Abstract  

of 

Professional Portfolio for JACK STANFILL

http://imet.csus.edu/imet2/stanfillj/portfolio/portfolio.htm

by

Jack Stanfill

Introduction:
Learning is a process. This portfolio is my evidence of this process in the Masters of Arts in Education: Educational Technology program at California State University, Sacramento. The evidence is divided into sections, Showcase, Product, and Process. I wish to thank my instructors Larry Hanna, Mary-Ann Pomerleau, Mike Menchaca, and Bruce McVicker. I am also indebted to the participants of this cohort for their feedback. 

The Showcase:
The Showcase section of the portfolio involves an action research project and a WebQuest.  My action research project focuses on elements of online learning that are effective in achieving student academic success. The project includes a review of the literature. The outcome of my action research has been to advance the development of a quality online learning program within the San Juan Unified School District. Gridlock WebQuest was developed through the association of my friend Joe Herz. We tried to capture the imagination of students by relating the quest to everyday life. We understand that relevance and challenge is key to individual intrinsic motivation. Gridlock WebQuest is a search for solutions to the problems associated with gridlock that can be found around the world. As of this writing, Gridlock WebQuest had not yet been reviewed by Bernie Dodge.

The Product:
The Product is separated into four endeavors in education that have been completed during my involvement in the iMET2 program. They include:

Instructional Organizer:
The Instructional Organizer is a staff development tool developed with my friend RJ Dake.  This tool has been presented as a workshop at a Computer Using Educators (CUE) conference in Sacramento, California, and a national educational technology conference at California State University, Chico. This tool is designed to benefit the teacher developing project-based learning units. While studying advance organizers for students, I posited that teachers could benefit from them as well. RJ and I are very pleased with this endeavor for it captures the essence of the learning process.

Music In the Curriculum:
This workshop was created as an experiment in staff development. The essential question is: Can learning strategies presented in iMET function for staff development when there is little staff experience with content? The purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate to staff members how music can be used to enhance learning in other subject areas. It has successfully demonstrated that music is an essential component to education and is assessable to all.

California Water Shed:
This is my first iMET collaboration and the only one with my friends Kay Carlile, RJ Dake, and Henry Gordon. This project served as an exercise in applying advance organizers as scaffolding in a constructivist-learning environment. We successfully incorporated an array of advance organizers to learning about California watersheds while addressing multiple learning modalities. In the process, we developed acumen for Internet research and presentation.

African American Music:
This lesson, titled "History of Rock n Roll: African American Influence On American Society", is the brainchild of my friend Chris Watson. I confess to having a small part in its development. This secondary history lesson demonstrates the positive influence of African Americans on our modern society and serves as an example of how music correlates with American history. We were able to convey an historical and cultural perspective of music without recorded media.

MusicView:
This research software provides comprehensive analysis of the music teaching series published by Silver Burdett Ginn and McGraw-Hill. First developed using FoxPro 2.6, MusicView is currently being rebuilt using File Maker Pro 4. Besides providing concepts and skills relative to teaching music, MusicView relates music concepts and skills to the national standards for music education developed by Music Educators National Conference (MENC). MusicView is included here to demonstrate that a massive amount of data about teaching music can be accessed and understood by the common teacher using technology by merely pointing and clicking a mouse.

The Process:
The Process section describes my professional development in the iMET program and has several pieces that include:

Professional Development:

• "Learning Is A Process" - The story of my professional development within the iMET program.

• "Essays" - writings about education that often express the differences between the ideal and reality.

• "A Funny Thing Happened On My Way To the Phorum" - forum assignment reflections that are only occasionally responded to.

Concept Attainment:

This is a study of the differences between concept attainment and concept formation developed with the collaboration of my friends Kevin Baker, Yvonne Bowman, Andrew Goff, and Christie Wheeler. Professional growth is evidenced by collaborative learning model and presentation technology.

American Music:

This artifact is a classroom music lesson that is instructive of American music. The first installment is a history of rock-and-roll. Other genres will be added as they are developed: jazz, country-western, and popular. Blues resource will be the African American Music lesson described previously. This project defined my web page style and determined subsequent web page developments.