Two St. Louis Park Teachers Offer Vision of 21st Century Classroom

Walking into a computer lab in St. Louis Park’s or elementary schools, you’d be forgiven for thinking that kids from a couple of classrooms seem to be blogging about their schoolwork. The tool they're using bears a passing resemblance to Blogger or other online content management systems, and students frequently post digitized copies of worksheets, book reports and other assignments online. It may walk like a blog and quack like one, too, but its developers and two St. Louis Park teachers who’re piloting its use in elementary schools say it’s helping students get motivated and engaged in learning in unique ways.

eFolio, as this piece of technology is called, was developed by a group of programmers from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system as a multifunction, web-based tool for colleges and businesses. Paul Wasko was a member of that gang and now heads up the office that coordinates the development of new eFolio tools.

“eFolio is a tool. It needs to be flexible to accommodate what (users) are doing,” Wasko said. “It shares features with wikis and blogs, in that it’s a multimedia repository of content that can be organized in ways that are reflective of education or workforce needs.”

Mike Farrell, a fifth grade teacher at Susan Lindgren, and Thomas Odermatt, a fifth grade teacher at Peter Hobart, started using eFolio several years ago when they team-taught fifth and sixth grade at Peter Hobart before the district’s recent restructuring. Each student in their classrooms has their own eFolio site, where they post their homework assignments for Farrell and Odermatt to review.

“It’s easier to put stuff online,” said Raedale, one of Farrell’s students. “That way, I don’t have so much paperwork to bring home.”

“I keep track of things better online,” added Ambriya, one of Raedale’s classmates.

“It helps you organize your stuff,” said Keegan, one of Odermatt’s students. “It’s not like you’re loosing things (with a paper notebook and folder).”

Because a student can give other people outside of school a password to look at their eFolio site, some use it to help their parents and family members keep tabs on their school work.

“My grandma and grandpa in Wisconsin can look and see what we’re doing,” said Malaika, another of Farrell’s students. “Also, If we go back to a unit ... I have my eFolio and can go back and remind myself (about the lesson).”

Students are allowed to decorate their sites however they want – one of Farrell’s students covered the background on his site with a collage of Michael Jackson portraits — and post biographical information, giving the whole thing a bit of a Facebook-ish flavor. Farrell and Odermatt said they use the personalized nature of the sites to get their students thinking about privacy, sharing and online safety.

“It’s a great teachable moment,” Farrell said.

Perhaps more significant, though, is the way students use their eFolio sites for parent-teacher conferences. Using eFolio’s library-like way of storing images of student homework, Farrell’s and Odermatt’s students compile a presentation reflecting on their work for the year. After reviewing their work, each student then has to outline how they’ve progressed, where they’re weak, why they’re having trouble in those areas and what they’re planning on doing to get better. Parents, in turn, have to come with three questions about things they’re learning and things the student wants to know more about.

“This is how they’re taking responsibility for their learning,” Farrell said.

It’s not entirely sink or swim—the two teachers said it’s in no one’s interest for a student to give a useless presentation—but students shoulder the majority of the burden of preparation.

“There will always be kids who are not quite up to par, just like there are high-flying kids,” Odermatt said. “We try not to let the student get to that point where they have nothing prepared.”

Farrell’s student Ambriya said she likes the independence of the eFolio system

“Teachers trust me,” she said. “It feels good that they think I’m smart enough (to be trusted).”

Parents seem to like it, too—one of Farrell’s students, Alyssa, said her parents “like, jumped up and down” when they saw her eFolio site for the first time—and so do researchers. While Wasko, Farrell and Odermatt are the first to admit that no comprehensive study has been done on whether their use of eFolio actually improves student outcomes, Wasko said two researchers who spent time observing Odermatt and Farrell in action came away very impressed.

According to Wasko, University of Minnesota researcher David Arendale called the afternoon he spent in the two teachers’ classrooms “the most remarkable education experience he’s had.” Similarly, Wasko says former MnSCU Vice Chancelor Linda Baer (now a researcher with the Gates Foundation) altered her schedule to let her spend the rest of the day with the students.

“Theirs is quite possibly the most mature use of the eFolio toolset I’ve seen,” Wasko said of Farrell and Odermatt.

At least one other school in Minnesota is similarly excited about the software’s possibilities. Cyber Village Academy, a St. Paul charter school, is spending this spring piloting the use of eFolio as an organizational tool for students. They plan to roll it out in every classroom this fall.

Said science teacher Rob Rand, who’s heading up the implementation at Cyber Village Academy: “We think it makes them more well-rounded students when they have to reflect on their learning.”