Implementing webfolios in school leadership internships: "pluses  (Page 6/6)

Table 6 provides information about specific problems that interns encountered with the webfolio process. While the overwhelming majority of students in the first cohort that implemented webfolios indicated that technology issues were the greatest source of problems, subsequent cohorts report very few issues impeding their usage of the tools.

Discussion and lessons learned

Overall, interns indicated positive opinions about the usage of webfolios and viewed the application as an important part of the evaluation of their internship experience and see value in its use towards seeking employment as a school leader. Technology support was often cited as a key variable in the implementation of the project and the need for more presentations and professional development were cited as essential to their successful completion of the process.

While the interns’ feedback provided one view of the webfolios introduction, a discussion of the lessons learned from the faculty viewpoint offers additional areas of focus.

One point of contact and time

Initially, the idea of implementing webfolios was widely accepted by the faculty. Once the idea became a reality, faculty hesitated. After discussions on postponing the implementation one additional year, faculty decided to continue as planned with the condition that one faculty among them coordinate implementation and instructions for use with students and faculty. Having one faculty coordinating the process was an effective tool for full implementation. One reason was that students and faculty felt they had a point person to contact with problems. Another reason was that one faculty coordinator could keep ongoing notes of implementation issues and incorporate needed changes for the second year of implementation. A lesson learned was that even though there was no monetary investment in implementing webfolio there was a large and unexpected time commitment from the faculty coordinator who also was also supervising interns. Therefore, having one point of contact for the application is helpful but release time might be needed.

Change takes time and courage

All faculty need to be familiar with the application and its usage and support. In this pilot study, faculty was learning to use webfolios alongside students but the learning perspectives were different. Students learned to create webfolios while faculty learned to review and provide feedback. Therefore when students looked for their supervisors for technical support the standard approach was to connect students with the coordinator. A lesson learned was to allow time for practice and to provide very clear expectations and processes for the use of the online tool.

Technology issues

Many students completing the principal preparation program at this institution live in rural regions of North Carolina where access to the internet is difficult. Therefore, faculty and students addressed obstacles in order to access adequate levels of technology and support. One particular obstacle was encountered at the monthly seminars held at a local high school. Meetings were typically held in the media center where access to the internet was limited due to the small number of computers and in addition the need for a password to access the internet. Thanks to the collaboration with the school administrators the faculty was able to obtain a temporary password to log on to the internet however there were small numbers of terminals to access. A lesson learned from this experience is the need to meet in a location where Wi-Fi is accessible and where each student has access to a computer. At this point, the faculty is strongly recommending students to bring their laptops with them. In addition, the meeting locations must have computer labs with internet access.

Conclusion

The principal preparation program in this study initiated and designed webfolios for submission of evidences of internship learning experiences during the pilot year 2007-08, and over the past two years (2008-09 and 2009-10) has seen the process evolve from one that was challenging technically and in implementation to one that is highly reflective and useful for student interns and faculty. Implementation and evaluation results over the past three years indicated full implementation by both students and faculty. To evaluate the use of this process over the years student interns and faculty shared their perceptions of the process they experienced. What’s been learned is that this process is continuing to improve, especially in the area of technology and professional development for interns. However, interns are finding that the benefits of this process stem far beyond simple completion of the task and translate into exponential growth as a professional. Current students will also be evaluated and perceptions will be compared to that of the prior groups.

References

• Hall, G.E.,&Hord, S.M. (2001). Implementing change: Patterns, principles, and potholes . Needham Heights, MA: Allyn&Bacon.
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• Partnership for 21 ^st Century skills . (2004). Retrieved from (External Link)&task=view&id=254&Itemid=120
• Solomon, G.,&Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New tools, new schools . Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).
• Strudler, N.,&Wetzel, K. (Summer 2005). The diffusion of electronic portfolios in teacher education: Issues of initiation and implementation. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 37 (4), pp. 411-433.