eLearning Infusion

I have got a lot of time for Graham Attwell’s thoughts around eportfolios. I referenced his article e-Portfolios – the DNA of the Personal Learning Environment? in my ePortfolio research. He also contributed to the MOSEP (More Self-Esteem with my ePortfolio) project which is well worth a look.

Hot off the wire is his current thoughts around eportfolios, discussing such questions as these:

Is an e-Portfolio intended as a space for learners to record all their learning – that which takes place in the home or in the workplace as well as in a course environment or is it a place or responding to prescribed outcomes for a course or learning programme?

How much should an e-Portfolio be considered a tool for assessment and how much for reflection on learning?

Can one environment encompass all of these functions?

And such technologies as OSPI, Elgg and Mahara. Further discussion involves Mash Up Personal Learning Environments and research looking at the value of light weight widgets for promoting reflection that can be embedded in existing e-learning programmes.

All interesting stuff and worth a couple of minutes of your time.

Nick ePortfolios assessment, ePortfolios, Graham Attwell, mashups

TEDx Talk. Dr. Helen Barrett on Social Networks and Interactive Portfolios: Blurring the Boundaries.

Electronic Portfolios have been with us for more almost two decades, used primarily in education to store documents and reflect on learning, provide feedback for improvement, and showcase achievement for accountability or employment. Social networks have emerged over the last five years, used by individuals and groups to store documents and share experiences, showcase accomplishments, communicate and collaborate with friends and family, and, in some cases, facilitate employment searches. The boundaries between these two processes are gradually blurring. As we consider the potential of lifelong e-portfolios, will they resemble the structured accountability systems that are currently being implemented in many higher education institutions? Or are we beginning to see lifelong interactive portfolios emerging as mash-ups in the cloud?

Nick Social Networking, ePortfolios ePortfolios, Helen Barrett, TED

Nick ePortfolios ePortfolios, L@S, Learning@School

If you are interested in ePortfolios then the annual Learning@School conference in Rotorua should suit you well.

There are 11 breakouts that have a major focus or have reference to the use of eportfolios:

• Earlybird: ePortfolio’s made easy! Brendon Muir
• Earlybird: Dancing on the Same Page. Chrissie Butler
• Breakout 1: e-Portfolios: A Case Study. Belinda Johnston
• Breakout 3: ePortfolios 101. Nick Rate
• Breakout 3: The Three aspects of an effective School Website that increase 21st Century Pedagogy. Tim Berends
• Breakout 4: ePortfolios – A Showcase of Practice. Nick Rate
• Breakout 4: Powerful Learning Journeys – Using Digital Story Telling within an ePortfolio to show the learning process. Ian Fox & Lenva Shearing
• Breakout 5: Room 17 Voices: Eportfolios and the Online Classroom. Erin Freeman
• Breakout 5: The LMS Gateway to learning and Assessment. Mark Treadwell
• Breakout 5: The Open Source School. Mark Osbourne
• Breakout 6: Laying the Groundwork: producing a realistic and relevant strategy for online learning. Stuart Armistead

Doing a bit of self promotion, I am really excited about the ePortfolios – A Showcase of Practice breakout. I have managed to bring together 5 current practitioners of eportfolios who will be sharing their experiences, beliefs and examples of implementing eportfolios in their schools. They are:

1. Deb Cowan. Director of eLearning & Teacher, Russell St School, Palmerston North.Chrissie Butler
2. Ministry of Research, Science and Technology Teacher Fellow 2010, and former BLENNZ (Blind and Low Vision Education Network NZ) cluster facilitator.
3. Sharron Eagle. Teacher, Rotorua Girls High School Childcare Trust.
4. Belinda Johnston. Facilitator/Director, EastNet ICTPD Cluster, Elm Park School
5. Jamin Lietz. ICT Lead Teacher, Bethlehem College, Tauranga

You guys are awesome! Thanks for agreeing to share your experiences!

The aim was to represent a cross section of schools, tools and beliefs. Unfortunatley, was not able to get a high school represented but am aiming to repeat this breakout or one very similar at ULearn10 so here is a call out to a high school who would be willing to show and tell! All suggestions welcome.

Nick ePortfolios ePortfolios, L@S, Learning@School

I was motivated to try and visually represent what I had written in a post in the ePortfolios in NZ Google Group thread. Here’s some of what I said:

“…Your example of scanning learning and now moving towards HTML templates illustrates this. Over time you also want or need to readdress your criteria, purpose and vision, especially if you are in a scenario where other classes are using paper. It is more than likely that your views and thoughts are expanding at the same time as your understanding grows due to an increased awareness of the technology capability, student/teacher capability and allignment to learning, and much more rapidly than for those with paper based portfolios…”

The attempt to visualise this into another eportfolio graph is below. The basic idea being that the more experienced you are in implementing eportfolios the more dynamic they are due to the teacher continually refining and developing the implementation.

