Digital thinkers learn by creating content rather than regurgitating it. Students learning about forces and motion for example, might visit YouTube, watch videos about the topic, and then create their own video explaining force and motion. This is a very different learning process than those used by teachers educated before the age of the Internet. Digital thinkers engage more actively in the learning process when educators incorporate technology in the learning environment because students can create their own content electronically and technology is intuitive to them.
As educators, we are familiar with the creation of Longitudinal Portfolios. The very term harbors
images of bulging portfolios containing work samples showing projects from the beginning of the school year to the end. Electronic Longitudinal Portfolios (ELPs) can be invaluable in the assessment process because they provide an opportunity to measure student achievement using tools that allow students to work from their strengths - technology and electronic media. Achievement can be measured more accurately because the output does not require a particular learning style. Students can include visual images, sound, motion, etc. to communicate.
An ELP can be created by inviting students to create educational outputs that require the use of technology. Mastery of math concepts, for example, can be demonstrated by creating an Excel spreadsheet with data and graphs. Students can write stories using MS Word. They can use presentation tools like Power Point to explain concepts learned in class. Students create electronic portfolios containing a personal library of artifacts that showcase their learning. In an era of shrinking school budgets ELPs provide significant cost savings because they reduce paper usage and require little physical storage space. Student projects can be saved onto memory sticks, flash drives, or a local server, creating a portable collection of documents,
presentations, spreadsheets, etc. Educators can assess work electronically which can speed up the grading process.
The key to using ELPs in the assessment process is to communicate expectations clearly so that students understand that while the format of the output is flexible, content requirements, due dates, and submission requirements are not.