The e-portfolio

addressing the
issues behind
engagement and
assessment
within Design and
Technology
Developing Critical
Reflection in Design
& Technology
Education
Benjamin Marsh
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Introduction and Justification

During my time at secondary school studying design and technology the one thing I
remember most was losing my coursework portfolio. This meant having to redo a lot of
work and probably had a negative impact on my final grade and enjoyment of the subject.
Now that I am teaching in school I am able to look back and reflect upon what went wrong.
The first thing I noticed in schools is that technological advances in schools have meant ICT
is playing an increasing role in the design and technology department with most classes
having several computers for pupils to access in the workshop and school library.
Unfortunately the format for most DMAs , as it was over 15 years ago when I was at school,
is a practical piece of work accompanied by a workbook detailing the brief, specification,
theory work, research, design ideas, work log and evaluation and not taking advantage of
this technology. During my first placement I was able to observe many negative attributes to
using the workbook format. The first thing I noticed was that pupils were regularly taking
their workbooks home for homework, the workbooks would then start to become tattered
and worn after having been kicked around all week in their bags. The pupils would then
start to take less pride in their work. Another common problem I observed was that pupils
would forget to bring workbooks back into lessons. The solution for this was for pupils to
use A4 paper to do their class work on and then stick the work into their workbooks when
they returned them, again pupils began taking less pride in their work as the A4 sheets
would become unstuck over time and the pages would start hanging out and looking untidy.
As in my situation pupils would sometimes lose their workbooks or even in some cases
teachers would misplace workbooks when changing rooms or taking work home to mark.
This resulted in half completed workbooks that would not give a true representation of the
pupils progress throughout the DMA.
In 2010 the government were preparing to buy 270,000 computers for some of the
countrys poorest children (Dodson 2010) after having already shown a keen interest in
promoting the use of ICT in education in 2005 GREAT BRITAIN, Department for education
and skills. (2005) this has led to a massive increase of ICT and internet availability for pupils
whether it is at home, school or elsewhere in the community. Therefore I intend to replace
the workbook format that accompanies a piece of practical work for a fully digital and
internet accessible e-portfolio that can be used throughout key stage three and beyond. To
do this I will be creating online blog accounts for a sample group of about 5 year 8 pupils. I
will format the blogs with a home page which the pupils can personalise by adding
information about themselves and images of previous work. The blogs will then have several
tabs that direct the user to different pages for brief, specifications, research, initial ideas,
CAD/CAM development, circuit diagrams, assembly and evaluations. Each page will have a
comments section which can be used for teacher and pupil communication and formative
and peer assessment from myself and other pupils. I will then be organising an after school
club that will run alongside an electronics project. The club will be used for pupils to upload
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content to their blogs from the previous lesson which will document their progress
throughout the electronics project. For the electronics project pupils will be designing and
making a nightlight which will mainly involve pupils sketching, using CAD software, soldering
and laser cutting. The project will run for 6 weeks, at the end I will discuss what benefits the
pupils found from working in this format I will also be asking the opinions of other teachers
as well as reflecting on my own experience throughout the project.

I feel that a digital way of tracking work and progress would be beneficial to pupils as well
as teachers. By creating a standard digital template that can be personalised to each pupils
individuality, pupils will take more pride of their work as they will feel more ownership of
the content that they put in it. Using a blog type format, different pages similar to a work
book can be created offering everything a workbook can plus social network capabilities and
the option of adding video and audio. I intend to judge the effectiveness of the intervention
by comparing the pupils summative assessment grade at the end of the project against
those not involved and by assessing the pupils engagement with the project and
intervention.
This would prevent work from being lost as the work would be permanently saved and
accessible online. Pupils would take more pride of their work as they would not have the
problem of workbooks becoming tatty and dirty from days spent in school bags. They would
also have the option of customising their e-portfolio making it more personal to themselves
and giving them a chance to show their individuality and express their creativity resulting in
a more aesthetically pleasing and professional looking record of work and progression than
a traditional workbook.
