ePortfolio Hub from Ireland

I just received notice today about a new website in Ireland, which is part of a national program in ePortfolio development in that country.  According to their announcement:

As part of a National-Forum funded project, Dublin Institute of Technology, Institute of Technology Tallaght, Institute of Technology Blanchardstown and Hibernia College are delighted to launch the ePortfolio Hub website, which offers a one-stop-shop for anyone interested in incorporating ePortfolios into their teaching or creating their own ePortfolio, including how-tos, templates, guides, presentations, videos and research findings. 

I participated in a conference last March in Dublin, and I recognize a lot of ideas from my keynote address, which I organized around these three questions:

 

The website contains a lot of videos and resources to either create a personal portfolio, or incorporate an ePortfolio into an academic program. 

The largest section of the website focuses on the How of creating ePortfolios, focusing on four steps (for individuals) or three steps (for programs):

 

The Plan section has great resources that provide checklists and resources that are similar to the Planning resource that I have incorporated into my online course. The Reflect section has an insightful video on Reflective Writing, and a very interesting page on Reflective Practice using Barbara Bassot’s ‘Metaphorical Mirrors’. The Present section includes videos on developing digital identity. The Assess section (for programs) includes a variety of sample rubrics for evaluating ePortfolios. There are also sample portfolios, samples of reflective writing, description of the variety of online tools available, and video tutorials for developing an ePortfolio using WordPress.

Overall, this is a great resource for higher education, with a lot of local videos from students and faculty to support the elements of ePortfolio development. I am impressed and proud to have been a small part of the process, beginning with the conference last March.

Current research on ePortfolios in schools

I received the following inquiry from a K-12 teacher:

I came across your work on portfolios, particularly using Google apps, and I was just wondering how recent your research is.  Specifically here: https://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioapps/Home. We are a school district looking to incorporate portfolios with our students (currently using what you would call “Tier 1”).

My response:

Thanks for your inquiry. You didn’t mention what grade level you want to implement ePortfolios. I find that implementation with students younger than 3rd grade becomes a teacher-centered activity, and thus less likely to be sustainable. As long as students are responsible for the implementation, then the workload on teachers is lower.

Regarding my research on portfolio development processes (collection, selection, reflection, direction, presentation, evaluation), the underlying principles and philosophies have not markedly changed since the early 1990s. What has changed are the technologies that have been used to implement portfolios, from proprietary ePortfolio systems (from late 1990s) to so-called Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs (from early 2000s) or Google Apps (from 2008). As with most technologies, the field is always changing, especially with the add-on tools to Google Apps such as Teacher Dashboard (Hapara) or Google’s own Classroom. Most recently there have been ePortfolio tools developed for K-12 tools, such as Seesaw, although I have not used that one yet (looks like an elementary tool).

I have posted a web page that contains a summary of various “free” tools for ePortfolios:
http://electronicportfolios.org/eportfolios/tools.html

I am a believer in high school students’ ownership of their own sites (or at least in a format that can be easily transferred to their own account after graduation). I found a blog entry recently that agrees with this belief:
http://www.rosscoops31.com/2016/08/18/digital-portfolios-blogs-use-authentic-technology-not-technology-made-school/

You mentioned Google Apps, so I assume you are a Google Apps for Education school. If so, you have access to Google Sites, which is a fairly effective showcase portfolio tool. Google Apps also includes adequate storage (Drive) for various type of documents, including video and audio.  Google’s blog is Blogger, where students can keep track of their reflections, but they can also use the Announcements Page Type in Sites. Your Google Site Administrator can transfer all student files to their own Gmail account after graduation.

I also like WordPress as a platform for reflective portfolios, and through an EduBlogs paid account, you can support a full platform that supports video (EduBlogs uses the WordPress software). A blog can be transferred to an XML file that can be transferred to another blog platform that a student owns.

You found my free self-paced online courses on developing ePortfolios (designed for K-12 teachers):
https://sites.google.com/site/k12eportfolios/ (generic online tools)
https://sites.google.com/site/k12eportfolioapps/ (Google Apps)

I have several Sites that discuss developing ePortfolios with these tools:
https://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioapps/ (Google Apps)
https://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioswp/ (WordPress)

I also recognize the incorporation of mobile devices into the ePortfolio process:
https://sites.google.com/site/mportfolios/

I follow a few schools that I think are implementing ePortfolios at the “cutting edge.” My favorite includes the High Tech High schools in the San Diego area. http://www.hightechhigh.org/digital_portfolios.php (some schools use Google Sites, others have students create their own websites using their school web server). From my visit to their schools, I found that the portfolio process is infused throughout the curriculum (and the students I talked with LOVED their DPs—digital portfolios). They use their portfolios to support three Presentations of Learning a year (PoLs) and student-led conferences.

