Portfolio - Instructional Technology

This portion of the handbook is designed to assist Instructional Technology candidates in Instructional Technology developing a professional portfolio. Portfolios are required of every special education candidate. Portfolios will be used as an exit requirement for completion of the graduate degree program. Within this handbook, answers to the following questions will be addressed:

• What is a professional portfolio?
• What are the benefits of a professional portfolio?
• What is the conceptual framework of the professional portfolio?
• TaskStream: Your Professional Online Portfolio

What is a professional portfolio?

Purdue University Calumet believes that teachers, instructional designers, and other performance improvement specialists must be able to demonstrate their competencies, skills, and dispositions (attitudes) through a collection of artifacts organized into a professional portfolio.  In addition to artifacts, reflection narratives must be included in which the candidate writes about how he/she demonstrated a particular standard through professional experience.  Each course in the PUC program provides an opportunity for the candidate to create a portfolio entry.  By the time the candidate is ready to graduate, she/he has a complete professional portfolio.

What Are the Benefits of a Professional Portfolio?

It is the intent of the PUC Instructional Technology program to provide candidates with many opportunities to reflect on their professional experiences and set goals for their future development. Portfolios provide one avenue for this reflective growth.

A Professional Portfolio can benefit candidates by:

• encouraging professional pride by providing a place to organize and display an individual's accomplishments
• providing a personally meaningful account of knowledge and skills
• serving as a professional resource throughout the education program
• providing strategies for implementing portfolios for future licensure/licensure
• encouraging reflection on professional and personal development
• providing a means for clearly communicating professional and personal assets
• providing a concrete reference for use during job interviews

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What is the conceptual framework of the professional portfolio?

The professional portfolio is designed so that it directly links with the conceptual framework adopted by the School of Education. This framework guides all of the School of Education’s programs, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and reflects the themes of creating knowledge, developing practice, and fostering relationships.

The conceptual framework was used as the guiding document when preparing standards for each of the School of Education’s programs. These standards are to be directly linked to candidates’ performance in their portfolios. Standards have been developed that reflect (a) general core knowledge (General Standards) for all graduate students, and (b) individual Program Area Standards (also known as content standards).

ALL education graduate students are expected to demonstrate that they have met standards in each of the following General Standards (these standards are also integrated into the undergraduate education program portfolios):

Instructional Uses of Technology (practice)
Individuals with Special Needs (practice)
Diversity (practice)
Written Communication (practice)
Educational Research (theory)
Community Collaboration (relationship)
Content knowledge (theory and practice)

Leadership and Vision
Learning and Teaching
Productivity and Professional Practice
Support, Management, and Operation
Assessment and Evaluation
Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues

Graduate candidates are therefore expected to demonstrate proficiency in their program area in addition to the six Standards. For example, a candidate in Instructional Technology would include six separate entries in the General Standards portion of the portfolio, and entries for the four Program Area Standard sin Instructional Technology.  However, it is possible that some entries may demonstrate proficiency in both a General Standard and a Program Area Standard.  Each entry requires only a separate rationale.  The same entry cannot be used to demonstrate competency in two different General Standards or two different Program Standards entries, but one entry may satisfy a General Standards entry and a Program Area Standard.  Separate rationale statements are required for each entry to explain how the standard was satisfied. Entries in both the General Standards and in Instructional Technology Program Standards make reference to examples of the use of technology. To demonstrate competency in the use of technology, the student MUST have a working sample of the technology as part of the Portfolio.

Every effort has been made in the development of graduate professional portfolios to provide connections between programs and the goals of the School of Education. In summary, these connections include:

A conceptual framework that connects all aspects of the School of Education’s programs
A set of six graduate-level General Standards that connect to the conceptual framework and undergraduate portfolio requirements
A set of six graduate-level Program Area Standards that link to the conceptual framework and the goals of individual programs. 

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