Goal Aware Tools - The Portfolio Heat Sink
In Helen Barret's latest blog entry she again cautions against the misuse of portfolio systems to meet program assessment needs. While reading it and considering our own set of "Goal Aware" tools in development, I considered how we were addressing this problem.
Although our PT3 funding was originally earmarked to develop a student centered portfolio system, our goal aware development is centered around courseware tools that (among other things) will be used for program assessment and eventually accreditation requirements. While we could have spent our developer's resources to improve the student-centered, reflection-rich portfolio system, we limited our technical staff's involvement in OSP software to configuration of the toolset instead. There a number of reasons that we have focused our development on courseware tools, but I think I can justify it.
When I worked in the Navy as an electronics technician I was taught how to perform electronic repairs. The practical part of the class included soldering transistors and delicate IC's onto circuit boards. We learned that the heat from the soldering iron would destroy the semiconductors after just a few seconds. To draw heat away from the valuable component we would clip an alligator clip onto the lead of the chip. When we applied heat to melt the solder, the alligator clip would get hot while the chip would stay cool. The heat was necessary to do our work, but we had to protect the electronics from it using a heat sink.
If the School of Education implemented a single portfolio system with the hope of using the same system for "assessment for learning", summative assessment of students and program evaluation it would never be able to perform all of the tasks. Applying the heat of program assessment to the student owned portfolios would do exactly what Ms. Barrett cautions against. We would "burn" our portfolios.
Our goal aware courseware tools will be the arena for the bulk of our program assessment data collection. If an assessment is needed for NCATE reports or any other program review, faculty will need to have their student data recorded in the courseware tools. They are, in effect, a heat sink to keep our portfolio system student centered and a place for formative feedback and assessment for learning.