Significant Context

When studying theology we are always taught to look at any statement in terms of its context ie the culture, the authority of speaker, the capabilities of the listener, the topic in question etc, etc.  And no more so than in today's constructivist mode of teaching and learning.

Following on from a recent NAACE discussion on LinkedIn, I suggested the above graphic as illustrating the inter-connectedness of three primary areas of the Curricula, the Skills & Competencies and the various Motivations that energise teacher and learner alike.  It is my firm belief that not one of these three areas can be considered in isolation but that the specific context within which the learner is placed can unite the relevant portions of each.

A well-organised ePortfolio can very effectively document all of these five areas and also show their inter-relatednesses. - As an afterthough, it is my instinctive nature to expect to see all of these five areas clearly considered within a student's ePortfolio.  A balance of all five will give the reader of an ePortfolio a clear sense of a 'well-rounded' person.

Calling all Teachers

If your kids have any involvement with ePortfolios, read on...

Join us at ePIC 2011, the 9th International ePortfolio and Identity Conference 11-13 July 2011, London

The conference is slowly taking shape: as usual, authors wait for the last minute to submit and many know that the deadline will be extended... However, it's you we need!

In other parts of the world, particularly the USA and NZ, many youngsters in Primary and Secondary schools are celebrating their successes through the use of various ePortfolios systems.

However, here in the UK work is going on in developing good ePortfolio practice - but is not being well published. At ePIC 2011 we want to examine further the work with ePortfolios particularly within the Primary and Secondary phases of education. But we need examples of your good practice.

I have been asked to find teachers willing to present, and attend, in order to have at least 2 sessions (6 speakers) dedicated to primary and secondary education. We can support up to 30 teachers with special discounts (and perhaps your LA/school will support you for CPD). Or your VLE/ePortfolio vendor might offer some sponsorship. (NB July might be an easier time for teachers to get 'time off' for such an important meeting.)

For further information see: http://www.epforum.eu/

PRIMARY & SECONDARY SCHOOLS
What is happening? How are ePortfolios used in Schools? Can ePortfolios overcome 'Facebook mania'? Are Parents & mentors involved? Where is the CPD? Can ePortfolios support transition? What of Interoperability? These are the questions - only you have the answers! Your involvement is imperative!

If you feel able to answer any of the above questions please offer your contribution here.

Or contact me at support@maximise-ict.co.uk

Accelerating Learning

I have recently come across a challenging post by Nick Heap on Accelerating Learning. Although his original document is now a few years old it is still a most challenging work which should make us all think about how learning can best be encouraged.

However, before turning to his article, I would ask you to think about what makes a good learning environment - even jot down half-a-dozen bullet points. Then go to Nick's article and read through the two pages...

Having understood his message, I wonder what you would do to change teaching and learning in your situation? Comments back would be appreciated!

ePortfolios and Market Traction

I recently came across this interesting blog - well, interesting in that the author appears to have opinions on so many different subjects.

However, he (she?) does raise some interesting points concerning ePortfolios that I felt I should respond to:

You say, “how many of the players of traditional portfolios were wondering why e-portfolios hadn’t had better market traction. I commented that it has been broadly accepted but it just isn’t called e-portfolios, it was simply people creating an online identity (not always positive unfortunately) with social media.”

Have you not in your statement summed up several of the reasons why the takeup of ePortfolios has been so slow?

Firstly “players of traditional portfolios” are certainly not the ones likely to extol the benefits of innovative digital systems. The driver for ePortfolios is certainly not traditional didactics but starts with a hunger within teachers and students alike for collaborative approaches to teaching and learning.

I fail to see that ePortfolios have been “broadly accepted”. I do agree that some institutions have established internal ‘Portfolios’ embedded within their VLE, but these hardly come under such criteria as ‘portability’, ‘ownership’, ‘Longevity’ or ‘Lifewide Learning’. Quite simply, these manifestations do not come under an enlightened view of what an ePortfolio can do. But more significantly, “most” teachers or Faculty that I speak to do not have a clue about what an ePortfolio can really do for their students or for their own delivery.

Thirdly, of course, just creating an on-line digital identity is hardly what an ePortfolio is about. As much as some social media might claim to be secure and can be presented to different audiences for different purposes, such sites lack the self-image or self-representation that a true ePortfolio can offer as part of a ‘digital identity’. And again, I cannot see solutions such as FaceBook providing the ability to ‘transmogrify’ from one persona to another in the same way as a good ePortfolio such as eFolio can offer.