Not rocket science really. The second graph below includes a reference to paper based portfolios. There are probably a few people who don’t agree with my view here that there are generally a static document in terms of how they change over time…

The graphs aren’t perfect and the terminology is not quite right. As with most posts in this blog I am just unpacking and reflecting on ideas running around in my head.

It is pretty full at the moment as there are two more graphs brewing. One is to try and show the relationship between the ownership and formative nature of an eportfolio and the other the place of feedback in a portfolio within the bigger picture of learning.

I get a lot of inspiration from Jessica Hagy who’s site thisisindexed.com is full of great visual representations of life and thinking relationally. I would love to be able to create such simple graphs that are yet so informative. Here’s an example:

Nick ePortfolios ePortfolios, graph

Jamin Lietz has initiated a thread in the MLE Google Group entitled ePortfolios in NZ.

He notes the purpose of the group:

It is my desire to establish a network with those who are using ePortfolios this year as a tool to enhance teaching and learning. I hope that together we can share good practice, research findings, our  journey, etc.

I would encourage anyone to dive on in there and participate in the ongoing discussions.

Some notable eportfolio personnel have participated already including Dr Helen Barrett, the global eportfolio guru, and Ian Fox the local NZ portfolio legend.

Thanks Jamin!

Nick ePortfolios ePortfolios, Google Group, Helen Barrett, Ian Fox, New Zealand

Anyone in NZ investigating eportfolios will know the name Lenva Shearing, DP at Bucklands Beach Intermediate School.

Watch her discussing the eportfolio as a personal space for learning on Edtalks:

More eportfolio Edtalks can be found below:

• Ewan McIntosh
• Nick Rate
• Ian Fox
• Sue Genefaas

Nick ePortfolios Bucklands Beach, EdTalks, ePortfolios, Lenva Shearing

It is all go exploring the best mPortfolio (Mobile ePortfolio) option for the iPhone.

Tumblr has jumped to the top of the list with the announcement of Tumblr Backup, a desktop application that allows you to backup your Tumblr blog as a self-contained folder complete with content including posts, movies and images. While this is not directly related to the Tumblr iPhone app, which is fantastically easy to use, Tumblr as a complete eportfolio package is shaping up nicely…

If regular blogs are journals, Tumblr blogs are scrapbooks.

The application is in beta and available now for Mac OS X and very simply to use.

Why is this potentially a good thing?

• It enables you to capture the content of a blog/eportfolio and archive or burn it to a disc.
• Parents not wanting to let go of the hard copy of a portfolio can now receive a copy of a child’s portfolio to keep.
• Students moving on to a new school or leaving at the end of year 6, 8 or 13 can receive their learning journey as a momento or pass it on to their new school.

The whole point of using an online space for an eportfolio is to have it available anytime and anywhere enabling the participation of others. While this new Tumblr desktop app does not facilitate this process and is not designed to, it is great to know you can backup and store your blog, in simple HTML format, for whatever reason you have.

Nick ePortfolios, mLearning ePortfolios, iPhone, mportfolios, Tumblr

I was digging around in some of my research notes for my efellow research and came across some graphs I had sketched in order to visualise my thinking on the topic. I never actually used these in my research report but thought I would tidy them up and share them here anyway with the possibility they may help others to conceptualise some of the thinking required around eportfolios.

ePortfolio Ownership

This graph is pretty self explanatory really. Essentially it suggests that the younger the student, the more teacher directed the portfolio will be. Generally, the teacher will dictate/suggest learning to share in the eportfolio, direct reflections and self assessment and more than likely do significant uploading and formatting of content. As the student matures and takes control of their learning, their ability to independently select, upload, reflect and set new goals for learning becomes less guided and increasingly integral to the way they learn. The process is facilitated by the teacher who supports the learning through providing rich learning experiences, opportunities for reflection and by giving feedback.

ePortfolio Purpose

Closely related to the first graph, this one illustrates the changing nature of the portfolio’s purpose. My thinking at the time was that the portfolio for young students is essentially a vehicle for showcasing what the have done, finished examples of learning that show what they have done. As the student gets older the portfolio transforms into a much richer space that becomes part off and includes evidence of the process of learning such as goal setting, reflections, finished and unfinished work and feedback. As the student moves on to secondary and higher education the portfolio can also be used for accountability and assessment of achievement. I am not a big fan of this purpose but don’t have a problem with it as long as the formative/process benefits of the portfolio are not lost in its use for accountability.

Hopefully that is helpful.  At the same time I drew these I also sketched some graphs to do with inquiry. I will share those in my next post.

