29:38
From Tanya Baker : @Trey — ask THAT question out loud
21:30:46
From Bud Hunt : I get lost in moments of wonder/curiosity and they “don’t count,” but they help me be more useful to my employers. And while I’m not staining anything, I’ve been pulling down some dead trees - so perhaps it’s the interaction with wood that’s the important part.
21:30:50
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! : Dave or anyone-over half the students in our district- nothing but phones, portable because homeless, etc, so phone is THE access point. Does that still allow equal participation for students that have computers and this approach?
21:31:24
From Jeff Dierking : Within the scope of a Google classroom, phones aren't a limitation.
21:31:34
From Bud Hunt : @harry - the devices are the windows - but not necessarily the limiters - how are you helping children and grownups to look better through those windows?
21:32:23
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! : Just picking sites and explorations that will not halt/stall and keeping all projects curriculum with the phone as THE source for access for everyone - and that seems to be the go to
21:32:26
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! : approach
21:32:27
From Shantanu Saha : I have had students hand in all of their work in Google classroom from their phones
21:32:37
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! : awesome this is good to here
21:32:45
From Jeff Dierking : Google classroom has its limitations, but it has solid apps. What you won't like won't be because it's on a phone.
21:33:00
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! : we are at a rising homeless rate since all this, around 46 % so this is a main focus etc
21:33:07
From Jeff Dierking : I have students who never touched a laptop, too.
21:33:43
From Trey Smith (he/him), Philadelphia : I’m thinking about commenting on a Google Doc asynchronously…but an app like Google Sites doesn’t have a comment feature (as far as I know). So, I’m thinking about using screen capture app like Loom to think aloud as I look through a portfolio and have feedback. Can also write those comments somewhere. Just trying to think about asynchronous feedback as the portfolio is in ongoing draft form. Also, thinking about the feedback that might go into an assignment / task before it’s posted. I’m just trying to think aloud about the levels and kinds of feedback since I haven’t tried a digital portfolio for a class (yet).
21:33:50
From Tanya Baker : @Jeff: This is a great sentence, “What you won't like won't be because it's on a phone.” And true.
21:33:52
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! : they want to, just funding based on the Title I stops us from reinvesting in needed equipment, etc but I do see this is possible and might be exciting with these ideas VERY good
21:34:28
From Peggy George : Very interesting to see all of the badges on LRNG for Youth Voices! https://www.lrng.org/o/youth-voices?resource=badge
21:34:29
From Bud Hunt : What Tanya said, Jeff.
21:34:48
From Christina C. : https://elireview.com/
21:35:09
From Tanya Baker : +1 for elireview, just sayin’
21:35:29
From emilywilkinson : @Trey Could students use NowComment to create and post their portfolios? Good asynchronous commenting features.
21:35:47
From Trey Smith (he/him), Philadelphia : Nice. Thanks!
21:35:50
From Bud Hunt : I’ve been supporting some folks to think through how to build community in online classes, and one idea I keep coming back to is found in Peter Elbow’s _Writing Without Teachers_ - namely, that the best way to be in conversation about student writing is to BE IN CONVERSATION about student writing - read and respond as a reader, not a teacher.
21:35:51
From Tanya Baker : +1 also for NowComment
21:36:06
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! : Bud exactly.
21:36:07
From Christina C. : @bud I’m reading that too.
21:36:12
From Bud Hunt : That can build community. That can build better lenses for writers and readers. That’s a move that can work repeatedly.
21:36:19
From Tanya Baker : What Bud said.
21:37:18
From Trey Smith (he/him), Philadelphia : Thank you @Christina, @Emily
21:37:30
From Tanya Baker : @Dawn: “Make an argument that you’ve grown as a writer.” Brilliant!
21:37:45
From emilywilkinson : I second Dawn on that
21:38:02
From emilywilkinson : Sorry, Tanya. Embarrassing!
21:38:15
From Tanya Baker : naw.
21:40:49
From Christina C. : https://www.lrng.org/o/youth-voices
21:41:06
From dawnm : @David - great work
21:41:32
From Christina C. : https://www.lrng.org/portfolio/ae3ed343495120d7af0350d71e312824fd38746e7c395acbeb6838ee28ca9a14
21:41:42
From Peggy George : @Bud Have you compiled your resources for building community in online classes? I would love to see them!!
21:41:51
From Tanya Baker : One thing I like about this paragraph is that the student can say why they included something and what the value of this work might be to her in the future💙
21:42:02
From David Niguidula : Thanks @Dawn!