Using this digital format means any practical work completed such as sketching and sketch
modelling can be photographed or scanned into a computer and uploaded in just a few
minutes. Pupils would also have the ability to upload video and audio files to their e-
portfolios, this would give pupils the opportunity to record practical tasks to demonstrate
their ability. This could be very beneficial for audial and visual learners when pupils are
working collaboratively on a project where pupils are set different tasks. Once uploaded,
pupils are able to add annotations in the comments section which would justify their
approach. This option would also enable the teacher to add comments for the purpose of
formative assessment which can greatly improve pupils achievement according to (Frey and
Fisher 2011)Feedback, when used as part of a formative assessment system, is a powerful
way to improve student achievement. This form of online communication is very popular
with pupils as most teenagers are communicating daily through various social networks
(Parmy 2013). There could always be the possibility that once the pupils work is online,
other students could have the opportunity to show appreciation of the work by using likes
which are used on social networks such as Facebook. This could lead to pupils engaging
more with the subject so that they can produce work that will gain likes and add a
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competitive nature to producing quality work as well as introducing a new form of peer
assessment. Also pupils could be encouraged to improve their own standard of work by
being encouraged by the quality of work from other pupils. This social network like digital
format of work could encourage pupils to share ideas as is done in industry which would
give them a head start during their working life. The e-portfolios can also be used for
differentiation as set tasks can be adapted for pupils of different abilitys this can then be
used as a tool for peer learning as the teacher can ask the pupils to give feedback on each
others work. This then leads to collaborative learning where pupils not only learn from their
own work but from the work of their peers as well as is recommended by (Brophy 2010)In
particular, create a social environment in which everyone feels welcome and learning is
accomplished through the collaborative efforts of yourself and your students.

If introduced at the start of key stage three the e-portfolio could be edited with more
modules of work added each school term giving the pupils a record of their own progress
through each school year until reaching key stage four and then five. It could then be used
as a type of record of achievement specifically for design and technology. School leaving
pupils could then use it when applying for interviews for jobs, college or university. Having
this evidence of work would also give teachers and pupils an opportunity to see the
development made from key stage three and beyond which could encourage pupils as they
can compare their work from later years and see how far they have come in terms of
development and progression.
As a parent another benefit would be that parents could keep track of their childrens
progress and even respond to teachers comments in the comments section. As most pupils
are reluctant to talk to parents about their achievements in schools this could hopefully lead
to parents becoming more active in their childrens education and what they are doing in
school as this is believed to have a positive impact on childrens education (Hallgarten and
Reed 2002) The crucial role of parents as partners in their childrens learning is universally
recognised. Positive engagement with parents has also emerged as a key factor in school
quality, especially in schools in disadvantaged areas, where such participation can act as a
protective barrier against the multiple factors that cause underachievement. Knowing that
work can be seen by friends and family could encourage pupils to take more pride of their
work and improve their engagement in the subject.
As the subject of design and technology is constantly changing it can be difficult and time
consuming keeping resources up to date but with the use of an e-portfolio teachers can
easily edit and update content as the schemes of work change. This could greatly cut down
the time spent on planning resources giving teachers more time to prepare quality lessons.
Another way this digital format can save time is that marking and formative assessment can
be added online, teachers have the option of using mobile technology such as smartphones
and tablets. This means that teachers will always have access to pupils work enabling work
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to be marked as and when the teacher has spare time without constantly having to carry
around a stack of workbooks.
A change from workbooks to a digital format would also decrease the amount of paper used
in schools which would have a positive impact on the environment and help teach pupils
about sustainability. Pupils could be given a sustainability score for the pages used showing
how much paper they have saved. This score could be given in trees so that pupils can easily
relate to the impact they have on the environment. Again this could create a competitive
approach to pupils producing more work.
An e-portfolio could also be used as an at home e-learning tool where the teacher could set
homework assignments by uploading work to the e-portfolio. Pupils are than able to
investigate the given subject using the internet and post their findings onto their e-portfolio
this type of learning comes naturally to pupils today as they are classed as digital natives.
This term is used to describe the generations that have spent most of their life having access
to the internet on multiple devices. This generation of pupils are tech savvy and are more
open to using the internet as a way of finding information and communicating with others
using social media and networking. I myself will often use the internet to find out
information with Ill google it becoming an ever more common phrase. I feel teachers
need to take advantage of this generations ability to instantly find information on the web
and communicate using social media and networks, and use it to their advantage in
educating pupils. Using e-learning as an educational tool promotes pupils to work more
independently and gives them a bigger sense of achievement as they are able to find the
information themselves rather than having to be taught. Pupils are much more likely to
widen their scope of knowledge when learning this way as they have the freedom to explore
other avenues of information than what they would have from just reading one book or sat
listening to a teacher telling them what they think they need to learn. Although this
generation of pupils are more comfortable with technology and searching the web to find
information doesnt necessarily mean they will which is why I think the e-portfolio is such an
invaluable tool as it can encourage pupils to use the internet to learn independently,
showcase their work and gain feedback from teachers and peers.