I really feel that old assumptions about ePortfolios should be discarded and that we should come up with a clear set of ePortfolio definitions. Several years ago I published the following set of 10 criteria. Since then no-one has disagreed with them:
http://issuu.com/efoliouk/docs/ten_prime_directives (best read in FullScreen mode)

Inspired by Technology, Driven by Pedagogy

The recently published book/paper by OECD ‘Inspired by Technology, Driven by Pedagogy’ may not say anything significantly new for those who have been involved in education and innovation for more than a few years. But it is a document well worth studying. I was saying that ‘Innovation must be curriculum driven’ some 40 years ago – and ever since.

http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp?sf1=identifiers&st1=9789264094789

However, it’s not what you say, but how you say it. This document pulls together wide-ranging research and well-argued thinking which together presents a very powerful case of which the UK government in particular should take note.

Space here does not allow me to quote all the impact statements or questions but let the following suffice:

“do governments (be they at national, regional or local level) have a systemic approach to technology-based school innovations?’ (p.18)

As one who has been involved with both innovation in schools and Total Quality Management for many years, I was pulled up suddenly by this question as I fear that the only answer at all levels is “No!”

Now that Becta in the UK is steadily dissolving due to Government cuts, I wonder if there will be any organisation ready, willing and able to develop an advisory paper on whole-school innovation? I am not sure that the ICT-Mark properly addresses whole-school innovation, and even if it can, is it realistic to expect that what one school sees as innovation and another sees as irrelevant can be merged into one policy? Is it possible to develop a regional or national approach to ‘a systemic approach to technology-based school innovations?’

The book raises many questions including teacher-training and the place of Web2.0 technologies. If this very articulate book were to fall into the hands of headteachers or even District or Local Authority advisors I just wonder what might happen. Perhaps my oft-quoted observation, “everyone did that which was right in his own eyes” has some poignancy here. Is there a place in UK education for firm advice as to how we should approach innovation particularly in relation to ICT?

Or is it that some countries have a very different educational regime to the UK? Writing a chapter for another book I was recently pulled up suddenly by a comment, ‘I am unclear as to the relationship between ePortfolios and the school regulatory bodies in the UK...’ My gut reaction was ‘What regulatory bodies?’

A few questions...

Well, the full title should be, A few questions before you launch into implementing ePortfolios at your education institution.

For some time now, I have been following the adventures of Sarah Stewart and her application of ePortfolios to the work of midwives in New Zealand and Australia. Recently she posted some 10 questions which potential implementers of ePortfolios should ask themselves before taking such a leap of faith. With her permission I have duplicated her questions and provided some answers:

1. What are you wanting to achieve?
Does an ePortfolio system allow you to achieve that aim or would something else be more appropriate? For example, you would like to use an ePortfolio to allow a seamless submission of assignments by students...do you need an ePortfolio to do this, or can you achieve that function via your current learning/student management system?

Answer:
Any half-legitimate institution for teaching and learning should have its own VLE with a good range of resources including rubrics, rich media, archived materials, and powerful tools much broader than the standard syllabus in order to allow students to develop their own personalised learning environment. So, what we should be doing is looking at those aspects of an ePortfolio that a VLE cannot easily deliver.

2. Is what you are wanting to achieve pedagogically sound?
In other words, do you have a sound educational reason for implementing ePortfolio or are you attracted by the technology with all the latest bells and whistles?

Answer:
Introducing an ePortfolio system will not suddenly change teaching and learning strategies. Rather, a student-focussed approach should inevitably suggest that an ePortfolio is the best medium to manage a range of learning activities where peer-review, feedback in all its forms, use of alternative media, supplementary information about students etc is possible. Above all the ePortfolio should allow the ability to present selected artefacts to a variety of audiences, under controlled access.

3. What is the evidence about ePortfolio in your context?
Is there solid evidence that ePortfolio makes a difference to students' learning or is ePortfolio another fad you are following for the sake of it?

Answer:
There is a growing body of evidence from both students, teachers and administrative staff that ePortfolios have a demonstrable impact on both teaching and learning. However, this takes time for new-start institutions. It takes several years for most institutions to settle down to ePortfolio thinking. Until teachers have discovered what works/does not work for them, until exemplar materials related to ePortfolio processes are tried and tested, until an institution has a good body of alumni who understand ePortfolios, until a good cohort of mentors can advise from their own previous experiences, that evidence will be slow to materialise. Administrators, too, have noticed a significant increase in retention rates.