If you are looking at elementary schools, I follow what is happening at a group of K-8 schools on Auckland, New Zealand. Their students use Blogger and teachers use Hapara to manage student accounts. They also research their outcomes and you can see their latest results here:
http://manaiakalani.blogspot.com/2016/07/blogging-supports-writing-outcomes.html
In these schools, younger students use iPad apps to document their reading and writing through screen recording technologies (i.e., Explain Everything).

My Level 1 portfolios are spaces where students can store their work online, and share documents or folders with teachers and fellow students.
My Level 2 portfolios are spaces where students can reflect on their work on a regular basis, organized chronologically (great use for a blog).
My Level 3 portfolios are showcases of student work, organized thematically, where students can comment on their achievement around specific outcomes, goals or standards (the High Tech High model).
There is another level incorporated in many of the propriety tools, that allows teachers/schools/districts to collect evaluation data based on rubrics and evaluation of student work. I call that an institution-centered Assessment Management System (not a student-centered ePortfolio).

I hope this answers some of your questions about my current research. I will be updating these online course sites for K-12 schools over the next year, and will be offering a new facilitated course some time in the near future.

Blogging results from New Zealand schools

Interesting blog post from Dorothy Burt, Point England School, Auckland, New Zealand. My daughter Erin and I visited this school five years ago and I have been following their student blogging program as an example of online learning journals (working portfolio). Nice to see writing outcomes (not the first report of this type). As she says, "...a generation of young people have been through our schools knowing that sharing your learning publicly is an important part of the learning process."
http://manaiakalani.blogspot.com/2016/07/blogging-supports-writing-outcomes.html

High School Portfolios revisited

I received the following email recently:

At ___, we're just around the corner of requiring a portfolio from every student. I'm asking, as both a teacher and a parent, whether your thoughts in your 2005 blog would still be your same thoughts. Years have passed; have colleges really accepted portfolios in a meaningful way? Are some schools who have tried e-portfolios now reconsidering? What is a school that would be a "model" for how they work with portfolios and where the students see the work as meaningful and not just a "hoop" or "graduation requirement"?  One administrator told me this morning, "They passed courses. That should be enough." I know the way to respond (similar to your post http://electronicportfolios.org/blog/2005/02/high-school-inquiry.html) - but I need to know the research. HAS the e-portfolio proven to be worth all the work? I don't want our school and community to go down a path that has already been blazed and people are walking back towards us without sharing what they have learned from their experiences.

Here is my response: I think the real problem is the general assumptions about portfolios...especially when they are a graduation requirement or for college applications. I am not an advocate of high stakes portfolios, or to use them to replace standardized tests. What about using portfolios for learning throughout the educational experience, to avoid the idea of a "hoop" to jump through? I like a different metaphor: mirror (reflection) or map (goal-setting/direction). I really like this model of self-regulated learning, and portfolios can support all phases of this reflection cycle. I also see portfolios as both process and product (see my latest paper published by the British Columbia Department of Education: http://electronicportfolios.org/balance/balancingarticle2.pdf

I recommend you look at High Tech High in San Diego, where all students maintain a DP (digital portfolio) throughout their high school years. The portfolio is used to document learning and support their Presentation of Learning (PoL) that they do three times a year. I am using that high school as a case study in my book. I don't know if their experience has been documented in a formalized research project, but they have been using digital portfolios since the school opened in 2001. Here is my blog entry: http://blog.helenbarrett.org/2010/10/high-tech-high.html
When I talked to a few students in the school about their DPs, their eyes lit up and I could tell they were very proud of them.

There is some research that shows that how a portfolio is introduced to students has a huge impact on their acceptance (and intrinsic motivation) and the effective use of the portfolios to support learning. If students see the portfolio as just another assignment or a hoop to jump through, they will be ambivalent; but if they see this online space as their personal learning environment, as their space to explore their future, to show off what they are really good at, then you will get much more acceptance. Ownership, Choice and Voice are major issues for me. I did a TEDxASB talk in 2010 that outlines the blurring boundaries of electronic portfolios and social networks, along with intrinsic motivation. I published the script on the MacLearning website:
http://www.maclearning.org/articles/48/blurring-the-boundaries-social-networking-e-portfolio-development

Good luck! And let me know if I can help.

I was also sent a link to a video on an ePortfolio project in a high school in the Boston area: 

SPU bPortfolio process wins award

Sloan-C will formally recognize SPU's work as an effective practice award winner for 2011 at a featured session at the 17th Annual Sloan-C International Conference in Orlando on November 11, 2011. The award acknowledges SPU for advancing learning, access, scale and student and faculty satisfaction.

The project description that won one of four 2011 Sloan-C Effective Practice Awards: bPortfolios: Blogging for Reflective Practice - Seattle Pacific University    http://bit.ly/pamT5d

It is so great that these efforts have been recognized by such a prestigious organization. It is important to gain more recognition for the benefits and outcomes of supporting student reflection and ownership of documenting their own learning, whether in teacher education, or in K-12 classrooms. SPU's Teacher Education Program should be proud of creating an environment that balances learner-centered reflection with institutional assessment. Students are also experiencing a model of electronic portfolio development that can be adapted to K-12 students using widely-available and free online tools.

