UBC e-Portfolio Community of Practice - archive

Helen Barrett, a self-described advocate of using common software tools to build e-portfolios, has broadened the scope by posting a page that documents her recent exploration of a wide range of software options. The purpose of her “adventure” was to find options appropriate for high schools and individuals. While most of the tools she’s looked at aren’t used here at UBC (she does have plans to look at iWebfolio & OSP), it’s an interesting exercise.

Read on…
http://electronicportfolios.org/myportfolio/versions.html

Over the past week and a bit, there has been an interesting discussion happening on the EPAC email listserv about faculty e-Portfolios. It all started with this request from Darren Cambridge for examples of faculty e-Portfolios:

bq.. A request: My Dean in interested in portfolios that document all of a faculty member’s work, i.e. their research and service as well as teaching. While I’m familiar mostly with teaching portfolios, it seems likely that some of you are familiar with portfolios that also chronicle these broader activities. I’m primarily interested in portfolios that offer a substantial amount of reflection to make
sense of the activities and work products they include in terms of the author’s career trajectory and professional identity. (I’m familiar with enhanced CV services such as Community of Science. While these are very valuable, I’m interested in parallel to learning portfolios.) Do you know of examples I could share with the Dean?

p. Go to EPAC, sign in and click on the “Email Archive” link in the left side navigation to follow the thread. If you’re not yet a member of EPAC, you can sign up here: http://webcenter.aahe.org/chef/portal

EPAC hosted a chat last week. The topic of discussion was “Who are today’s students?” Participants were asked to read a series of articles by Marc Prensky, the main one titled, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.” In the articles, Prensky makes use of his “digital natives, digital immigrants” metaphor to discuss the differences between today’s teachers and students.

Some participants questioned Prensky’s definition of today’s students as multi-tasking, indicating that in their experiences in the classroom, students want a structured, linear learning environment. Others suggested that Prensky’s definitions were too general and didn’t take into account, for example, gender or cultural differences.

It was a very lively discussion, with a large number of participants. I understand that this chat topic will be repeated this Wednesday (Sept 15th) at a later time (8pm PDT) to allow colleagues in Australia and Asia to participate.

The transcripts from all the EPAC chat sessions are made available at the EPAC site and make an interesting read if you can’t attend a chat session!

This message comes from David Tosh at the University of Edinburgh. A very interesting idea…blogfolios anyone? No demo available yet but there is more information at the site (URL below).

And, also for more info, here is a link to a draft paper on the topic written by David and Ben Werdmuller titled, “Creation of a learning landscape: weblogging and social networking in the context of e-portfolios.”

bq.. This is a heads-up about a new type of e-portfolio system, ELGG, that will be launched in alpha late September/early October.

The concept behind the system is development of a fully customizable learning landscape. To achieve this ELGG is a hybrid of weblogging, e-portfolios and social networking. It is hoped this combination of features will help promote student engagement in learning in both an academic and social setting.

A website has been set up and information will be added as and when it becomes available.

http://elgg.net

— Dave
——————————
David ToshPhD student
Higher and Community Education
Paterson’s Land
The University of Edinburgh
web: http://www.eradc.org

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
From Students, Teachers and Leaders, Knowledge Managers, Career Advisors, Recruiters, Software Developers, Researchers…

* Professional Learning & Knowledge Management * Student Portfolios
* Teacher Registration Portfolios * Innovation in Assessment
* Digital Storytelling
* (We)blogging
* Career Planning & Job Applications

in conjunction with the European Institute for eLearning
http://www.qwiki.info/projects/Europortfolio/ep2004/index_html
A conference dedicated to digital and ePortfolios. Intended outcomes
include:

* mapping the territory: who is doing what with portfolios
* linking people in the field
* developing documentation and continuing the conversations after the
conference
* identifying practitioner/researcher/industry collaborations for the futureThere are three forms of contribution:

1. Online workshop
All registered participants will have the opportunity to contribute to an
online interactive workshop that will run for 4 weeks to explore the
potential of portfolios. The input to this workshop will establish a
framework for discussing themes during the conference.

Closing date for participant registration 15 Nov 2004

2. Discussion forums at the conference
We are encouraging teachers, practitioners and researchers to tell their
stories and share experiences in sessions devoted to relevant themes. Each
of these sessions will include presentations of 10-15 minutes from several
participants, leading in to discussion.

Closing date for presenter registration 30 Oct 2004

3. Conference publication
We seek short descriptions and contributions from all portfolio development
projects in the region, based on the template provided, even if you cannot
attend the conference. Contributions will be collated into a comprehensive
print document for all participants. This will be available for purchase
after the conference, and a web version will be produced.

Closing date for publication contributions 15 Nov 2004

Further information: eportfolio@results.aust.com
Elizabeth Hartnell-Young
+61 3412 634 340 or e.hartnell@unimelb.edu.au
Janette Ellis +61 407 191 086 or ellisjm@alphalink.com.au

Elizabeth Hartnell-Young
Research Fellow
Department of Information Systems
The University of Melbourne

http://www.qwiki.info/news/letter/callcjltep

This is a call for papers for a special issue of CJLT on Electronic
Portfolios to be published in Volume 31, Issue 3 (Fall 2005). This special
issue will examine, from scholarly, practical, and technical perspectives,
critical issues in the development and use of electronic portfolios. The
underlying theme of the issue will explore how electronic portfolios
support student-centered learning, authentic assessment, accessibility, and
life-long learning, among others.

Possible topics include the following five areas:
* K-12 education (including theory and practice)
* Postsecondary instruction (including learning and assessment)
* Workplace applications (including prior learning and on-the-job
experience)
* Standards and tools (including interoperability and process and
showcase software)
* Regional, national and international challenges (including Canadian
issues and European movements)
Note: Priority will be given to manuscripts that contain empirical
evidence. Where no research is reported, future directions for research and
theory should be included along with strengths and limitations and
implications for practice. Short research reviews and book reviews on
electronic portfolios are welcome and should be directed to the section
editors, Katy Campbell and Diane Janes, respectively.

CJLT is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal that is published 3 times
annually by AMTEC. CJLT is published both in print and online versions.
Manuscripts may be submitted either in English or in French and may take
the following forms: Research Papers, Literature Reviews, Critical
Scholarship, Position Papers, Evaluations, Case Studies, and Instructional
Development Reports. All manuscripts received by the Guest Editor will be
judged for suitability, contribution, accuracy, and interest, by the
journal’s editorial review board. CJLT’s review process is now conducted
electronically.

The deadline for submission of manuscripts for the Special Issue on
Electronic Portfolios is May 15th 2005.

Authors are asked to email their manuscripts as an attachment to Philip C.
Abrami at: abrami@education.concordia.ca. Manuscripts should be in MS Word
or RTF format and should be accompanied by a letter stating that the
manuscript is original material that has not been published and is not
currently being considered for publication elsewhere.

Further information for authors may be found at the end of this issue or on
the CJLT website at: http://www.cjlt.ca

This an interesting post on blogfolios from Alan Levine’s Blogshop, using blog software to create e-Portfolios…

“So in a conclusion sounding mode (although this is really just a beginning), you have seen features and tools of one just weblog tool. Now I pose the question, can it and would it be feasible to deploy MovableType as an electronic portfolio tool? What are some issues of taking this route?”

Read more.