4. What ePortfolio tools best suit your students' needs?
Before you sign off on an expensive proprietary ePortfolio platform, is there an online tool already available that will better suit your students' needs? For instance, if you want your business students to be prepared to find a job, would they be better off developing a LinkedIn account? Would your carpentry students be better off uploading photos of their work to Flickr? Would a blog suit students' needs for a reflective ePortfolio?

Answer:
This question suggests a restrictive view of teaching and learning. All students should have access to a wide range of tools, such as they prefer to work with, such as Flickr, Prezie, PhotoPeach, Issuu or Audacity to name just a few. But these are NOT ePortfolio tools as such. ePortfolio tools consist of facilities such as making individual artefacts private, shareable or public. Tools such as polls, surveys or Likart scales as well as pre-set forms which can be ‘switched’ on or off all allow different methods of providing feedback. Similarly, blogs or wikis can be contained within the ePortfolio so as to create a private but collaborative community where students can work together with some confidence that their efforts and mistakes will not be seen by ‘outsiders’. - Anyway, who says a proprietary system has to be expensive? - eFolio certainly is not!

5. Who is in control of the ePortfolio?
If you dictate the ePortfolio to the students they are far less likely to engage with it than if they have total control over it. The ePortfolio must belong totally to the students so it can be developed to meet their needs, as opposed to your needs as lecturer and that of the institution.

Answer:
In many cases it might be better for the institution to provide the ePortfolio with some level of scaffolding to help students get off to a good start rather than having to build from a blank canvas. A range of good support features will enable the student to identify what things can be changed immediately and what things can be modified at a later date. It is up to the teacher to decide how much ePortfolio support each student may need, but, as when encouraging a baby to walk, there comes a time when hand-holding is not necessary. Control is a matter of gradual release.

6. Will the ePortfolio be integrated into the curriculum?
If the ePortfolio is an extra add-on to the students' work, they are unlikely to engage with it. Thus, you need to consider how you will integrate it into the curriculum and assessment. This may require a lot of work for faculty staff, so you have to decide if this effort is "worth it".

Answer:
This might create a bit of strain for those educators who have not made the transition to collaborative teaching and learning. However, having access 24/7 to a student’s ePortfolio means that monitoring progress is easier, particularly if you have a few students who need ‘prodding’ to get going. Similarly early intervention if a student is beginning to veer off course actually saves the teacher considerable work when students begin to get towards the date of submission. As mentioned previously, this can help retention rates.

7. How portable will the ePortfolio be?
What will happen to the ePortfolio when the students leave the institution? Portability is one argument for using the cloud such as Google Apps, as opposed to a platform that is restricted to student use only.

Answer:
Portability is a fundamental question and although questions about teaching and learning MUST come first, the issue of portability will actually influence teaching and learning strategies. I have heard too many HE students say “Why should I bother, I can’t take it with me!” If the ePortfolio is to be both Lifelong and Lifewide it MUST be capable of full portability without the destructive influences of extant interoperability systems. However, the rush to use cloud solutions is not without its drawbacks. A secure externally hosted system provides the best of both worlds. eFolio, for instance, is hosted externally in the UK and Europe. One of the significant drawbacks of a cloud-based solution is that of the lack of educational support whereas eFolio is provided primarily as a tool for learners.

8. Can the ePortfolio be integrated into the students' life as a professional tool once they have left university/college?
This is an especially important question for nurses and midwives who are required to have an ePortfolio as part of their statuary requirements for practice. There's little point in developing an ePortfolio platform that is different from one they will use once they are qualified. On the other hand, is this an opportunity to collaborate with hospitals and professional bodies to ensure there is a seamless integration of ePortfolio from life as a student into professional practice?

Answer:
Yes, it is ESSENTIAL that the principle of the ePortfolio as being Lifelong should enable the newly qualified professional, for instance, to use the ePortfolio for the continuation of one’s career and other interests and to share with new colleagues etc. In a new situation, the cosmetic display and layout of pages, the selection of relevant artefacts should be capable of matching one’s new image.

9. How will you evaluate the ePortfolio?
You must have a process for measuring the impact of the ePortfolio as opposed to implementing it without further follow up.