I appreciate the opportunity to add my very small contribution (and my name) to the application. Since my ideas were credited as part of their initial decision to adopt a blogging platform and move from their previous commercial system, I am very proud that these efforts have been recognized.

UPDATE: Blog responses to this award:
‘ePortfolios’ are out, ‘bPortfolios’ are in (apparently) 
At Last – Recognition for Blog-based Portfolios

Samsung Chromebook 3G

After my experience in South Carolina last week, I found this Samsung Chromebook on Craigslist and decided to buy it! (I know, I can't return it to Costco, but it seems like a good research tool...and my granddaughters would use it when I am through with it!) I am getting used to only having a web browser, and only using specific apps available through the Chrome Web Store. I am getting it set up with the tools I use on a regular basis, including Blogger (I'm writing this entry on it), and all of the Google Apps. I am teaching an online class this fall at Seattle Pacific University on "Issues and Advances in Educational Technology" and I am going to try to do the entire course with this device (or one of my other mobile devices). My primary research purpose is to see how this device works with normal classroom activities.

I can easily edit all of my Google Apps (Docs, Sites, Mail, etc.) with this device. I can't edit Sites with my iOS devices, and that is a very important tool for me, because my online course outlines are all in Google Sites. The keyboard is very comfortable to use, although I keep right-clicking (with two fingers). I am also testing the battery life, which should far exceed my Mac laptops. I haven't tried the 3G Verizon Wireless yet, but I am looking forward to being able to use the device during the rare times that I do not have wifi access with 100 MB free every month for two years (not a lot, but works in a pinch).

The man who sold it to me said that he added a 32 GB SD card for additional storage (it only has 16 GB--same as my iPad); but he said he rarely used it. With so many cloud-based options for document storage, I don't think that will be a problem for me. I was able to add a Dropbox extension and I hear rumors that Google might be resurrecting its GDrive, although Google Docs is nearly a universal document storage system.  

Teacher Action Research on ePortfolio Implementation

Last week, I was the external examiner on a Masters Thesis entitled, ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIOS: TOOLS FOR SUPPORTING THE TEACHER’S NEED FOR ASSESSMENT AND THE STUDENT’S NEED FOR DEEP LEARNING. I was given permission to post his final thesis. "The intent of this study was to examine how qualitative assessment in the form of electronic portfolios could be conducted to engage students in their learning." This action research focused on a small (N=12) group of mostly First Nations students in northern British Columbia, and was conducted by their teacher in his grade 11/12 Comparative Civilizations course over the 2009-2010 school year.

I found this study to be enjoyable to read, although a little repetitive. Chapter 6-Conclusions gives a concise overview of the case study plus his conclusions. This is a good case study of what a dedicated teacher can do on his own with almost no technological support. He literally bought flash drives for each student where they could keep their work stored in the classroom and create their Powerpoint-based presentation portfolios. In response to my questions to this researcher, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the process, and thought that in the future he would have students using a wiki to achieve the same goals. He kept a reflective (albeit, paper-based) journal throughout the process, and quoted from it throughout the thesis. Despite the technical issues, students gained a lot of technology skills, and he identifies these benefits:

...electronic portfolios support formative assessment by encouraging dialogue between the student and teacher that focuses on improving student work and is not emotionally threatening.    Electronic portfolios support deep learning by allowing students to demonstrate their strengths, set personal learning goals, identify areas needing improvement, and use feedback to improve their learning.

As part of his definitions, he further defined deep learning for his work:

Deep learning occurs in two ways. One way is when students learn how to manage their learning.    They develop the metacognitive skills that support self regulation of their learning. Students learn how to plan, monitor, and evaluate the success of strategies they used to complete learning tasks. The second way deep learning occurs is when students are able to take what has been learned and apply it to new situations.

Nicely done! This case study is a good example for teachers to use to conduct similar classroom-based action research on electronic portfolios, especially using more Web 2.0-based tools.

Google+ or Edmodo for online course support?

I am starting to develop the online courses for the REAL ePortfolio Academy for K-12 teachers, and I want to use tools that model strategies that K-12 teachers can use with their own students. While some are using Moodle, few are using Blackboard or many of the course management systems used in higher education. I found an interesting blog post on Selecting Appropriate Technology for Online Learning. The author used Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS model: Students, Ease of use, Costs, Teaching and learning, Interaction and interactivity, Organizational support, Novelty (newness), Speed. These are interesting factors to consider as I develop an environment to support collaboration in these online courses.