Introduction to the intervention

A week before the project started I approached a class of year 8 pupils that were about to
begin a nightlight DMA and introduced the intervention. I then selected 5 pupils to be
involved who seemed very interested in the intervention. I discussed the project with the
pupils and explained what would be required of them. As this was a small scale intervention
and did not involve the whole class, the pupils were told that some of the work done in class
during the project would need to be replicated in the afternoon club where pupils could set
up their blogs and add their work. The pupils agreed to the extra workload and seemed
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keen to try out this new format of documenting their progress. I then introduced the pupils
to the blog and took the pupils email addresses so that I could set up their blogs and email
them the login details. That night I set up the blogs and emailed the pupils their login details
along with the links for the other pupils blogs so that they would be able to view and share
work between themselves.

Week one
Lesson 1 period 3/4
During the lesson pupils were introduced to the brief, pupils were then told to investigate
other nightlights that were available, decide on a target market and use this information to
create a specification. They then needed to start sketching design ideas for their nightlight.
To document this work pupils printed images and stuck them into their workbooks on the
research page and annotate the different designs. Pupils then chose a target market and
filled out a specification list in their workbooks before sketching design ideas on the initial
designs page.
After school club 3:05- 4:00
As the pupils had been in the class they instinctively new that they then had to replicate the
work from their workbooks and immediately started uploading the images they had found
earlier in the lesson. They seemed to find this really easy but when it came to adding
annotations to the images they seemed to get stuck. At this point I was about to intervene
to show them how to format the page so that they could annotate each image individually,
then one of the pupils worked out how to do it, he then took pride in showing the rest of
the group how he had done it. While the pupils worked on this I scanned and saved their
sketches to a shared folder on the schools hard drive. I then showed the pupils how to
retrieve their sketches so that they could upload them. Five minutes before the club
finished I informed the pupils that they needed to save their work and prepare to logoff, this
came as great disappointment to the pupils as they were really engaged with the work and
wanted to continue. Some of the pupils didnt manage to complete replicating the work
from the lesson but said they would finish the work when they got home. Later that night I
went online to assess the pupils progress and was surprised to see that the pupils who had
not finished the work had completed the work as soon as they had got home.
Week one reflections
The pupils seemed enthusiastic to be participating in the session which would show that the
intervention would be well accepted across the school but I need to consider that this is a
new task and that pupils could soon become disengaged when the novelty wore off. It is
also important to note that the pupils involved specifically chose to participate and had the
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intervention been forced upon the whole class the level of enthusiasm may not have been
as high. When some of the pupils began to get stuck adding the annotations they were
helped from fellow classmates but for this intervention to be run properly in schools the
work would have likely be done at home. In this situation the pupils may have given up
without the help from their peers or the teacher. It would therefore be important that the
pupils had clear understanding on how to develop the blog before being given work to
complete at home. Using the comments section I was able to leave feedback on the pupils
work, the pupils had also used this feature to comment on each others work. It was really
encouraging to see that the pupils were keen to add work from the lesson and pursue this
when they got home. Im sure this has led to greater engagement in the project and helped
the students retain more knowledge from the lesson by continuing the work at home.
Week two
Lesson 2 period 3/4
During the lesson pupils were introduced to the 2D design software that they would be
using to create their final designs at the start of the lesson. Pupils were given a tutorial that
they had to work through which showed them the different tools available and how they
could be used to develop their sketches into a CAD file ready to be manufactured using the
laser cutter. Pupils were taught about the benefits to industry by using CAD/CAM before
designing their final design using CAD. The pupils involved in the trial were told to take
screenshots of the work they had done in the lesson including the different parts of the
tutorial and their final designs and save them in the shared folder ready to be uploaded
after school.
After school club 3:05- 4:00
When the pupils arrived I asked them to describe in their own words the benefits of using
CAD/CAM and to write this into a word document. I then asked them to start cropping their
saved images from the lesson and upload them before adding annotation. Before the end of
the session I showed the pupils how to convert their word documents to HTML and upload
onto their blogs. Most of the pupils managed to complete the tasks before the end of the
session with some pupils still needing to add annotations to the CAD images. That night I
went on line to add formative feedback to the pupils work and noticed that some of the
pupils had shared comments about each others work this led to some of the pupils adding
extra details to their annotations.