Answer:
Perhaps the most significant feature of evaluation is not that of the presentation of the ePortfolio nor of the artefacts contained within it and the temptation to think summatively, but rather to look at the reflections, the benefits of collaboration and the learning processes the student experienced that demonstrate an increased maturity of understanding rather than just a completed project.

10. Do you walk the talk?
Do you have an ePortfolio that models the process to both colleagues and students? How can you know the value of a pedagogical process if you do not engage with it yourself?

Answer:
Yes, every teacher is a learner, a collaborator, and, where necessary a bit of an exhibitionist. The ePortfolio should be seen as a tool for learners, teachers, departments and institutions. The same tool can be used for many different purposes and all sections of society.

Escaping the Stone Age

I was recently in conversation with a respected colleague, and we were bewailing the 'Stone Age' mentality of some of our teachers and how they were holding back our children's learning. Inevitably, I wanted to shout out that the ePortfolio, and eFolio in particular, was the answer to the whole problem. However, in a more reflective moment I came up with four suggestions:

1. The ePortfolio can act as an information service found by all permitted parents/ carers/ mentors/ grandparents etc. This facility should act as a structured information service, an educational 'agony aunt' and also a confidential hot-line where questions about educational practice can be properly and securely discussed.

2. It is essential therefore that schools start understanding that Personal Learning Environments are the way forward and that tools are urgently required that can enable students to move forward at their own speeds and enable the following of their interests. Eventually, I suspect, this will be a Web3.0 environment but certainly an ePortfolio will be involved.

3. I do hope that when schools do manage to catch up with the technology, teachers will be able to check HWKs (and for that matter classworks) on-line, provide feedback to the kids, and modify their lesson plans if necessary, BEFORE the next lesson.

4. It is an absolute MUST that schools should publish their schemes of work in Easy English over their VLEs but preferably within the ePortfolio scaffolding, so that any parent, carer or mentor can help the child to understand 'where they are, where they want to go to and by what processes they will get there'. These should be specifically and constructively written for every subject area. Schools must recognise the benefits of 'the Home-School Nexus'.

However, rather than just describing the ePortfolio as a tool to support 'good practice', another approach would be to try and identify the prefered educational outcomes - and then decide what tools could best achieve the required results. Below are two fundamental questions and my suggested responses:

Q) What do parents, governors and politicians think ought to happen more or better to create better learning?

A: Pupils should be more engaged with their learning and as a consequence would be more productive and would be more proud of the ownership of their learning. They should have access to their work 24/7 so that they can work as and when suits them.

Q) Imagine yourself saying "The use of ICT has got the pupils ?????????.......... so much more/so much better". What, as a teacher would you hope to see?

A: Children are now more able to explore safely for themselves. They know how to phrase the right questions when searching for information. They can learn things not immediately obvious from the school curriculum or exam syllabii. They communicate better with both their peers and teachers. They are more able to learn from and to provide feedback. They will not take one person's opinion as 'gospel' but will clarify/verify what they have been told. They are more aware of things happening around the world. They understand more about different cultures or mindsets. They understand that learning is not a 9-4 occupation but that learning happens all the time. They are more questioning - they will not take 'impossible' as an answer but will explore alternative solutions.

I can visualise so many scenarios where the use of a collaborative ePortfolio is the right place for all of these learning experiences - and possibly with no teacher in sight! And not only 'learning' but also reflection, internal adoption and, inevitably the pride of ownership of ones learning as seen through the showcasing of appropriate artefacts and reflections.

Be Very Afraid

I don’t know what ‘blind spot’ has caused me to pay less attention than I should have done on this work by Prof Stephen Heppell. Perhaps it was an assumption on my part that it was all about an emphasis on the video community.

However, the BVA website provides an immense number of exemplars of what young people can do, given the chance. This ‘short’ gives a brief summary of what BVA is all about. http://www.heppell.net/bva/bva6/reflections.htm

It will take a number of hours to work through all the excellent material found here!

But I have included reference to BVA for one particular reason. The examples shown reveal good supervision, often in smaller groups and with plenty of technical support. However, in the real world children are often left to their own devices. Yes, OK for the more able and responsible student, but what of those who may be more vulnerable or careless about revealing their personal identity?