Last week, there was a very interesting Edmodocon, with educators from around the world presenting about the use of Edmodo in K-12 classrooms (recording now online). I used the tool several times this summer in workshops, and it has the look and feel of Facebook. I like the ability to set up private groups and sub-groups. From the online conference, I saw how teachers are using this environment for collaboration. The most interesting presentation was on Game-Based Learning and how to set up and award badges in Edmodo. The system keeps track of Students, Teacher Connections, Library Items and produces a Sharing Score. It would be easy to see the level of participation by individuals in a course.

I received my Google+ invitation in the first few days, but there wasn't a lot of activity for me to follow. I recently listened to a whole series of podcasts called, Google+ Today and I've also been following This Week in Google podcasts. I have set up my Circles (Friends, Family, Following, ADE, Ed Tech, ePortfolio Colleagues) and Sparks (android tablet, iOS, educational technology, reflection in learning, digital storytelling, electronic portfolios). I posted a question (about using Google+ as a tool to facilitate communication in an online class), and received some very interesting responses (notice the length and depth of the last response). I haven't tried Hangouts yet, but it looks like a really interesting alternative to Skype and Google Voice, especially with groups of 10. (I could care less about Games right now in Google+; I have enough games on my various devices to keep up my procrastination level!)

What about other social networking tools? A lot of schools block Facebook, and I am finding I prefer using that tool for personal networking with close friends and family. I also don't think Facebook has the tools for online courses (although they are adding Skype for one-to-one voice chats). My other favorite social tool is Twitter, but the 140 character limit, and the public nature of tweets, contributes to short conversations, but not to the rich dialogue that I experienced in my recent Google+ post. I find that Twitter is good for announcements and what Chris Betcher calls, "tiny bursts of learning." Until I started following Sparks in Google+, I was using Twitter instead of RSS feeds, to read what other people are reading and posting.

What are the differences between these tools? Edmodo is called "Safe Social Networking" that can be used in schools. Google+ restricts membership to those over 18. For that reason alone, I should focus my efforts on Edmodo... but I am intrigued by Hangouts: could they be used for collaborative discussions? It seems like a great way to create small, like-minded groups to support each other through the process of implementing ePortfolios. I want to be able to record these Hangouts, though, so I have more research to do.

Evolution of Electronic Portfolios

I was recently asked for information on the evolution of electronic  portfolios. My response:
There are several levels that could be addressed: the context, the technology and the pedagogy. In the 90s, much of the development and implementation of e-portfolios was in K-12 schools. That stopped in 2001 (thanks to NCLB?), and the emphasis was in higher education. I am hoping to bring e-portfolios back to K-12 through an online community of practice. In Europe, there is an emphasis on health care, workplace and community portfolios, documented at EIFEL's conferences since 2003. With the emergence of social networking, which one could argue involves portfolio-like activities, the electronic portfolio has become more personal and universal.

The technology began on desktop computers in the early 90s, published on CD-Recordable discs in the late 90s, on the Web with customized systems (or web authoring tools) in early 2000s, Web 2.0 in the late 2000s, and now mobile devices combined with Web 2.0.

The pedagogy began as formative assessment in the 90s, summative assessment in higher ed in the 2000s, and individual learning/digital identity development in 2010s (at least that is what I am focusing on). The current wisdom (thanks to Julie Hughes) is for e-portfolios to be more of a conversation than a presentation.

The evolution depends on which lens you are using to view electronic portfolios. Anyone write up a more formal history of this evolution?

PrPl and PCB: a new e-portfolio environment in the cloud?

Stanford University has been doing research on e-portfolios for more than ten years, and the latest article by Kim, Ng, and Lim provides the most interesting framework I have seen: PrPl Semantic Index and Personal Cloud Butler (PCB). It matches my concept of the Digital Archive for Life (2009)

This article (in the British Journal of Educational Technology, Volume 41, Issue 6, pages 1018–1028, November 2010) is pretty exciting: "When cloud computing meets with Semantic Web: A new design for e-portfolio systems in the social media era."  The abstract:

The need, use, benefit and potential of e-portfolios have been analysed and discussed by a substantial body of researchers in the education community. However, the development and implementation approaches of e-portfolios to date have faced with various challenges and limitations. This paper presents a new approach of an e-portfolio system design based on Private–Public (PrPl) data index system, which integrates cloud computing applications and storages with Semantic Web architecture, making semantic web-based visualisation and advanced intelligent search possible. It also discusses how the distinctive attributes of the PrPl-based digital asset management system can serve as a large-scale robust e-portfolio system that can address issues with scalability, sustainability, adoptability and interoperability. With such a new distinctive design, a large-scale deployment at a state or national level becomes possible at a very cost-effective manner and also such large-scale deployment with intelligent digital asset management and search features create numerous opportunities in education.

The following article about the Personal Cloud Butler (PCB) is referenced in the document, "A Distributed Social-Networking Infrastructure with Personal-Cloud Butlers."