Week two reflections
After reading the comments the pupils had left each other it was clear to see that they had
added extra images and annotations after they had seen what other pupils had done. This
showed that pupils were making good use of the peer assessment available through this
format which was positively enhanced by the social networking feature available within the
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blog. Although the comments were constructive pupils that dont get on could react
negatively to constructive criticism this could then lead cyber bulling with insults being
traded in the comments section. This is a major concern and would need to be addressed
before trialling this intervention across the school. One way to combat this would be to put
a block on offensive words in the comments section although Im sure some students would
find a way round this block.
Again this week pupils had difficulty in formatting the blog as they didnt know how to
upload a word document. As the intervention gets further in Im sure pupils will come across
other tasks that they dont know how to do. The pupils are learning throughout the sessions
how to perform certain tasks but this is very time consuming and would not be practical in a
normal school lesson. I decided to ask an ICT teacher if he thought it would be possible to
teach pupils these tasks during ICT lessons at the start of year 7 to coincide with pupils first
design and technology project. After speaking with the teacher I realised that this would not
be a practical solution due to time restrictions and the current curriculum. It then occurred
to me that I could set up a wiki site that had detailed instructions and video demonstrations
on how to complete difficult tasks. This would benefit pupils ICT skills and help promote
independent learning.
Week three
Lesson 3 period 3/4
During this lesson pupils were introduced to the components to be used in their nightlight
circuit and showed how they worked. They were then introduced to Circuit Wizard Software
and shown how it could be used to design and test circuits on the computer. Pupils then
worked through a tutorial that showed them how to design simple circuits and test them.
These circuits were used to demonstrate how each component worked and why they were
needed in the nightlight. Pupils then went on to design the actual circuit for their nightlight,
again the pupils involved in the trial were asked to take screenshots of the different circuits
designed. Once this task had been finished pupils were then given health and safety
instructions on soldering. I then demonstrated how to solder correctly before asking the
pupils to practice their soldering skills by soldering wires onto project board to create what
looked like a bug. For the trial group I asked the pupils to film each other while they
soldered and to take pictures of their soldered bug when they had finished.
After school club 3:05- 4:00
By now the pupils were becoming aware of what they were expected to do and immediately
started uploading their images taken from the Circuit Wizard work in the lesson and using
annotations to explain what was happening in each image and what role each of the
components played in the circuit. While the pupils did this I was able to upload their
soldering videos and images of their solder bugs to the shared folder. Unfortunately the
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pupils ran out of time and therefore did not manage to upload their videos to the blog. The
pupils were disappointed by this but I told them they would have the opportunity to finish
the work during the next session. That night I went on line to see how the pupils blogs were
progressing and saw that pupils were using the comments section similar to a social
networking tool by discussing what work they had done in class and talking about what they
would be doing in the next lesson and in the after school session. I decided not to leave any
feedback in the comments section this week to see what effect this might have in the next
lesson.
Week three reflections
Some of the pupils have come to me asking why I hadnt left feedback on their blogs, this
suggests to me that the feedback is having a positive effect on pupils engagement. I have
also noticed that pupils are responding to the feedback from me and their peers which
shows that it is an effective tool for assessment for learning leading to pupils having high
expectations of their work and increasing their progress.
While this intervention is running during an after school session saving work in a shared file
on the schools hard drive is a good way for pupils to access their media but for this to be
practical pupils would need to access their saved files from home. This could be achieved by
setting up an account on a file sharing website for the pupils to access from home. This
would add a whole new level of complexity to the e-portfolio and I am beginning to
understand how difficult the e-portfolio would be to implement across the whole of the
school. There would also be a financial cost to do this which some schools may not be able
to afford, this could be offset through advertising and would need further investigation.
Week four
Lesson 4 period 3/4
During this lesson pupils used the skills and knowledge gained in the previous lesson to
solder their nightlight circuits. Again I asked the pupils in the trial to video each other while
soldering but this time I asked them to add commentary while they soldered so that it could
be used to show other students how to solder the nightlight circuit. As an extension task I
asked pupils who had finished soldering before the end of the lesson to produce a poster to
promote their nightlight. Only two pupils managed to complete the extension task and were
keen to upload an image of their poster in the after school session.
After school club 3:05- 4:00
To begin this session I showed pupils how to upload their videos from the last two lessons I
then scanned and saved the two pupils posters to the shared folder. When I returned all the
pupils had finished uploading their videos and were watching them, some of the pupils were
really embarrassed about the videos being online for everyone to see. I discussed this with
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the pupils and told them that they could remove the videos but after their initial
embarrassment they decided to keep the videos online. While the pupils who had made
posters were uploading their work the other pupils decided that they wanted to make a
poster as well and used the rest of the session working on them. At the end of the session
the pupils took their unfinished posters home with them to complete as homework. Later in
the week I went online to assess the pupils work and give feedback and noticed that pupils
had completed their posters, scanned and uploaded the work to their blogs at home.