The one thing that struck me about all of the work illustrated is that it could be so safely contained and developed within the bounds of an ePortfolio system such as eFolio that allows materials to be shared within closed groups until such time as it may be made public. Being hosted externally, ie not within the confines of an institutional VLE, students may have access to their work 24/7 and not just within the classroom.

A CAPITAL Project

I have just received notification of the publication of an excellent research project, CAPITAL - Curriculum and Pedagogy in Technology Assisted Learning. 'Year 3 final report: Shaping Contexts to realise the potential of technologies to support learning.'

The document reads well and is full of up-to-date thinking in relation to the support of learning through contemporary technologies. However, for the sake of this blog, I thought that I would quote some of the references to ePortfolios that might whet your appetite to read further:

"In our work, we used the term 'E-assessment' to refer to any use of digital technology to support an evaluation of a student‟s progress in learning (any activity undertaken to gather and evaluate information about a student's learning). By including tools to gather and store information (e.g., e-portfolios) this term is broader than the definition of e-assessment provided by JISC (2007): “the end-to-end electronic assessment processes where ICT is used for the presentation of assessment and the recording of responses”.

"The guide provides many examples of successful use of e-testing and e-portfolios in assessment. In 2005, 26% of awarding bodies used e-assessment to deliver, on average, 29% of their assessment program (Thomson, 2005). In our interviews with leaders of awarding bodies, it was emphasised that efficiency gains are ultimately beneficial for the learner. E-assessment offers greater flexibility (different locations, different times), faster feedback, and reduction in administration costs (OCR, 2009; AQA, 2008). Also, by supporting the workload for human markers, assessment can be made more reliable. The e-learning company Epic argues that tests can be more consistent, relevant, reduce cheating and save marking time (Epic, 2010).

"However, these benefits described relate mostly to the efficiency gains of summative assessment. In contrast, the potential to assess a range of skills that is broader (e.g. using video to help assess drama), and more fully to integrate assessment into learning activities resonates with claims around the transformational potential of e-assessment..... One key tool that is gaining in appeal is the e-portfolio, which provides the means to store and organise a rich multimedia range of assessment evidence, integrating assessment material from sources such as digital cameras and mobile devices (e.g. Molenet, 2008). The e-scape project reported in our case study (Patterson, 2009a) also exemplifies the potential to integrate a richer range of materials for assessment.

"E-portfolios provide a structure for teachers and learners to store and share rich sources of assessment evidence, although they do not as yet provide quantifiable data or feedback themselves. They are currently mainly used for more work-based assessments that require portfolios of evidence. Consequently, their potential for adoption is more determined by the wider culture of assessment practice.

"It is also important to emphasise here that whilst summative assessment pressures may represent a significant barrier, tools to support formative assessment offer great potential. Indeed, a commitment to formative assessment was perceived as a key enabler in the successful use of e-portfolios in the e-Scape project.

"One key challenge is to change the culture of assessment where the requirements for summative assessment can unhelpfully drive practice. In this situation, there is a significant opportunity to develop assessment for learning, through diagnostic testing with rapid feedback, rich media assignments and feedback, and e-portfolios for self-reflection. There is also a need to support and assess learning over longer periods, through e-portfolios and activity logs."

I could go on with several more quotes... but you should read the whole report for a better overview!

The CAPITAL project produced a range of other reports and research findings during its life, and copies of all of these can be found on the website http://www.lsri.nottingham.ac.uk/capital/

The Complexity of Implementing e-Portfolios

The title of this post is taken from the post written by Vic Jenkins at the University of Bath reporting on the recent Keynote presented by Lisa Gray (JISC) and Gordon Joyes (University of Nottingham). I found the title challenging enough, but the actual post is even more challenging and needs some careful understanding. The video was well put together (despite the audio feedback!) - and I found myself viewing it over and over again.

Some five 'Threshold Concepts' are listed, each followed by a number of claimed 'preconceptions'. However, as I commented on Vic's post, I suspect that many (but not all) of the issues raised by the 'preconceptions' are nothing to do with ePortfolio design or lack of it, but rather echoes of traditional teaching and learning styles which need to be thrown out before ePortfolios can be introduced.

One thing that continues to worry me, as reflected in the Presentation, is the belief that an ePortfolio system is the sole tenure of HEIs, as this again colours much of the published ePortfolio thinking. I really do wish that more ePortfolio evangelists would look beyond the silos within which they work or that they might look beyond the remit of a constraining research grant.

