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GR Y P H O ND A L E EDUCATION SE R VIC E S

E dVilla ge 4Me Gryphondale Education Services

Ta bl e o f Co n tents C om m un it y o f Lea r n ers

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C om m un ic at i on a nd C o l l abo r atio n

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L ea r ni ng A s se ssm en t - AL P S an d e-Po r tfo l io s

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Re po r t i ng a n d T r a nsc r ipts

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S i t e Cu st o m iz a tio n

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I nt er ne t S ec u r ity a nd S afety

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Re a di ng a nd Re sou rc es

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The real driver of creativity is an appetite for discovery and a passion for the work itself. When students are motivated to learn, they naturally acquire the skills they need to get the work done.

Sir Ken Robinson & Lou Aronica

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Because one of the primary goals of EdVillage4Me速 is to encourage student creation of digital portfolios, each ePortfolio entry can also be a part of the community building process. Yet, each e-Portfolio entry can also be a private, member-only, posting.

While designated teachers and administrators always have access to all work, it is the student who invites others to view his/her e-Portfolio, and the student can ask others not immediately connected to the community to be viewers of the e-Portfolio. This could include parents, siblings, other members of the local or national community, and college admission personnel.

Community of Learners It takes a village to educate a

Community of Learners EdVillage4Me速速 is designed to create a community of learners within a single digital environment. The software promotes community between teachers and students because much of the work is shared - though the decision to share work is always made by the individual. From the creation of blogs which are initially published to a "What's New" category, to the creation and dissemination of lesson plans, the software seeks to create a school community with a focus on learning

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Perhaps most importantly, the creation of a community of learners provides students with the opportunity to learn the value of healthy child. criticism. Each published posting can receive feedback from community members. In this way, students and teachers are engaged in the process of learning - and of helping others learn.

E-portfolios at one level are another tool in the e-learning armoury.

Stefani, Lorraine,Robin Mason and Chris Pegler, The Educational Potential of ePortfolios

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Communication and Collaboration Communication and collaboration features are built into the fabric of EdVillage4MeÂŽ.

The system contains its own messaging options, allowing users to communicate inside the boundaries of EdVillage, avoiding potential compromises with Internet based email systems. This gives students and teachers a free, open, and yet secure system of communication. Additionally, any message can be addressed to an out-of-community address by using an Internet email address. In this way, the There is no ecosystem of EdVillage4MeÂŽ preserves communication safety while allowing others to be involved in messaging.

Because EdVillage is based on the concept of a student profile, the system sponsors a "Teacher's Note" system. With Teacher's Notes, a teacher can create student progress reports to update the student and the student's support group about progress and challenges. Teacher's Notes is unique to EdVillage, and teachers can use it to address a message to the student, while also copying the student's parents, advisor, counselors, and others. In this way, a number of adults are involved in the education of the child and they can all be "on the same page" regarding student achievement and student needs.

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Next, students and teachers can collaborate on classwork via the blog and posting system built into the software. Each blog posting contains a comment option so that teachers and other students can comment on work in progress. Students are able to work in teams to post work in draft stages, while commenting and making suggestions on other student work, encouraging each other to do the best work possible with a truly authentic audience.

C om mu n i c a t i o n a n d C ol la b or a t i on "I" in a learning "team."

Finally, EdVillage encourages "here and now" communication via a system of immediate online communications. Any student or user can engage in live "chat" or share and collaborate on documents, or participate in a whiteboard session, or engage in video based chat.

This feature enables students to be engaged in their learning based on their immediate learning needs.

The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite dierent things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through.

Sydney J. Harris 4

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Learning Assessment (ALPS and e-Portfolios) EdVillage4MeŽ is all about learning assessment. What makes EdVillage dierent is our philosophy. By using multiple approaches to assess learning, the resulting picture of learning for each student is more complete, rich, and detailed.

Lea rnin g A sses sm ent A LPS, e -P ortf o l i o s a ndB ad ges Each student is unique and deserves unique assessment reporting.

First and foremost, EdVillage encourages students to use everyday learning as well as special projects and assignments as the building blocks of an e-Portfolio system. EdVillage's original design specifications always included a primary role for e-Portfolios. Every ePortfolio can contain examples of student work in draft and in final copy, comments on that work, and student authored reflections about the work itself. In this way the intended audience for the e-Portfolio students, parents, teachers, advisors, counselors, and administers - can

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see evidence regarding student work and student progress. Evidence based assessment is a fundamental tenant of EdVillage4Me®. We often speak about e-Portfolios as CORE - a place for students to “collect,” “organize,” “reflect,” and “evaluate their work.