The PrPl/PCB system uses the mobile phone number as the unique user ID, which restricts its use in K-12 schools, since students don't often have phones until they are in high school... but there are also Google Voice numbers!

I recently started using Mint.com. It is an aggregator for a person's financial data. In my mint.com account, I see all of my financial data aggregated in one window: my TSA, checking and savings accounts, mortgage balance, assets, loan balances, and my brokerage account (if I had one!). The system pulls data from these different accounts (with my permission, of course) to provide an overall picture of my financial capital or monetary assets. The system is created by the makers of Quicken, and uses an email address as a unique user ID.

We need a similar system for human capital or intellectual assets of knowledge workers. Some think that tool is an online vita with hyperlinks. Others think it is an e-portfolio, although I believe an e-portfolio goes beyond the "accounting" function, and the portfolio process supports the development of these competencies (knowledge/skills/abilities). That's why I think this article is so interesting. We can store our evidence in many places online (a federated cloud-based storage system); we just need a tool to aggregate that data for different purposes and different audiences.

Of course, there are a lot of e-portfolio systems which match evidence of achieving outcomes defined by any number of rubrics, aggregating faculty-generated assessment data. The challenge is that these systems impose a structure that often doesn't facilitate learner creativity and personalization. But other systems have been set up to "harvest" assessment data from learner-owned web-based portfolios, such as WSU's Harvesting Gradebook or BSU's rGrade system. Right now, these systems are server-based, and it would be great if they were converted into SaaS, available in the cloud.

I am doing a lot of training in using GoogleApps Education Edition for student portfolios in K-12 schools: artifacts stored in Google Docs/Picasa/YouTube (a PrPl database would be useful here); a reflective journal in Blogger; and thematically-organized presentation portfolios in Google Sites, especially for those states and institutions that have "gone Google." What is also missing from that whole environment is a system to collect evaluation data based on rubrics. For me, that is another missing link in using some of these Web 2.0 tools for learner-centered e-portfolios while assessing learner outcomes against rubrics.

Open Action Research Project

Posted to my website today:
I am embarking on a new form of research, to be conducted online. Participation is open to K-12 teachers or teacher educators. To be a full participant in this open action research project, teachers need to do the following:

1. Set up a new blog to document your process of implementing ePortfolios with your students. Use Blogger, WordPress, Edublogs, or any blog that has RSS feeds. Send your blog address to Dr. Barrett by email. Describe your context (grade level/subject, type of school, state where you are located, whether you are urban, suburban or rural, etc.).
2. Create a blog entry that outlines your goals for implementing portfolios with your students - and create a web page that describes those goals for both students and parents. This web page could be on your school web space, or a Web 2.0 space such as Google Sites. Send the web page address to Dr. Barrett, when you get it posted.
3. Maintain weekly blog entries about the process, including what you did, what your students did, examples of instructional materials that you used (or developed). Dr. Barrett will follow your RSS feed and will respond as time permits by commenting on your blog.
4. Enroll in Dr. Barrett's Google Group on K12 ePortfolios with other teachers participating in the project. In this group, Dr. Barrett will post suggestions and answer questions about the ePortfolio development process using Web 2.0 tools. Due to limited time and resources, answers will be limited to the use of blogs, wikis, GoogleApps and other free Web 2.0 tools, not on using commercial or open source tools. The primary communication will be through email posts to the group. (This group is moderated to avoid spam.)
5. For those who like to Twitter, use the following tag #web2eportfolios or join the group: http://www.twibes.com/group/web2eportfolios
6. Use the following resources to support implementation of ePortfolios in K-12 schools:
   
   
   • http://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioswp/ (ePortfolios with WordPress or Edublogs, developed by Dr. Helen Barrett)
   • http://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioapps/ (ePortfolios with GoogleApps--Docs & Sites, developed by Dr. Helen Barrett)
   • http://sites.google.com/site/reflection4learning/(Reflection for Learning -- ideas for scaffolding reflection in ePortfolios developed by Dr. Helen Barrett and others)
   
   
7. If you are alone in your school, trying to implement ePortfolios, find a partner and get your principal's support! My previous research shows that it really takes a school team and strong leadership to effectively implement ePortfolios. Let's see what we all learn together!

If you maintain weekly blog entries, you may schedule periodic Skype conversations with Dr. Barrett to discuss your specific implementation strategies, issues and concerns.

ePortfolios - Celebrating Learning (in NZ)

The New Zealand Ministry of Education has just posted a report that discusses these questions:

1. What are the important features of a platform to support ePortfolios for NZ education?
2. Is it possible for one system to accommodate the entire spectrum of requirements across the education sector?
3. How important is interoperability of ePortfolio data?
4. What are the key criteria for selecting a system?
   