If an ePortfolio is really 'for life' then it cannot be weighed down with built-in assessment tools, whole schemes of work, every artefact generated over four years, every blog-post and feedback or made so technically complex that a 5yr-old or aged granny cannot use it.

Don't get me wrong, I have every praise for the work that JISC in particular does do. But I really do hope that we can come to some sort of consensus as to the simplicity that an ePortfolio such as eFolio can offer.

A Profoundly Disruptive Technology

The AAEEBL conference was a most challenging experience. Held in Boston (MA), meeting so many of the world's leading experts in ePortfolio thinking and from all aspects of education was quite moving. The venue was great and, running concurrently with another more general exhibition 'Campus 2010 Technology', made for some fabulous catering!

Perhaps one of the most challenging messages that I took home with me was the overwhelming feeling that throughout the world educators were all at different stages and opinions about ePortfolios.

Trent was quite right to say of ePortfolio adoption that, "It is gradual because it depends on turning teaching and learning upside down." In my opinion this is a four-way process: For some teachers (and college/HE lecturers) the very provision of these tools will provoke discovery of teaching and learning techniques never tried before. For others who have had a desire to implement new perspectives of teaching and learning, ePortfolio tools are the very answers to their anguished prayers. Thirdly, of concern to ICT managers and accountants, the ePortfolio can provide a low-cost solution to long-term file storage and curation. But fourthly, the ePortfolio can become truly learner-owned and thus supporting lifelong learning.

Whole essays could be written on each of the above four groups and, yes, agreed, this must surely be a disruptive technology for all of them.

I finish this note with some sense of encouragement. Before the conference I had prepared my presentation with the title, 'The Need for NOW!' In it I wanted to express the challenge that both clarification of terminologies and a convergence of practice was urgently necessary. I feel that the whole conference only confirmed my passion.

Social Networking & e-Portfolios

I enjoyed this article on Social Networking, in the Learning Solutions Magazine (5th of a very interesting series). Although unrelated directly to e-Portfolios, Ann Derryberry eloquently draws out some very clear principles that apply equally to working with e-Portfolios.

As she says in her prepenultimate paragraph:

"The existence of a well-conceived and -implemented social learning platform does not in and of itself lead to a thriving social learning community. If participants do not quickly see the utility of their involvement, or if they can’t recognize a return on their engagement, they will quickly drop out. A clear articulation of purpose, easy access for all participants, a meaningful incentive system, and allowance for casual interaction among participants are key factors to a social learning network’s success."

These, surely, are the same prerequisites one would expect for an e-Portfolio? At a time when researchers are asking this very question of "How can we ensure 'buy-in' of our e-Portfolio system?" the fundamental issue is that of the vision of the teacher to realise that the e-Portfolio will support the teaching and learning strategies of the modern classroom - and to realise that e-Portfolio learning must embrace social learning but can also deliver it in an e-safe and documented way.

Building Communities and Networks

I am very grateful to Jeff Utecht for releasing as a free copy, his book 'REACH - Building Communities and Networks for Professional Development'. The book is easy to read and is an excellent introduction to what the 'C' in ICT is all about. I would think that the book could easily be used as a pre-reader for a staff development day or series of workshops. My only wish was that this book could have been available some ten years ago!

Although the word 'e-Portfolio' is strangely not mentioned in the book, the whole mind-set that Utecht describes is that of the e-Portfolio user. It is not surprising, therefore, that he has written another book, 'Blogs as Web-Based Portfolios'.

Nick Rate on e-Portfolios

Eports breakie

View more presentations from Nick Rate.

I have long appreciated the thoughtful and challenging work of Nick Rate, no more than in this Slideshare. It is worth going to his blog post for some further questioning thoughts.

Much of what he writes makes for very good pedagogy although he raises several questions which we at eFolio in the UK believe we have the answers. One typical 'error' in my way of thinking, is to consider an e-Portfolio as a tool for Assessment OR a tool for recording Process(es) OR a tool for Showcasing. In eFolio it is quite possible for the one e-Portfolio to be used for all three (and more) functions at the same time. This can be done as soon as one understand the principle of writing for a specific 'Audience'. In eFolio artefacts can be uploaded once and yet repurposed according to the 'view' presented to specific readers.

Again, Nick raises issues of ownership and portability which need to be resolved by each individual school. Unfortunately, he leaves these questions unanswered, and, until they are, schools cannot really start on a track that they might regret later. eFolio has been purposely designed to overcome the questions that Nick leaves unanswered.