Nick ePortfolios graph, visualisation

Time to look at mPortfolios options through the ePortfolio solution first. Listed below are some popular ePortfolio options, certainly not exhaustive, but cover a broad spectrum. I’m interested in how each platform can be accessed, edited, added too etc from a mobile device, once again specifically the iPhone or Touch, but will also add in info on other mobile platforms if available.

In no particular order:

Wordpress (Edublogs): As mentioned in my previous post, any WordPress (version 2.7 or higher) powered blog/eportfolio is can be easily added to through the use of the WordPress iPhone app which works seamlessly when adding new pages or posts with images. Viewing and adding comments/feedback to the eportfolio requires the use of Safari on the iPhone. However some sites have been optimised for use on the iPhone, often through installing an iPhone friendly theme such as WPTouch allowing the browsing  commenting and administering of the site a simple pleasure! (this site has WPTouch installed so check it out on your iPhone/Touch). With a little work from the WordPress web host to set up the something like WPTouch (wordpress.com has, edublogs hasn’t, self hosted is up to the owner) mPortfolios are well catered for on the WordPress platform.
Andriod WordPress app info here, Blackberry info here. WPTouch supports both.

Google Sites: As part of your education addition or a personal account, Google sites offers another great eportfolio option. Google have an iPhone app which easily sets you are to connect to your google suite of apps, but not sites. Using Safari you can easily access your sites the traditionally way to edit and add new pages and posts. You can also insert images through pasting in thecURL but a lot of the features like inserting a Picasa image, document or calendar does not function well mainly due to the lack of Flash (?) support on the device. No really an enjoyable experience without having an iPhone/mobile optimised site like much of the other Google apps.

Blogger: If your eportfolio is a Blogger/Blogspot (also supports WordPress, Joonla, Drupal, MoveableType and more) blog then look no further than the app mentioned in the previous post, BlogPress. Easily the best option for creating new content and has the added feature of allowing YouTube video embeds. It is a shame it cost the extra money to get all of these extra features but the free version does the basics well. Commenting not catered for and Blogger is not really mobile friendly. I am still playing around with themes and layouts to find the best combination for a mobile friendly site. The best way is perhaps to view the site’s RSS feed rather than the web page, this utilises the iPhone/Touch’s built in RSS reader (go to reader.mac.com in mobile Safari if you are not familiar with this feature). Bookmark the feed to revisit the portfolio on the device.

Elgg: Like most eportfolio tools and certainly a lot of those listed below, Elgg can be accessed through the iPhone/Touch’s Safari app. Editing and adding content is not without problems (in v 1.6). Creating a new blog post is easy enough and adding the title OK but I was unable to enter any text in the body. However, searching through the Elgg community discussion forums there is some development in making iPhone specific themes and even a iPhone app to make accessing an Elgg site better. The user community for Elgg is nowhere near as big as that of blogger or WordPress but it is exciting to see that there is interest from the user base to get this type of initiative underway. That’s great use as I am a big fan of Elgg.

Blackboard: (Untested) I have no working knowledge of using Blackbaord as a portfolio platform but after reading an eportfolio report recently it was one of the most popular options. I have not tested it but have included here after reading that they have an iPhone app that they will custom build to fit your requirements: “Our open platform also lets you build and add your own applications so you can tailor Blackboard Mobile in the way you see fit.” Available for the iPhone/Touch and Blackberry. Potential here? I do know enough to say one way or the other.

PebblePad: (Untested) From the website: All installations of PebblePad include a version of Pebble Mobile. To access your mobile version of PebblePad simply point your mobile browser at your normal PebblePad URL and add ‘/mobile’ at the end e.g.: http://www.pebblepad.co.uk/eportfolio/mobile. Plans are seemingly afoot for an iPhone app: We are currently developing a PebblePad iPhone app which will allow users to work with PebblePad on the move. Features currently include viewing your assets, uploading a file, creating a thought and posting this to a blog. This is still an ongoing project due for release in the very near future (PebblePad Newsletter, 10/2009). Sounds great!

Have also not tested the following options: KnowledgeNet, My Portfolio/Mahara, UltraNet. (I do not have access to try some our the the time to try the others but will attempt to try).  As with the other options, I would image that Safari on the iPhone allows surfing of these sites and editing facilities as per a standard web browser with perhaps some limitations… please confirm if that is not the case!

To wrap this post up though it is pretty clear that the eportfolio tools that have a specific app such as Blogger or WordPress have a big advantage over those that don’t. However this experience is not complete until the eportfolio host has taken some measure to also make the eportfolio system mobile friendly to aid viewing and commenting while on the go. While this and a dedicated app is not absolutely required, it makes the process of uploading and sharing learning and receiving feedback on that learning very easy and helps contribute to a collaborative eportfolio from a mobile phone.

Nick Mobility, Moblogging, Web 2.0, ePortfolios, mLearning eportfolio solution, ePortfolios, GoogleApps, iPhone, ipod touch, mLearning, mportfolios