I have a few eportfolio presentations and workshops in the pipeline, one at a local ICTPD conference here in Palmerston North, a couple of CORE Breakfast Seminars and plans are already underway for a pre-conference workshop for ULearn 10 in October.

So I have been clarifying and updating some previous presentation slides and thought I would flick them up here in order to hopefully get some feedback.

Part of the purpose of the workshops from my perspective is to get the attendees to think critically about the bigger picture of eportfolios and some of the concepts and ideas that need to be discussed before diving in and also as part of the ongoing review of implementation. So I have 8 questions/discussion starters below. Have I missed anything obvious out? Or what big picture question related to eportfolios do you have that aren’t covered in these questions. Please let me know.

Should an eportfolio include all aspects of a student’s life and learning? Will the eportfolio reflect what is happening beyond learning associated with school? If a student is actively involved in music lessons, sports, coaching, volunteer work, travel etc. not directly related to school, will that be part of your eportfolio vision?

Are your parents and teachers ready? Do your parents understand the school’s beliefs associated with eportfolios? Do they understand the benefits to learning? Is the technology available at home? Work? Does everyone have an understanding of the process involved? The pedagogy? The importance of feedback?

What happens when a student leaves school? Moves to a new class? Transfers? Covering the angle of those wanting interoperability between systems. Is that necessary? Is there one protocol that will allow flexibility of choice so that the system does not dictate the pedagogy? Should every student use the same tools? What happens if the teacher moves on?

Do your current internet & computer use policies cater for eportfolios and the use of Web 2.0 tools? When a student does move on from your school, what happens to the learning contained in your school’s Web 2.0 sites? What of sites that have minimum age requirements? Concepts of digital identity, digital citizenship, digital footprint, online safety, online security, moderation… need to be clarified along with all long term implications.

Will your eportfolios play a role in reporting achievement against the National Standards? Is there a middle road that can be found by including plain language reporting and judgements within a reflective learner centered eportfolio? Does an eportfolio qualify as a written report?

Who retains ownership and control? Related to a number of questions already asked such as transferability and inclusion of learning beyond school. Is the portfolio institution controlled and directed or student centered, open and flexible? Learning selected by learner or prescribed by teacher? Assessed or reflective?

Do you need a packaged solution or is a mash-up of Web 2.0 tools OK? Does appropriately tagging artifacts, rss feeds, and the use of aggregators negate the need to have an eportfolio product or container? Web tools are chosen as required, flexible, for specific purposes, tagged and subscribed to or with an alert through another service such as Twitter to the social learning network… is that still an eportfolio?

Some activities to initiate discussion throughout our workshop.

Activity 1: You and ePortfolios at Riverdale School

Activity 2: ePortfolio PMI

Activity 3: OF or FOR?

Activity 5: ePortfolios 2008

I presented to a group of Hawke’s Bay principals today on how how my research and implementation of eportfolios is beginning to effectively pull together the strands of elearning, assessment for learning and the NZ Curriculum. This will be increasingly so as the process of facilitating learning through eportfolios is increasingly embedded in the teaching and learning process.

When putting this presentation together I used the coloured pencil as a visual metaphor for the themes and elements of elearning, assessment for learning and the NZ Curriculum. There are lots of different coloured pencils out there just like there are lots of options for designing your schools curriculum delivery model…