Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Uncategorized category.
New Article
In the latest issue of Educause Quarterly there is an article on e-folios that may be of interest to you titled “Implementing Electronic Portfolios: Benefits, Challenges, and Suggestions” by Barbara Meyer and Nancy Latham.
Meyer and Latham describe the lessons learned during the initial implementation of e-portfolios at four teacher education programs in the United States.
ePortfolio vs. Dossier
What is the difference between an electronic teaching portfolio and a teaching dossier? Other than the obvious fact that an eportfolio is electronic, there are other features that set them apart. The ruling distinction is that the eportfolio allows for more creativity and self-expression because it has not (yet?) become as regulated as the dossier. Traditionally, teaching dossiers are standardized documents that are used “to document capabilities of employees and students in order to streamline institutional business processes” (Interface 2006 ePortfolios). But this is not necessarily the purpose of eportfolios. On the contrary, “portfolios are a process of creative expression” (D’Arcy Norman).
The eportfolio gives us the opportunity to create dynamic and often interactive platforms for presenting our work and reflecting on our learning experiences. We can also include additional resources such as pdf files, images, sound clips, video clips, and hyperlinks, that help to link the content of the portfolio to a concrete context by capturing the learning process in a variety of ways.
Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks to the eportfolio is that it is not recognized by all institutions in the process of applying for tenure and promotion, and this is why most instructors should think about having both. Still, the eportfolio is a valuable tool for maintaining an on-going reflective journal on your experiences in teaching and learning.
Upcoming E-Portfolio Conference
LaGuardia Community College, an internationally recognized leader in the fast-growing field of Electronic Student Portfolios, is pleased to announce a national conference, “Making Connections: ePortfolio, Integrative Learning, and Assessment,” to be held April 11-12, 2008, at LaGuardia’s bustling New York City campus. Making Connections will draw leaders in the field from across the country and provide a unique opportunity to hear directly from LaGuardia students and faculty. The Making Connections conference provides a unique opportunity to examine the transformative promise and practice of ePortfolio in higher education.
Electronic Student Portfolios are gaining wide popularity in as a way to document, assess and enhance learning and teaching. Hundreds of universities around the world have begun using ePortfolio to help students reflect and create digital portraits of their evolving identities as learners. And as the political debate over assessment heats up, educators have found new ways to use ePortfolio to analyze the impact of the learning/teaching process.
LaGuardia has emerged an ePortfolio leader, with a large and successful ePortfolio initiative that helps students to engage more deeply with their learning. While many colleges are piloting ePortfolio, LaGuardia has achieved broad implementation. Working with thousands of poor, immigrant, and minority students, LaGuardia’s data shows improved learning outcomes, from writing and critical thinking to pass rates and retention.
At the Making Connections conference, you’ll meet faculty and students who do groundbreaking work with this new educational tool. Addressing issues of teaching, learning, and assessment, as well as ways to link ePortfolio to the new possibilities of Web 2.0, the conference will combine voices of the LaGuardia experience with presentations from international leaders in the field, such as Helen Barrett and Trent Batson. Presentations will spotlight ePortfolio projects from schools ranging from Portland State University, the University of Michigan, and Virginia Tech to the University of Westminster in London and Kapi’olani Community College in Honolulu.
For more information, see http://www.eportfolio.lagcc.cuny.edu/conference . Or contact Susan Lambert, slambert@lagcc.cuny.edu or 718-482-5404.
Don’t Miss the January Online Webcast!
The EPAC Community of Practice ( Electronic Portfolio Action &
Communication International) is hosting an online webcast on eportfolios this Monday, January 28th at 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET/9 p.m. GMT.
Darren Cambridge will be presenting a version of his plenary address from ePortfolio 2007 on “Layering Networked and Symphonic Selves with Electronic Portfolios: A Critical Role for ePortfolios in Employability through Integrative Learning.”
A brief description:
The role of ePortfolio in promoting employability must be situated in a larger critical discussion about the relationship between citizens, employers and the state. While also helping individuals develop their employability, ePortfolios ought to contribute to creating agency, satisfaction, and meaning in their lives as a whole.
A copy of the accompanying paper can be downloaded from here.
Instructions on how to join are available on the EPAC wiki at http://epac.pbwiki.com/
Personal Learning Environments
Have you noticed a growing reference to eportfolios as “personal learning environments” or PLEs? Jeremy Hiebert ponders how they might be different from eportfolios and asks if and why a shift occured on his HeadSpace blog:
“Did vendors and institutions kill the initial promise of e-portfolios by trying to turn the concept into a single tool (product) used to measure student achievement?”
In trying to distinguish the different kinds of tools used in a PLE over the traditional eportfolio, Hiebert draws a concept map to represent how someone might use a PLE as an eportfolio.
Visit his blog to see his new eportfolio model and to learn more about his project.
