Bjorn’s ISSoTL Conference Reflection

Bjorn Thomson, one of the grad students who has been working in our e-portfolio pilots, sent in this report from the recent ISSoTL Conference. Thanks Bjorn!

I love conferences. And sure, I know that makes me a geek. I can’t help it. You meet people just as excited as you are about matters esoteric and, while geeky, you get new ideas; and, not incidentally, you often get fed regularly to a standard higher than the typical university-cafeteria fare.

That is, if you are attending a conference as a registrant or presenter. If you’re working for the conference, your experience is a little different – the food is still good, and you often still meet interesting people, but you rarely get to attend many sessions and don’t get to indulge in as much geek-speak. Sigh.

Although I was working for the ISSOTL conference, I did also get the chance to present with Joanne Nakonechny and Shona Ellis on the topic of e-Portfolios for reflection. While timing was tight (we only had 15 minutes), we did have an appreciative audience and the chance for a few questions. We presented findings from Shona’s Biology 321 class, which had used e-Portfolios within WebCT last fall as a tool for encouraging metacognitive and higher-order thought about mosses and
liverworts, as well as how the subject matter of the course related the discipline of science as a whole and whether students’ concept of science had changed due to the course. The session was videotaped, so I hope this footage will be available in near future. At any rate, results from this pilot continue to be interesting – stay tuned as well move into the next iteration of the bryo-portfolio in January 2006!