Originally posted by Jennifer L on October 11, 2019
I have chosen to analyze MyBlueprint for my A1 project. MyBlueprint is an online portfolio, similar to FreshGrade, that the Vancouver School Board started investing in. My school has volunteered to pilot this program, so this project came at the right time! In the video, I tried to include mobile, tablet, and desktop views of MyBlueprint.
View the video below, or click here: https://youtu.be/6_vAozBzBu4
I think our school adopted MyBlueprint 3 years ago. Now it looks way better than it was 3 years ago. It is an excellent tool for students’ digital portfolio and a good platform for the students to start career life education. It is of great value to the teachers and students to find information about universities and colleges when it collects all the critical information to one platform. Our planning 10 (and career life connection) teacher really likes to ask students to find their first-hand information from MyBlueprint. And it offers knowledge of the different professions, which I prefer more than the school information. In my opinion, the students need to build up the connections between a university program and what kind of jobs they can get after finishing a program.
However, there are two weaknesses we have noticed here:
1. It’s difficult to log in without a VPN in mainland China, but not impossible.
2. The university and college information is limited in Canada and the US. But it is a good start, looking forward to having more information about other countries.
My school district started piloting My Blueprint last year and more teachers have come aboard this year. Generally, the staff and students have enjoyed the program as it allows you to make digital portfolios in a user friendly way. In my classroom, before we had access to Microsoft Teams, I assigned my projects through My Blueprint and had them submit directly through there and write a reflection. Once the students get in the process, it runs seamlessly. The benefit to this program is that it can be for almost all grades, not just high school. The primary grades in my school have been using the QR code login method and Ipads to work on their portfolios and they love it!
The weaknesses you mentioned aren’t only limited to China. Even in Canada, I had to get IT to disable part of our firewall because My Blueprint hosts your files through a 3rd party which many firewalls dislike.
Another weakness that I heard from my district (not confirmed though) is that the district needs to pay a fee to subscribe to the My Blueprint program if you want the portfolios to follow the students from year to year, otherwise it is only good for one year.
Originally posted by kimberley seto on October 12, 2019
Thank you Jennifer for providing us all with a clear breakdown of how Blueprint is used. My school is slowly adopting this app into their classrooms and as with all new digital platforms, this takes some time and persuading for teachers to pick up. One thing I think that elevates Blueprint above all its other competitors is the ongoing online profile that students can take with them as they progress through the grades. I wish I had something like this when I was in grade school as I would have enjoyed seeing the changes and my progression from Kindergarten.