Student Centered ePortfolio

An interesting post from Kev Brace over at JISC Regional Support Centre West Midlands. It talks about models and resources:

http://kev-brace.blogspot.com/2009/07/student-centered-eportfolio-space.html

Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology

Special issue on e-Portfolios:

"EPs [electronic portfolios] support portfolio pedagogy by engaging individuals in deep reflection on their learning and acting as a central repository for a wide variety of multi-media artifacts that provide evidence of professional and intellectual growth as well as documenting the complex processes involved in learning."

This paper is a collection of work following on from the ePortfolio conference 2008 held by the European Institute for E-Learning (EIfEL). Papers include:

The value of eJournals to support ePortfolio development for assessment in teacher education -Susan Crichton, Gail Kopp

This paper is based on a two year pilot where ePortfolios were used for assessment on an inquiry-based teacher preparation program. The programme also explored social networking and communities of practice.

The relevance of this topic rests in the link between journaling and portfolio development as well as the integration of technology for authentic purposes. The students who were involved in this pilot left our program prepared to work differently, having experienced technology as an enabler of changed teaching and learning.

Interestingly the paper suggests that students had a different perspective of ePortfolios, and saw them as a collection of their best work, not necessarily their working process. They also fail to identify an ePortfolio as a stimulus for discussion or interaction. An interesting comment from a student focus group:

It was almost like it shouldn’t be called an ePortfolio, because you have a preconceived idea in your head already, and people think that you can try to get a job using that. But making it clear that you’re documenting your learning process, that’s a huge thing.

Comparing students’ perceptions of paper-based and electronic portfolios
Maarten van Wesel, Anouk Prop

This paper looks at (on a medical degree) the transition from paper to electronic portfolios and the student perception; the latter being of particular interest to me. It addresses the common benefits of ePortfolios such as development of ICT skills and the ability to easily share media. Another interesting point made is that the software does not determine the quality of the portfolio:

"Previous research showed that the quality of a portfolio does not depend on the medium used."
"Although ePortfolios are being used more frequently in higher education, little attention has been paid to comparing them to their paper-based counter parts. Current ePortfolio research focuses mostly on the specific features an electronic portfolio has to offer. While the above mentioned points truly can be advantageous, educational innovation always asks for caution. When moving from a paper-based portfolio to the digital variant, we must assure ourselves that our original portfolio goals are not lost. In other words, electronic portfolios and paper-based portfolios ought to be compared on their shared potential merits, such as support for self-reflection, preferably in a similar ecological setting."

An interesting point is the suggestion that eportfolios are user-friendly for mentors, somethings which isn't all too common in practice. Software aside, the main objective of this study is the student perception of support from eportfolio for self-reflection. The study identifies that reflection is an important part of the eportfolio:

"Self-reflection is an essential precondition for the professional development of medical students, since it helps students “become aware of their mental structures, subject them to a critical analyses, and if necessary, restructure them” "

Another interesting factor highlighted is the importance of the role of the mentors. Overall the report concludes that students found both paper and eportfolio equally useful; more time was spent working on eportfolios, this may have been for a number of reasons including the time or required to learn the software, time spent editing work or simply because they enjoy using the eportfolio.

Following on from the study, there are some key issues raised:

1. Does the portfolio medium affect the learning outcomes, and if so, how?
2. What is the perception of teaching staff of the two different portfolio media?
3. What is the impact of technical errors on student perceptions and learning outcomes?

ePortfolio 2009 - London

The 2009 ePortfolio conference is a major international event bringing together practitioners from all over the world. The conference is organised by the European Institute for E-Learning and will be held at City University, London on 22-24 July.

The conference seems to be packed with useful sessions and experts in the field such as Dr. Helen Barrett who's eportfolio group I've been following for some time now: http://groups.google.com/group/web2eportfolios/about?hl=en

A programme is currently available on this page:
http://www.epforum.eu/lfl2009/conference/programme


To see the enormity of the conference take a look this eifel event attendee location map: http://www4.clustrmaps.com/counter/maps.php?user=a5770c6f - quite literally the 4 corners!

Visible Learning

It is taken for granted that students learn from their experiences during education from staff. However, at Washington State University staff learn from their students.

Staff learned that students are:

INNOVATIVE in their use of technology, doing much to help us understand the power and potential of new tools.

RESOURCEFUL in their strategies to use academic work to understand their communities and the world.

RIGOROUS in tracking their own learning progress.

SAVVY at recognizing great learning opportunities beyond the classroom.

PERCEPTIVE in their use of peer feedback as a critical resource for deepening their learning.

CREATIVE in selecting strong data and evidence in unexpected areas to understand and explain their own academic growth.

Read more about it here: https://my.wsu.edu/portal/page?_pageid=177,298566&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

This clearly shows that students are more than capable of reflective learning, and producing some very positive output.

Posted by Ray Tolley on the eportfolios-and-plts group

PebblePad Update Version 2.3.3

PebblePad has just released an update available for self hosting institutions to download and install.

There's quite a long list of fixes and enhancements, but I've listed a very brief summary here:

• Bug: Entering more detail about an activity in the experience asset without entering an
  activity title results in the details being lost
  Fix: It is now not possible to add more detail without entering an activity title
  
  
• Bug: Entering HTML into a comment produces an error
  Fix: HTML is now accepted and is displayed as plain text in a comment
  
  
• New: Added last viewed to rollover on recipient list
  Displays the last time a recipient has viewed an asset in the asset synopsis pad
  
  
• New: Support files other than index/default.htm(l) for websites
  This allows exports from Sakai to be imported as websites
  
  
• Bug: PebblePad stores the local path of uploaded files as the file name when uploading from
  some browsers, this causes error when exporting
  Fix: Local path information is removed during upload
  

The full 13 page PDF is available here: PebblePad Release Notes V2.3.3

PebblePad >> To Go >>

PebblePad have several new ways to get onto PebblePad on the move:

• Use PebblePDA the program designed to operate on Windows Mobile PDA’s and Smartphones
• Use Pebble SendR the java-based file upload tool compatible with most mobile devices
• Use Pebble Mobile to access a very simple version of PebblePad via the browser on any mobile device

I've had a go at the last option, which brings up a clean interface with simple HTML links that work. It doesn't look great, but the fact is when you're on the move you just want it to simple and quick.

I'm not able to test out the other options on my current phone, but when I get my hands on one I'll report back.

More details here: PebblePad Mobile

In response to Bill's question, I have an iPhone which isn't too accepting of files uploaded outside of Apple's iTunes. This would be possible with another 'smarth phone' or PDA.

Foundation Year Portfolios

I looked into the NHS Foundation year portfolios last year and at some of materials and guidance used for the portfolio. It may be worthwhile to consider showing first year students this guidance and material, or at least an overview of what's expected of them after they graduate from their five year medical degree.

I've uploaded my summary of the NHS Foundation Learning Portfolio (2008) here.