This report was written by Ian Fox, Sandy Britain and Viv Hall, and provides a good discussion of the issues of implementing ePortfolios across the K-12 age span. I was impressed by the five case studies included in the Appendix, as well as a brief comparison of the two ePortfolio technical standards: the IMS ePortfolio specification and LEAP2A, developed by CETIS in the U.K. (hint: the report recommended adoption of the LEAP2A standard).

At NECC, I heard a rumor that ePortfolios were proposed as part of the National Educational Technology Plan. After reading this report, I am wondering whether individual states and/or the U.S. Department of Education would consider the ideas presented in this study. I am always so impressed with the implementation of ePortfolios in New Zealand, and I've blogged about them frequently. I am trying to figure out how to get down there in February or March 2010, when I am also going to conferences in India and possibly Singapore. A visit to NZ will wrap up the research for my book!

Signed a book contract today

Over the years, I have had an avoidance of book publishing... I've canceled two book contracts over the last ten years. With the #1 website on "electronic portfolios" (based on a Google search using that term), I've wondered whether writing a book in the age of Web 2.0 was an oxymoron. With the changing nature of the Internet, wouldn't a book be quickly outdated? I'm glad I didn't publish the book I outlined ten years ago, since my vision has changed radically since that time.

Well, today I signed a book contract with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) for a book on ePortfolios, focusing on K-12 students and teachers at all levels of their careers. The content will focus on creating student-centered interactive portfolios using generic Web 2.0 tools and processes. I have a lot of the components already on my website and written in this blog over the last five years. I feel like a sculptor... all I have to do is cut away all of the irrelevant stone/words and the statue/book will emerge! I intend to develop the book around themes of interactivity, reflection, engagement, and my vision of Balancing the Two Faces of ePortfolios.

So, I have seven months to write the first draft of the book! I am looking for case studies from across the world on using Web 2.0 tools for ePortfolios. I am also looking for a few good teachers who would like to implement the portfolio process using "safe" Web 2.0 tools, primarily GoogleApps for Education sites set up as "walled gardens" to protect student privacy. I am also willing to work with schools who have adopted other Web 2.0 tools to implement ePortfolios. I would provide training and then regularly observe some "real life" classrooms implementing ePortfolios using these tools across the age span: primary, intermediate, junior high and high school.

I am interested in finding teachers who are already familiar with the paper-based portfolio process, and who are already comfortable with the use of technology, who would be willing to work with me on implementing ePortfolios over the next school year. I would work with appropriate IT staff and a handful of teachers in their classrooms, on a mutually-agreed-upon schedule, to establish the free Web 2.0 services, and integrate ePortfolios throughout the school year, including student-led conferences, where appropriate. We could collaborate virtually over the Internet, or face-to-face in the Puget Sound area of Washington state.

Interested? Send me an email!

Reflective learning for the net generation student

Through one of my Google groups, I found an interesting research project conducted by Christopher Murray and Dr. John Sandars, Medical Education Unit, University of Leeds in the U.K.: "Reflective learning for the net generation student" focusing on digital storytelling! (Scroll down about a third of the way through this issue of the newsletter of the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine, Autumn 2008.) Quotes I particularly like:

Reflective learning is essential for lifelong learning and many net generation students do not engage in the process since it does not align with their preferred learning style (Grant, Kinnersley, Metcalf, Pill, Houston, 2006).The combination of multimedia and technology motivates students to creatively produce digital stories that stimulate reflective learning. Digital stories present a personal and reflective narrative using a range of media, especially photographs and video. In addition, students can feel empowered and develop multiple literacies that are essential for lifelong learning...

Why don't students spend time to reflect on the things they are learning? Our initial research suggests that Net Generation students dislike using written text, but their engagement increases when they use digital storytelling. Digital storytelling is an innovative approach to reflective learning in which pictures and sound are collected and assembled to form a multimedia story.

The digital stories created by the authors' first year medical students began as blog entries using Elgg plus images taken by many of them with their mobile phone cameras. Their digital stories for class were actually told using Powerpoint. The student comments reported were very encouraging and the authors concluded:

Overall, we appear to have successfully engaged our undergraduate medical students in reflective learning by using a range of new technologies and also by the use of mobile phones. Blogs were used as a personal learning space that combined both media storage with a creative space. Images were obtained from a variety of media sharing sites. Most mobile phones have a camera function and the “always to hand” nature of mobile camera phones encourages spontaneous image capture at times of surprise during an experience, the “disorientating dilemma” that Mezirow (1991) regards as being an essential component of transformative reflective learning.

Conclusion

Digital storytelling offers a practical teaching approach that combines multimedia and technology for reflective learning. Our work in undergraduate supports the use of this approach to engage Net generation students in reflective learning but it also appears to stimulate deep reflection. You can read more about our work and see examples at www.ireflect.org.

