Effective practice of using digital portfolios

How can Queensland teachers inform teacher education practice?

Abstract

Portfolios have been a popular tool to enable teachers to provide evidence of their teaching practice (Elbow & Belanoff, 1986) and with technology there has been a move to online digital portfolios. This research provides empirical evidence of Queensland teachers who have completed a digital portfolio as part of the Smart Classrooms Professional Development Framework. These digital portfolios provide rich descriptions of evidence that demonstrate a teacher’s values, relationships, knowledge and practice in using technology. This paper describes one teacher’s digital portfolio as part of the wider research project investigating the development of Technological Pedagogical Reasoning. The paper concludes with a discussion of how this type of digital portfolio can inform teacher education. A key message is to use an evidenced based portfolio, which captures snapshots of a pre-service teachers practice with links to professional standards mingled throughout the discussion of their practice.