1. Eportfolio overview

Let's listen to an overview of eportfolios from Graham Atwell a leading eportfolio enthusiast from Wales, UK. He says it all in this short movie:



You can locate a detailed report about eportfolios in VET in Australia. A quote from this report provides some background information about eportfolios in VET education.

This report focusses on e-portfolios that facilitate:

• portability of information about qualifications and competencies
• recognition of prior learning
• management and provision of secure and verfiable personal information.

Activity 1a: Read this report and create 3-4 slides for a PowerPoint slideshow that provides an overview of Eportfolios for your students.

2. Eportfolio exemplars

You can locate a wide range of sample eportfolios in use in VET in the Designing Elearning website.

e-portfolios support a range of learning processes:

• recording and storing textual, audio and visual evidence and resources for learning
• active learning with learners setting their own goals
• collaboration with others
• motivating learners to produce work to a standard so that it can be displayed to others
• encouraging a regular system of feedback so learner
• reflection on particular items or on a bank of evidence created over time
• communicating learning outcomes and personal identities to a range of audiences

Activity 1b: Visit the Eportfolio segment in the Designing Elearning website and create a further 3-4 slides for your PowerPoint slideshow that describe some exemplars

3. Eportfolio purpose

The purpose for creating an eportfolio differs from one person to the next and from one situation to another. To find out a little about the variations in eportfolio purpose you'll find some details at each of the following websites.

• http://electronicportfolios.org/blog/ - this is the blog page of Dr Helen Barrett, one of the learning international thinkers on eportfolios
• http://campustechnology.com/articles/63551/ - this is an interesting article about Unleashing the Power of Web 2.0 for eportfolios
• http://electronicportfolios.org/learning/index.html - this is Dr Helen Barrett's latest courses in Learning about Eportfolios

Activity 1c: Take a close look at Dr Barrett's blog and courses and select some of the models and techniques that would be relevant for your students. Add your thoughts and ideas on the new course being constructed by Helen, called Web 2.0 Tools for Lifelong & Life Wide Learning

Here's some suggestion recently received from Ray Tolley in the UK, another international thinker on eportfolios. You can see more details on Ray's ideas in a current discussion forum at the EdNA groups at: http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=26897&parent=82105

Ray's tips on eportfolio purpose:

Showcasing – via permissions showing what you want and to whom
Customisation – menus, pages, fonts, graphics establishing your identity
Gatekeeper – a ‘filter’ on what to present - ie not all the 'junk', just what is relevant
Mentoring – ‘academic God-parents’ - at whatever age others' views are important
Collaboration – safely with peers and simply to selected groups
Favourites – my shortcuts/URLs simply organised on separate pages
Personal Organisation – an electronic ‘Planner’
Planning – both formal and informal
Feedback – from ‘friends’ and teachers
Reflection – a place for quiet contemplation
Story Telling - a very powerful 'life-view' where appropriate
Monitoring – a personal log of grades, comments, progression and predictive analyses
Assessment – what I do and how I do it - reference to the 12 Multiple Intelligences

Activity 1d: Visit the EdNA site linked above and read the conversations there about designing content for eportfolios. Gather some ideas and content for another 3-4 slides for your PowerPoint slideshow. Add some comments in the Discussion Forum in this wiki about eportfolio purpose.