Week four reflections
One of the initial ideas behind the intervention was to make it more convenient for the
teacher when assessing pupils progress unfortunately I seem to be spending a lot of time
going back and forth scanning pupils work and saving it to the shared files. Although most
pupils have access to the internet outside of school hours, not every pupil has access to a
scanner. Pupils could be asked to scan their own work during lessons but most classrooms
dont have a scanner which would mean pupils leaving the class to scan work which would
not be a practical solution. There are some smartphone apps that can be used to scan
images using the camera but not all pupils own a smartphone.
Pupils are increasingly asking me if they can add extra things to their blogs, and theres a
feeling of competition as pupils are trying to outdo each. When one pupil adds work to their
blog all the others do the same. As the pupils are using the blogs as a social network they
are able to see when other pupils have added work that they might not have thought about
and when they see this it encourages them to add work of their own. I see this as evidence
of the pupils working collaboratively as they are investigating topics to add to the blogs that
they wouldnt have if they hadnt seen that their peers had. The issue of pupils adding
videos and images of themselves may become a problem as some parents may not be keen
on this. I think it would be important to ask parents permission before videos and images
are put online.
Week five
Lesson 5 period 3/4
During the next lesson I talked to the class about how CAM is used in industries and
introduced them to the laser cutter. Pupils were taught about the difference between 2D
and 3D and how they the circuit housing was designed using a net which then needed to be
assembled to make a box. Pupils then spent the lesson using the laser cutter to cut out the
parts for their circuit housing and the acrylic plaques that they had designed using the 2D
software. Pupils then spent the rest of the lesson assembling their nightlight. Pupils involved
in the trial videoed themselves using the laser cutter and assembling the nightlights.
After school club 3:05- 4:00
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Pupils started the session by uploading their videos while the pupils were doing this they
were discussing ideas on how they could improve their blogs. One pupil said the videos from
the previous lesson were a bit boring as there was no commentary and suggested that they
could do a voiceover to improve them. The pupils all agreed that this would be a good idea
and asked me if they could do this. Unfortunately I had no audio recording equipment to do
this so told them that it was a good idea but that we didnt have the equipment to record
the voiceover, then the one pupil suggested he could use his smartphone to do the
recording. At this point I had to tell the pupils that I was not sure how the group would be
able to upload the audio over the video but that if they wanted to record them I would look
into it for next week. The rest of the session was spent with pupils making audio recordings
to accompany their videos. I had planned for the pupils to do some research on CAM but
instead I waited till that night and when checking the pupils progress I decided to set it as
optional homework to be ready for the next lesson. I used the comments section to set this
homework with just one pupil and told her to pass the message on to rest of the pupils in
the group to see what effect this might have.
Week five reflections
After monitoring the comments section it was clear to see that the home work task had
been communicated to the rest of the group and with all pupils completing the homework
task over the next few days. Although this was an effective tool for handing out homework
in this example I am in no doubt that had this happened during a whole class some pupils
would claim to have not been on line and seen the homework this could be a problem. One
way to solve this would be to have a weekly homework check day where all the pupils need
to go online one night a week to check if homework has been set.
After being unable to show the pupils how to add audio over videos I became aware that
not all teachers would have the technical knowledge to run this intervention with myself
included. Teachers would need training in how to set the blogs up and deal with problems
that pupils could encounter when trying to upload media. Unfortunately I was unable to find
a solution for adding audio before the next session but I will encourage the pupils to
investigate this further and see if they can find a solution.
Week six
Lesson 6 period 3/4
This was the last lesson of the project and pupils were given batteries to test that their
nightlights. The first part of the lesson was spent fault finding in circuits that didnt work and
looking at how well the light shone through their acrylic plaques. The pupils were then
asked to write a detailed evaluation of their nightlight and show how they had met the brief
and kept to the specification. Pupils were then given the opportunity to design something to
be cut out on the laser cutter or produce a small sculpture by soldering wires together. The
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pupils involved in the trial used the schools camera to take images of their working
nightlights and any other work done during the lesson.