21:42:30
From dawnm : @Trey: Feedback is indeed easier outside of Google sites. Eli Review, Google docs, Now Comment -- all fantastic options :)
21:43:18
From Christina C. : Do you use Writable too @dawn? Or is that redudant to EliReview?
21:44:15
From Bud Hunt : @Peggy - I haven’t. I don’t feel like my thoughts are all that profound. Love the people and treat them like people worthy of love. The rest is details.
21:45:25
From dawnm : Writeable and Eli Review are similar and both great. Finding the right balance of how many tech places you send students is also another factor in considering how to structure all of this work. I am actually narrowing down more right now given the online teaching spaces we are in currently.
21:46:19
From Tanya Baker : @Bud — its those details that help people go from an aspiration that they don’t know how to meet, to naming HOW and trying things out. . . so, if you want to publish/share any of the details, I’m sure some people would really find them helpful.
21:46:26
From Bud Hunt : @Dawn - right on. Not ALL the places. Just the right places.
21:46:29
From Tanya Baker : Just sayin’
21:46:35
From Peggy George : thanks! Definitely agree with all of that!! I was trying to support a friend who is struggling with building community with his online community college classes and have shared some resources with him but he is struggling with teaching online.
21:47:20
From Bud Hunt : @Peggy - give your friend this - https://urgencyofteachers.com/
21:47:34
From Peggy George : I love your comment Tanya!!! I agree about the details!
21:47:47
From Peggy George : Thanks Bud!! I’ll check it out!
21:48:02
From Carrie Nobis : Are all of you providing feedback on each of the portfolio elements throughout the term, prior to the students including them in the portfolio?
21:48:20
From Peggy George : Love Audrey Watters and support her on Patreon!
21:49:16
From Christina C. : See all this work is really awesome. Thank you Dawn, Kiran, David.
21:49:24
From Christina C. : Thanks @Dawn.
21:50:16
From Trey Smith (he/him), Philadelphia : @Dawn: I hear you on cutting down on number of sites and apps, especially as students are navigating all of the tools for other classes. Would be ideal to coordinate across courses, of course.
21:50:49
From Peggy George : If anyone is interested, these are the resources I have compiled so far about building community in online learning (with a focus on higher ed) https://wke.lt/w/s/KaIwnY
21:51:04
From Trey Smith (he/him), Philadelphia : But certainly will look at the annotation apps suggested
21:51:19
From Tanya Baker : @Peggy. Thanks.
21:51:42
From David Niguidula : at our schools, the students start by completing classroom assignments - and they can get the feedback fro mthe classroom teacher on that. THen, at some point (midterm / end of year), students go through their work and select what they want to include (collect, select, reflect)
21:51:45
From Peggy George : it is so awesome to see all of these examples!!!
21:51:50
From Rich Novack : I love the food memoir!
21:52:05
From Peggy George : the images contribute so much!!
21:52:10
From dawnm : @Carrie - I do provide feedback throughout the class and throughout the building of portfolio. LRNG badges also builds that in for students to earn a badge before the portfolio creation.
21:52:15
From Bud Hunt : It’s always about food.
21:52:15
From Christina C. : that food looks yummy :)
21:52:21
From Bud Hunt : (And it should be a little bit.)
21:52:29
From emilywilkinson : Great layout with the Weekly. Yes, very engaging. Making me hungery...
21:52:39
From Peggy George : food always works!!!!
21:52:41
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! : eat and going anywhere not need do not do now, lol
21:53:04
From Christina C. : Sometimes I forget that one … Why, So What, Now What
21:53:15
From Christina C. : Weebly right?
21:53:36
From dawnm : @Kiran @Suzanne - great work. Fun portfolios!
21:53:56
From suzannevalenza : Yes weebly
21:54:13
From Christina C. : Thanks Suzanne!
21:54:54
From David Niguidula : Suzanne - great stuff! IF the students are motivated by college, they might be interested in the "coalition for college" application -- it includes a "virtual locker"
21:56:04
From Christina C. : It’s Paul’s fault :)
21:56:20
From Bud Hunt : Many good things are Paul’s fault/
21:57:47
From Peggy George : agree Bud!!!!!
21:58:48
From Christina C. : true that
21:59:21
From Christina C. : (Thank you Bud … where did you find that one? That’s a pretty one.)