Well, apart from my gripes, New Zealand should be very proud of the work of such energetic leaders!

The Blind Leading the Blind?

As an avid e-Portfolio watcher I spend hours every day reading students' e-Portfolios and academic articles, from the most naive to the extremely erudite. However, what was exciting some four years ago has made me become increasingly frustrated as I repeatedly read the same sort of academic papers describing small-scale 'Pilots' which never seem to get anywhere. Similarly, students from all around the world write of their requirements to explore, investigate or design e-Portfolios as an ICT competency excercise imposed upon them by their tutors.

This set me thinking: Why is it that apparently intelligent people, tutors or faculty in particular, appear to lack any reasonable knowledge of the full functionality or benefits of using an e-Portfolio system?

After some 20 years of e-Portfolio thinking it seems strange that so many school leaders have no working familiarity with the tool. If students can benefit so much from e-Portfolios, what confidence can they have in faculty who don't use them. What sort of duplicity is it that says, 'You must do this, but I don't.'

Perhaps one might ask, 'Who blindfolded you?' Is it the institution that says this would cost too much to implement? Is it faculty who say we haven't got the time? Is it educators who have not adopted Web2.0 thinking? Have staff been confused by misleading advocacy? Or is it an hierarchy that intend maintaining the status quo?

Perhaps nearer the truth is the fact that many students can see through the weaknesses of a profession that relies on orthodoxy rather than exploring a brave and exciting new world of Teaching & Learning?

As I have said in several other places, 'Without a vision the people perish!' No where is this more true than in the world of e-Portfolios. Let us therefore stop all 'Pilots' and get involved in implementing whole-school policies for e-Portfolios, NOW!

home-school relationships - 1

The FuturLab report, 'Developing the home-school relationship using digital technologies', published a few weeks ago, is a useful statement of the present situation, warts 'n all. Illustrated profusely throughout its 68 .pdf pages and well documented, I wonder just how brief FutureLab's message really is.

For me, I get a similar sense when reading the document as when I see other publications by Becta on Parental Engagement - 'It all seems a bit one-sided'. It all seems to be about telling parents what the school does and what the parents should be doing. Yes, there are occasional statements about listening to 'pupil voice' but generally the data-flow all seems a bit one-sided. Again, although I believe in on-line reporting in its full and wholesome potential, many fear that the term relates only to the dreaded 'REPORT' mentality which usually tends to highlight a pupil's failings (eg times late, detentions etc) rather than their merits.

Obviously, I tend to look at any report in terms of its references to e-Portfolios, again, only one brief reference in passing to something that might be implemented in the future. As regular readers will recognise, I see the e-Portfolio as being the tool par excellence for communicating to parents both the progress of their child(ren) in real time and the apposite place for formative feedback.

What I do not see in this report, as with other Becta publications, is any mention of the facility for TEACHERS to take notice of what learning takes place outside of school which is NOT school directed. The e-Portfolio is very much a two-way process as opposed to Becta's uni-directional approach of TELLING the parents. The e-Portfolio can resolve a very real dilema - that of parents not knowing how children are taught, but also that schools should be aware of what happens in the home, in the ballet class, the Saturday morning football fixture or the additional private tuition.

Why should I bother?

There is a situation which I feel is endemic amongst many of our traditional academic institutions. Perhaps their argument is 'If it isn't broken, why mend it?' - little realising that the educational omnibus of 50 years ago is not helping today's students and teachers to get to where they want to be in the future. The vintage omnibus is not necessarily going in the right direction for everyone, particularly when more personal and individulaised vehicles can help learners get closer to where they want to be in a more satisfying way. I recently came across a post asking for responses to the statement below.

“In truth, I can't say I've ever found much evidence of demand for any sort of e-portfolio tool among students, and to be honest there's comparatively little interest among academic staff in using them with students - except perhaps in subjects where portfolios are a professional requirement, and even then they tend to be very much driven by the needs of the certifying professional body.”

Why should students or teachers get excited about something that they do not appreciate? As long as an e-Portfolio is held up as an electronic CV or as a storage system for assessment of coursework no one is going to get inspired. As long as publications still suggest that an e-Portfolio can be held on a CD or flash drive we are still thinking ‘old technologies’.