NCEPR Participation

I had a great two weeks. I spent three days in Eugene, working with the University of Oregon's ePortfolio Committee. While in Eugene, I also did a webinar on ePortfolios and Web 2.0 for ISTE. I went to the NCCE Conference in Portland for one day and I then drove to San Francisco. During this week there were meetings at San Francisco State on the new version of the eFolio Minnesota, and then a Day of Dialog on ePortfolios sponsored by SFSU. That was an interesting (but fragmented) day. The groups were divided into two or three rooms, and there wasn't a clear, common theme, nor an opportunity for all of the groups to gather for a common gathering. But there were a lot of good conversations because they built two times into the agenda for conversation around different themes.

On the last two days, the National Coalition for ePortfolio Research (NCEPR) had a meeting, and I joined as part of the University of Oregon team. It was a very valuable experience. We developed a del.icio.us set of weblinks related to NCEPR and eportfolios. Here were some of my reflections during the first day:

1. What connections were discussed in your group?
The balance between the assessment/summative types of portfolios for students (DU) and the learning/formative types of portfolios for faculty (Hawaii). Sharing my diagram seemed to fit well after our discussion of the other two programs and of the Oregon program. I loved what the team wrote, about the assumptions about learning... And how the piece focused the conceptual framework of the team.

2. Which of these connections is/are most meaningful to your project and why?
I really like the emphasis on learning and its relationship to portfolios. After my depressing conversation last night, I am wondering how to counteract the apparent "failure" of ePortfolios (as product) with the promise or the potential of the process approach to portfolios. I found the comparison of the two programs to be interesting... the outcomes-based program with the supportive process-based program.

3. What else did you learn in your conversation this morning that you want to be sure to share with your colleagues.
I found the focus on faculty portfolios as "engaged educator participants" to be a valuable contribution to my thinking about how to engage faculty in the process of building an ePortfolio for their own professional development. The Hawaii project provides an interesting model to engage faculty in process portfolios, in the hopes that they will adopt the process with their own students.

I hope I can stay involved with the UOFolio team as they go through the process. I find the collaboration and conversation to be such a valuable part of my own learning. I really miss this type of community of practice. Maybe I should take a recent offer to create a course that I offer online. Or maybe I should try to find a university that wants me to facilitate the development of ePortfolios with either faculty or students through an online tutorial format. I realize now how much I miss having colleagues that I can talk with, share face-to-face on a regular basis.

During the second day of the NCEPR meeting, there was an emphasis on Web 2.0 tools and social networking. Each group shared documents that outlined their students' use of Web 2.0 tools. Then the entire group discussed the question that I asked during the EPAC online chat (on Monday): We really need to look at the engagement [motivation] factors that drive the use of social networks: how we can incorporate those factors into ePortfolios?

Another ePortfolio article

Electronic Portfolios: Engaged Students Create Multimedia-Rich Artifacts by Gail Ring, Barbara Weaver, and James H. (Jim) Jones, Jr., all of Clemson University. This article was published in The Journal of the Research Center for Educational Technology at Kent State University. From the summary of the article:

This paper briefly summarizes the implementation of a university-wide electronic portfolio requirement. We begin with a systemic view of the ePortfolio Program and narrow our focus to a view of ePortfolio integration into two different classes. The rationale behind the Clemson University ePortfolio Program is to build a mechanism through which core competencies are demonstrated and evaluated. The target classes are a general education English class focusing on 20th and 21st century literature and a professional development seminar in computer science. Both classes allow students to select their topics and present their work to the class using a variety of media types, and both include a form of peer evaluation. These classes confirm that when students’ choice is built into the assignments we are pleasantly surprised by the outcomes. In addition, an extensive variety of artifacts are generated from each course that can be used to demonstrate the general education competencies, provide authentic evidence of learning, and generate a career portfolio. In our examples, we will describe the planning, implementation, and dissemination processes necessary to integrate the ePortfolio Program into university courses.

New article from ECAR

The Educause Center for Applied Research just published a new Research Bulletin: Web 2.0, Personal Learning Environments, and the Future of Learning Management Systems.

This ECAR research bulletin details the arguments emerging in the blogosphere and elsewhere both for and against the learning management system. It examines whether the LMS is destined to continue as the primary means of organizing the online learning experience for university students. The bulletin is a companion to an earlier ECAR research bulletin that examines the factors leading to the selection of the open source learning management system at the Open University in the United Kingdom.

The article was written by Niall Sclater, Director of the Virtual Learning Environment Programme at the Open University in the U.K. A small part of the article discussed the role of two different ePortfolio systems being used in the OU: Mahara (developed in New Zealand) and MyStuff (developed in-house by the Open University).

LaGuardia Community College Conference

As the first U.S. ePortfolio conference, this meeting at LaGuardia Community College (April 10-12) had a special feeling about it. Drawing over 500 people from both LGCC and across the U.S. (and a few other countries), the conversation had a richness that was indicative of the maturity of ePortfolio practices. Holding the conference in the middle of a very active campus within a few subway stops from Times Square also created a very vibrant feeling, much different than the usual conference experience in hotels or convention centers. We were literally in the middle of the action! I loved how they involved so many students in conference t-shirts to help with the conference logistics.