While e-Portfolios are core to the program, EdVillage also recognizes that daily, quarterly, trimester, or final grades are important. Because EdVillage uses component based programming, school systems can elect to use the available Assessment and Learning Profile System (ALPS)..

Via ALPS, teachers can grade students in traditional methods while also encouraging the development of e-Portfolios.

Because traditional grades are stored in digital "bins," schools and teachers can allocate any customized weighted schema for bins - whether they are divided into "formative" or "summative" assessments, or whether they are divided into more traditional categories such as "quizzes," "tests," "projects," and "homework."

More importantly, each assessment recorded in ALPS also has the option to be connected to a school, state, or national standard. All similar standards are grouped and tallied so that an average "star" rating on the standard is displayed. In this way, students, parents, teachers and administrators can see class progress via a traditional

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grading system, and proficiency development via a star rating system.

EdVillage4Me® is designed to recognize and reward successful student work. Students can earn customized badges which are compliant with local or state standards, and which are based on the Mozilla open badge system. In this way, the evidence based learning created in blogs and e-Portfolios can be rated and recognized by the teacher.

When viewed holistically, EdVillage4Me® gives students and the school community a complete, detailed, and informed picture about the work and progress of each student. The system provides a more detailed, and a more clear vision of student achievement.

A learning portfolio that is flexible in design, goals, and outcomes; easily adaptable to a variety of disciplines and purposes; and available for constructive feedback and generous mentoring is a strong model.

John Zubizaretta

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Reporting and Transcripts

R e po r tin g a n d Tr a n s c r i p t s

Students, parents, and educators all want to know about student work and progress. Because EdVillage4Me® is built largely around a philosophy of Sh a ri n g w ha t w e h a ve l e a rn e d i s ha l f t h e c h a l l e n ge i n evidence based assessment, the evidence on student l e a r n i n g. progress is always present. Additionally, the system with a great look into student work, displayed in a variety of multi-media creates reports about student work in several different methods. formats. As students complete special projects, reports, mentorships, or internships, they have the opportunity to record their experience and Whenever a student participates in a "Learning Activity," the reflect on their learning. results of that work are reported in the student profile and teachers can examine those results easily. The student learning profile contains not only learning activity results, but also links to This system of evidence based assessment is a rich panoply of insight into student learning. Because students can invite others to view their ethe student blog and the student e-Portfolio, so it can be a very Portfolio, it can became a way to demonstrate learning for college quick and easy way to evaluate student work. admissions personnel or possible employers. Upon graduation, e-Portfolios can exported to Gryphondale’s Because EdVillage contains an active parent college implementation - EdCampus. communication module named Teacher's Notes, the teacher or administrator with system permission can The Assessment and Learning Profile System provides examine all the teacher notes for any student. This what we call both a "right brained" and a "left brained" allows the teacher or administrator to see a history of assessment of student work and progress. The ALPS teacher commentary and observation. Additionally, feature records both traditional grades as well as because Teacher’s Notes are tied to standards, proficiency based assessments and so creates a unique behaviors, or habits of mind, the teacher or way of seeing student work from two perspectives. On administrator can sort and display those teacher the one hand, ALPS generates what we traditionally notes based on a series of criteria. know as grades - but it also generates reports based on the tallied average of proficiency accomplishments. In The evidence of learning found in the e-Portfolio many ways, the ALPS program generates a two part provides the student, parent, teacher or administrator transcript to reflect both the "numbers" of grading and the "narrative" of proficiency based assessment.

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Site Customization Every school or school district is unique. Every school and school district has its own unique culture and its own unique needs. Gryphondale recognizes the need for each local educational agency to establish both standards and expectations for learning - even when those standards and expectations may be based on other state or national standards.

S i t e Customiza t i o n Every school is its own unique culture.

For that reason, every school or district has the opportunity to customize the services and interface for EdVillage4 Me速. The "4Me" is real. We work with each school or district to customize not only the graphic user interface, but also the standards and modules used.

The various modules are listed below.

Student Blogs e-Portfolios - Portfolios4Me Learning Activities Teacher's Notes Messaging Calendaring - School and Individual Curriculum, Unit, and Lesson Planning Learning Profiles Assessment and Learning Profile System - ALPS

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Because EdVillage4Me速 is created via this series of interlocking and interdependent modules, the implementation in any single district can be truly individual. We can adapt and alter programming modules to meet user needs, creating a fundamentally unique program for each district. We use your standards, your pictures, and your input to create a customized implementation, while also helping you achieve district and state goals. This program is tailored for you.