Perhaps the problem is that of understanding new pedagogies:

• If staff were really looking for a method of capturing the transient interchanges of collaboration or peer review,
• if students realised how on-line formative assessment helps their academic progress,
• if they realised that the e-Portfolio was really an opportunity to share with others their deepest interests,
• if teachers realised that the e-Portfolio can often be a window into the souls of otherwise reticent students,
• if ownership of an e-Portfolio really gave opportunity for self-expression,
• if the e-Portfolio really was a Lifelong and Lifewide tool with full and uncompromised portability,
• if students and teachers realised the value of familial mentors,
• if the value of rich media was really understood,
• if both students and teachers really understood that the e-Portfolio can actually save time and allow both ‘travelling light’ and working where and when they choose, then perhaps the situation might be different.

The end of the BB e-Portfolio?

A recent post from Mr Woo identified one of the weaknesses of how many young learners see the e-Portfolio. But perhaps, as other Blackboard users have commented about their difficulties in using BB in a liberated teaching & learning environment, I should not be surprised.

I immediately thought of several previous posts I had written on the subject of the storage of artefacts. (see 'Ethics or common sense?' and 'Moving House?') I would not wish to say outright, "I told you so!" but I fear that in far too many cases the designers of so-called e-Portfolio systems are not thinking through the implications of their work, nor are course designers spelling out the practicalities of their strategies.

Successful student engagement using e-Portfolios

I was recently asked, “can anyone shed any light on the “theory” of successful student engagement using ePortfolios in the vocational area of learning?” And this was my reply:

This is not an uncommon problem, particularly with purpose-designed systems.

The issue, in my opinion is one of ‘ownership’.

1: If the system you are using is just a tool for subject delivery/assessment there is little motivation for the student to do yet more form-filling.

2: In some institutions the e-Portfolio is just used as a content delivery system as a substitution for a VLE which might not be capable of managing the tutor/mentor feedback and peer-review that an e-Portfolio should be capable of managing. And this is where, I suspect, that the popularity of Web2.0 has intruded itself.

3: It is an educationally recognised fact that the e-Portfolio needs to ‘belong’ to the learner. If there is no self-identity, no self-representation that shouts out “This is ME”, there is little chance that any but the most studious will invest time and effort in doing something that is obviously not ‘mine’ but the College’s.

4: The e-Portfolio should contain personal information that helps the tutor/mentor to better understand the learner and thus develops a better student-teacher relationship. The more information that the learner is allowed to include, including rich media, the better the relationship can become.

5: Of course, the organisation, layout and choice of pages and sub-pages, the templates chosen and colour-schemes, of avatars etc are all part of the psychology of ‘ownership’. It is quite often these very obvious presentation choices that immediately tell the experienced teacher much about their students than might be intended.

6: However, perhaps the most important aspect of the e-Portfolio is what tools are embedded to provide formative feedback, peer review, polls, surveys and comments that really begin to support the type of student activity we should be seeing in the classroom, with or without walls.

7: An obvious requirement of e-Portfolio functionality is that the learner needs to be able to control who-sees-what. A good e-Portfolio will allow the control of audiences so that, concurrently, different readers will see different ‘views’ of the one e-Portfolio.

I could go on for ages, but hope this is a start. Please check out my links on the sidebar:

Minds on Fire?

This morning I came across a blog from 'Supercool School' which pointed me to the Educause document
'Minds on Fire', from last year. The document is well worth reading, even if a bit out-of-date now.

What particularly attracted me was the strapline to their recommendation, "In a rapidly changing world social learning will dominate over formal education."

'How daft', was my instant response. For ages we have recognised that more sex education is taught behind the bike sheds than in the Biology labs, that 5-year-olds are taught how to say 'please' and 'thank you' not by being told that this is the accepted norm, but by the fact that parents and grandparents informally and unconsciously teach these things by regular practice between themselves and also upon the informal correction, at the point of need, of the child.

Similarly, schools recognise that they only have an input to the child's education for some 12% to 20% of their young lives. Recently, through the Home Access Programme in the UK we are supporting the need for closer contact with parents and carers in order to reinforce good educational practice. (Use the search tool at the top right column for more on the Home Access Programme.)

Nowhere is the e-Portfolio a more practical and effective tool for supporting informal or social learning and documenting the transitory and ephemeral experiences of out-of-school learning. What I would like to see in the coming months is more examples of good practice in capturing that 'butterfly' of informal learning, particularly with younger students. - Any offers?