21:59:30
From Bud Hunt : https://s16491.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/nwp-badging-framework-social-practices.pdf
21:59:40
From Bud Hunt : https://lead.nwp.org/knowledgebase/nwp-teacher-consultant-badge-framework-a-product-of-the-building-new-pathways-to-leadership-initiative/
21:59:45
From Christina C. : Right .. .just found: https://lead.nwp.org/knowledgebase/nwp-teacher-consultant-badge-framework-a-product-of-the-building-new-pathways-to-leadership-initiative/
21:59:50
From Christina C. : ditto :)
22:00:35
From Christina C. : David’s book: http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/Demonstrating-Student-Mastery-with-Digital-Badges-and-Portfolios.aspx
22:00:53
From Paul Allison To Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee!(privately) : https://www.youthvoices.live/ellisbadges
22:01:06
From David Niguidula : I put some thoughts on the chapters in a blog as well -- www.richerpicture.com/blog
22:01:18
From Tanya Baker : @Bud. Thanks.
22:01:45
From Bud Hunt : http://youthvoices.live/ellisbadges
22:02:57
From Trey Smith (he/him), Philadelphia : @Tanya I think I saw on C3WP website the outlines for the three badges…it looked like it had a specific bulleted list of things teachers do…I mention this because I’m wondering if the Social Practices doc you just shared the on the screen is as drilled down as you’ve gotten so far in terms of enumerating what teachers might do?
22:03:13
From Bud Hunt : The value of badges>>helping students see where the path(s) to “victory” in school get you. >>the guideposts that help you wonder/explore/be curious better.
22:03:19
From Trey Smith (he/him), Philadelphia : @Tanya or is there another doc that drills down more? And maybe this is an email…not a chat
22:03:19
From Peggy George : Bud, thanks for all of the links!
22:03:47
From Bud Hunt : >>the documentation that allows you to “prove” you did the other stuff. That you wondered or explored or said things in the “school-y way
22:03:53
From Tanya Baker : @Trey: The C3WP and scoring badges drill down to specifics in a way that the TC badge does not. I
22:03:56
From Tanya Baker : oops
22:04:03
From janetilko : Have another meeting…. sadly. But this is amazing! Thank you everyone for sharing your brilliance.
22:04:07
From Bud Hunt : The struggle of badges - the declaration that the ways we’re describing are “the way”.
22:04:22
From Tanya Baker : I’d be happy to talk more about the historical reasons for that.
22:04:38
From Christina C. : More about Dawn’s work here too: https://resources.corwin.com/writingrewired
22:04:39
From Trey Smith (he/him), Philadelphia : @Tanya: And that’s not a critique or problem…I just want to make sure I’m not missing other documents about the TC badge
22:05:03
From Bud Hunt : @trey - the paradox of social practices is that they help describe moments that lead to emergent behavior.
22:05:10
From Tanya Baker : You aren’t. . . whether that’s good or bad, I’m not sure, but it is the fact.
22:05:11
From Bud Hunt : And the emergent stuff is where the magic is.
22:05:18
From Tanya Baker : @Bud. Well said.
22:05:28
From dawnm : How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. ;)
22:05:38
From Carrie Nobis : Anybody using badges…. Do you find that students are any less likely to rush through a playlist in order to “check the boxes” and be done (or earn the badge)?
22:05:40
From Peggy George : great advice!!
22:06:08
From Peggy George : lots of head nodding!!! :-)
22:06:13
From Bud Hunt : bite sized pieces are best when they prepare and help people to take a second/third bite.
22:06:17
From Trey Smith (he/him), Philadelphia : @Bud: I hear you. A checklist could be too reductive. So, our work for our institute is to provide some models, some frames for the practices but leave them as open-ended and emergent etc
22:06:26
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! To Paul Allison(privately) : thanks for all the ideas awesome
22:06:30
From Bud Hunt : Yeah, Trey. That/
22:06:32
From Peggy George : thanks to ALL of you for sharing!!! awesome conversation!!
22:06:37
From Shantanu Saha : The whole time-based organization of education can be traced to the efficiency movement of the industrialists during the 19th century
22:06:37
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! To Paul Allison(privately) : will take back to summer planning tomorrow and see reactions!
22:06:38
From Carrie Nobis : Thank you!
22:06:41
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! To Paul Allison(privately) : night!
22:06:42
From emilywilkinson : Thank you!!
22:06:44
From Bud Hunt : Describe possibilities but not ALL the possibilities/
22:06:46
From Trey Smith (he/him), Philadelphia : Thanks for letting me crash!
22:06:55
From Bud Hunt : Thanks, Paul and all.
22:06:55
From Harry.Brake from Delawareeeeee! To Paul Allison(privately) : thanks Paul!
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