Some districts, for example, may only want to implement Teacher's Notes; while other districts will want to implement Teacher's Notes in combination with e-Portfolios. Another district for example may want to implement the Learning Activities module in combination with e-Portfolios.

It is also possible for more than one district or school to share an EdVillage4Me速 installation, permitting and encouraging teachers and students to share learning across classrooms and across districts. The possibilities really are - endless.

What you have, what you are - your looks, your personality, your way of thinking - is unique. No one in the world is like you. So capitalize on it.

Jack Lord

Gryphondale Education Services

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Internet Security and Safety A good school is a safe school. EdVillage4Me速 takes great care and precaution to guarantee the digital health and safety of its participating institutions by creating Internet independent directories. Each installation of EdVillage is an individual installation, and all users must be registered on the site. Because the prime directory is locked, EdVillage4Me速 uses the Internet as a vehicle of communication, but a vehicle into which only registered passengers may enter. In this way, every installation of EdVillage4Me速 is safe from Internet intrusion; and all users can feel protected and secure.

I nt ernet S e c u r i t y a n d Safety Everyone benefits from knowing they learn in safety and security.

Because each installation is a safe installation, digital privacy is maintained and students learn the skills of digital citizenship in a protected and nurturing environment. Local administrators, trained by Gryphondale, can administer the site, approve and disapprove content, permitting students to engage in a safe community of learners. Local administrators determine groups and levels of access so that student privacy is maintained while teacher oversight and guidance is guaranteed.

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Additionally, each student can govern the degree to which they participate in the larger community of the school by self-determining when to "publish" posts and assignments and when to retain those posts for their own private use. All users have the ability to use EdVillage as a digital archive as each user has a private folder for notes, drafts, and resources. Students and other users make the choice concerning when to publish blog entries.

Similarly, students can determine, with the help of adults, when to invite others to view their work. In this way, students can invite their parents, college counselors, college entrance personnel or potential employers to view their work. This process of invitation is an important one for EdVillage, as we believe that guests are invited into the community of learners.

In education, natural, sustainable learning depends on the culture of the school and the quality of the learning environment. Sustaining a vibrant culture of learning is the essential role of the principal.

Sir Ken Robinson & Lou Aronica

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Re adi ng s an d R e s o ur ce s Th e se ma t er i a ls are h y p e rl i n k e d w h e n e v e r po s si b l e .

B a rr et t , D r. H el e n. E lectro n i c P o rtf ol ios W eb sit e. ht t p : //helenb ar r et t . c om/ Ca m pbe l l , J o hn , “Th eo ri z i n g h a bi ts of ,i nd as a fr amewor k for lear ning. ” Down l o ad PD F Co s t a, A rt h u r L a nd B en a K a l l i ck, “ Hab i ts of mind in t he c ur r ic ulum. Download PD F Fu l l an , Mi ch ae l ( 2001) . L ea di n g i n a cult ur e of c hange. San Fr anc isc o: Jossey B as s . D o w n l o a d PD F N o t e s Fu l l an , Mi ch ae l ( 2006) B rea kth ro u gh.Thousand Oaks, C A: C or win. Download P D F N o t e s K ee l e y , M i ch ael .( 21004) The trouble with transformational leadership: toward a federalist ethic for organizations. Ethics, the Heart of Leadership. Westport, CT: Praeger. Download PDF K u g el m a s s , J ud y ( 2006) “Sustaining cultures of inclusion: The value and limitation of cultural analysis,” European Journal of Psychology and Education. 21:3. Download PDF

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L or e n zo , G e o rg e a nd Jo h n I ttel so n ( 2005). Deomonst r at ing and assessing st ude n t le a r n i n g w i t h e - Po r t fo l i o s . E L I P a pe r 3: 2005. D o w n l o a d P D F M a r z a no , R o b er t et a l . “ D i men si o n s of l ear ning. Download PDF W ig g in s , G ran t. ( 1998)Educative assessment: Designing assessments to inform and improve student performance. San Francisco: Josey Bass. Download PDF Notes Zub iz ar re t a, J oh n. ( 2009) “ Th e l ea rn ing p or t folio: Reflec t ive lear ning for im p r o vi ng s t u de n t l e a r n i n g . Sa n F r an ci s co : J ose y - B a ss. D o w n l o a d PDF Not es

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