After school club 3:05- 4:00
The pupils used this last session to upload images and their evaluations from the previous
lesson. Towards the end of the session I discussed with the pupils about what they thought
about using an online e-portfolio to document their work. We also talked about what their
parents thought of the project and how they would feel about them commenting on their
work. When the session had finished I asked the pupils to take home a questionnaire for
themselves and their parents to fill in so that I would have their perspective on the
intervention.
Week six reflections
After reading the feedback from the pupils and parents I was surprised to see that the pupils
had mentioned the work they were doing in the session but had not shown them their blogs
until the last week. I feel this was a missed opportunity as parental involvement could have
played in important role in encouraging pupils to increase the quality of their work. After
reading some of the pupils feedback it became clear that in fact pupils were reluctant to
show their work to their parents until they had completed the project. I was surprised by
this and wonder if the pupils were fearful of negative feedback from their parents. The
parents on the other hand seemed to like the idea of being able to check pupils progress
and communicate with the teacher about their childrens progress in design and technology.
I should have involved parents from the start to have been able to get a better
understanding of how parental interaction would have impacted on pupils engagement
with the e-portfolio.
Conclusion

Creating the original blog template took several days to complete although a lot of time was
spent on this at the start it would take only seconds to replicate for the whole school. I then
thought about all the different projects that the pupils would be doing over their school life,
if the e-portfolio needed to be changed or pages added once the blog was already set up,
this would then need to be done individually for every pupil. Although this could be done by
the pupils themselves this would be a lengthy task. It then occurred to me that pupils
couldnt be guaranteed to do this which would result in them having no way to document
their progress. The template blog would then need to include pages for every project the
pupils would be completing during their time in school. The major problem I saw with this
was that as technology is rapidly changing so are the projects we teach in school. For a blog
template that could be used all the way through pupils time at school the projects would
need to stay the same for at least five years. The only way I can see to get round this
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problem is to create multiple subsections of the blog that contain a basic standard format
that can be used for any project. Pupils would then have the choice to customize each
subsection depending on the project they are currently working on, and if they dont they
are still able to do the work asked of them on the standard format. This wold require a
massive contribution from all members of staff across the department all working together
and although not impossible I am under no illusions that this would be a real challenge to
achieve this.
I was able to observe that pupils engagement in the project increased when using the e-
portfolio compared to those that werent involved and they also achieved a higher grade
when summative assessment was given at the end. Pupils were frequently stopping me in
the corridor between lessons to talk about their work and responded well to formative
assessments in the comments section leading to an improved quality outcome. From my
experience formative assessment benefits pupils in future work but during this intervention
pupils were immediately making changes to their work after receiving feedback. This
suggests that the e-portfolio would benefit pupils knowledge and understanding of the
subjects they were working on but this was only a small scale intervention with pupils
selected that were keen to begin with. Had the intervention involved the whole class Im not
sure the results would have been beneficial to everyone. The pupils selected were of a high
ability to begin with and all had access to the internet at home, this may have not been the
case with the rest of the class. Some of the pupils not involved were not keen on working on
the computers during lesson time and became easily frustrated during the CAD task. These
pupils could have become even more disengaged if they had had to use the computers at
home to document their work.
The school involved had good ICT facilities but there were still restrictions when scanning
and saving work for pupils to access at home. This would become an even bigger problem in
schools that had poor ICT facilities and would be an impractical way for them to document
pupils progress. Although schools are becoming more and more technological advanced it
may be some time before this intervention would be practical throughout the countrys
secondary schools. I am also aware that not every child in school has access to computers at
home and could be a little unfair to ask those individuals to stay behind after school to
complete homework on the schools computers as this could stigmatise pupils and result in
bullying.
During the intervention I was able to assess pupils work more conveniently but this led to
the pupils expecting it more often than those not involved in the intervention. Although
this definitely had a positive effect on their progress I dont see how this would be
sustainable for teachers who use this format for every one of their classes. The extra time
spent leaving feedback on top of scanning and saving pupils work to access at home would
result in an increased workload which would outweigh the benefits to the teacher.
Eventually I expect that the issues involved in this intervention will be solved and in the
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future more schools will start to use e-portfolios to document and assess pupils progress.
Unfortunately now is not the time but thats not to say the benefits seen during this
intervention should be ignored. With more focus on the use and access to ICT facilities for
pupils, teachers professional development in the use of ICT and continued technological
advancements in education and schools the use of online e-portfolios will start to have a
positive effect on pupils engagement within design and technology and improve the way in
which teachers can give formative assessment to improve pupils progress and engagement.
















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