In addition to the usual speakers (and an excellent keynote address by Kathleen Blake Yancey), there were also a lot of presenters sharing their practice at LGCC. The Center for Teaching and Learning at LGCC is establishing a National Resource Center on Inquiry, Reflection & Integrative Education to support innovation on campuses nationwide. I especially liked the focus on their students' unique stories, using the power of personal narrative in their ePortfolios.

I also took advantage of my trip to the East Coast, and attended the Rhode Island Sakai Conference, on April 9, where I learned more about the efforts in that state to establish a Proficiency Based Graduation Requirement (PBGR). I was most impressed by a small group of students who talked about their beginning efforts using Sakai. I especially liked their comments on what they would like to change (i.e., allow more personal expression in the OSP, like they can do in Facebook).

At the LaGuardia conference, I did see some student portfolios from the University of Michigan that looked very creative, using the Sakai tool. I have asked them to give me an account on their system, so that I could try to re-create my portfolio, since I have not been able to do so in the existing demonstration templates.

I am hoping that these conferences will begin a national dialogue on the role of ePortfolios in transforming learning, not only in higher education, but also in secondary schools. I met with a small group of educators that would like to begin a national research project, looking at the various statewide high school portfolio initiatives in Washington state, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Ohio. It is time to bring secondary schools into this dynamic conversation.

eDOL: Electronic Documentation of Learning

In my AERA conference blog entry, I mentioned the research done at the University of Calgary and their concept of eDOL: Electronic Documentation of Learning, which is essentially a reflective journal that teacher candidates maintain. For more information, they have a short article in the campus newletter, and a longer article in Field Notes, the MT Program Newsletter Fall 2007 (entitled Learning to document Learning Online - an introduction to edoL on pages 8-9 in this PDF).

eDOL has evolved into two interrelated components – an eJournal and a series of ePortfolios... eJournals provide students with a rich, personalized learning object repository from which to draw content for the development of their ePortfolios.

It is the tie between the journals and the portfolios, which distinguishes our work, and we have been drawn to four key observations:

• the journals, together with the portfolios, honor both the process and the product, providing evidence of what it means to become a teacher,
• there is value in learning to digitally document evidence learning. Pedagogical documentation is more than collecting photographs from schools; it is the thoughtful collecting, editing, and selecting of images to support reflection,
  
• our students have found value in eDOL as a unifying project to build coherence as they move through the various components of our program, and
  
• eDOL has given the students a sense that they are finishing their university experience “with a place to start.”
  

The University of Calgary has added an important dimension to the ePortfolio literature, by emphasizing the importance of process (the eJournals or blogs) as much as the product (the ePortfolios).

AERA 2008 Conference

Holding a conference of this size in midtown Manhattan has some substantial challenges, especially since the sessions were spread between four hotels from the Marriott on 46th Street & Broadway in Times Square to the Hilton at 6th Avenue and 53rd Street. There were sessions that I wanted to attend, but the time it took to get between hotels limited my choice of sessions. I attended two SIG meetings: Portfolios and Reflection in Teaching and Teacher Education and the new Applied Research in Virtual Environments for Learning. The Portfolio SIG had a fascinating discussion on reflection, which gave me a lot of new ideas. This afternoon, I did a short (12 minute) presentation on my REFLECT research and I posted my slides and the paper online.

Several of the other participants in the same session also had very interesting research to present. Lina Pelliccione from Curtin University in Australia presented a paper that:

focused on the goal of enhancing student reflection and learning with the key objective being to determine whether a structured reflective tool can enhance students’ ability to engage in the reflective cycle at a deeper level.

I was also impressed with a paper given by two teacher educators from the University of Calgary entitled, "The Value of eJournals to Support ePortfolio Development for Assessment in Teacher Education" by Susan Crichton and Gail Kopp.

The originality of this work rests in the importance of establishing an eJournal to accompany the ePortfolio. Based on our findings in this action research study, we challenge and add to the existing ePortfolio literature around such issues as ePortfolio project design, process vs. product, the use of templates, social software, and documentation.

They call it eDOL: Electronic Documentation of Learning. There it is: research that supports the importance of including a blog in an ePortfolio! These educators have validated my current opinion and practice of including a reflective journal (a.k.a., blog) in a comprehensive ePortfolio system.

After the presentation today, I had a very stimulating conversation with an educator from New Zealand. He had been reading this blog and most of my web site, and it was almost spooky to have someone seemingly inside my head, observing the changes in my own thinking over the last eight years. It was also exhilarating to talk about the leading (bleeding?) edge of ePortfolio implementation. It also confirms for me the power of the Internet to facilitate collaboration.