The Electronic Portfolio Boom: What’s it all About?

e-Portfolios are quickly been implemented throughout higher education. The movement towards e-Portfolios is informed by a growing culture of accountability and at the same time the developing emphasis in higher education on more authentic and collaborative assessment and more constructivist approaches to learning (Barett 2004). However as Baston (2002) the growth in e-Portfolios is also arising from a paradigm shift in the use of technology in education. I came across this article towards the end of my practicum and it awakened me to the some of the possibilities for e-Portfolios in education and suggested that the adoption of e-Portfolios is only in its infancy and it is growing quickly.

Baton (2002) points out that people are beginning to integrate the internet more into their day-to-day life. In my own life I have recently witnessed the rise of Facebook in Canada. Facebook has quickly been integrated into the lives of almost everyone I know. It is used as a faster way to email, a means of sharing photos, a platform for organizing social movements.1 It is also used to organize high-school reunions, host private or public events and as a market place for used good. Computers seem to have become more central to our lives.

This is one of the drivers of the adoption of e-Portfolios according to Batton (2002). He proposes that e-Portfolios can be integrated through the curriculum in higher education. They can become integrated in learning, assessment, program evaluation and even as a lifelong learning tool. He does suggest that they have limitations particularly around issues of storage and privacy and he proposes that students often view e-Portfolios as digital resumes rather than as a learning tool.

Integrating e-Portfolios into higher education is valuable for the reasons Batton argues. e-Portfolios are a rich learning tool that can assist universities in becoming more learner center, engender lifelong learning. They afford universities the opportunity to exploit the growing social networks and link the digital environment with the face-to-face classroom.

 

1 The recent facebook group opposing the Conservative copyright bill grew to over 25,000 people in one-week and may have been partly responsible for development of large social movement around the issue and the delay of the bill until 2008 ()