an eportfolio - what is in it for me?

Wolsingham School and Community College 1

John Pallister

Wolsingham School and Community College - UK

Salzburg June 2008

An ePortfolio – what’s in it for me


The Background

• Rapidly developing Information and Communications technologies – Converging – pervasive and invasive

• Facilitating Social networking on a global scale

• Learners enjoy using the Technology and tools

• Aspiration to harness and provide a Personal learning environment for all


Learners surviving in a digital culture

• Fast moving streams of info, often visual• 6 hours/day in front of screens• No longer consuming edited news, but

raw information as it appears on the web• Distinction between content and process• Having to make sense out of the

information themselves• Enjoy challenge and reward - Steven

Johnson• Collective identities• Digital generations


• It wasn't long ago that to be a credible participant in social media one only had to have a decent blog and keep it updated fairly regularly. The rise of social media was an astonishing and novel enough development that most people still don't blog today, despite the enormous influence that blogging and other forms of social media continue to have. One reason is that blogging takes time and takes some skill, both in writing and using blogging tools effectively. Another is the rise of online social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Hi5, which add a personal dimension to online interaction that many find more rewarding and relevant for them.

• But just like blogs made two-way conversations on the Web relatively cheap, easy, and quick for the masses compared to previous methods (such as personal Web sites), conversational models on the Web have continued to evolve. Recently, microblogging and social aggregation platforms like Twitter and Friendfeed have emerged to offer alternative models that are compelling for a number of significant reasons. For one, contributing to them doesn't take much time. To achieve this, they either have radical limits on the amount of content that can be posted at a time (140 characters for Twitter), or they do the posting work for you and automatically centralize your social activity on other sites into a single feed, as in the case of Friendfeed. They also tend to work very well on mobile devices -- an incredibly fast growing channel for experiencing anything on the Web these days -- as well scale conversation well, are extremely easy to use (even easier in general than blogs), and allow you to keep track of a large numbers of contacts socially.

• http://web2.socialcomputingmagazine.com/endless_conversation_the_unfolding_saga_of_blogs_twitter_.htm

http://facebook.com/

http://facebook.com/

http://hi5.com/

http://twitter.com/

http://friendfeed.com/

http://web2.socialcomputingmagazine.com/endless_conversation_the_unfolding_saga_of_blogs_twitter_.htm

http://web2.socialcomputingmagazine.com/endless_conversation_the_unfolding_saga_of_blogs_twitter_.htm


• Understanding How Conversations Are Changing• The challenge today is that while the size of individual contributions to online

conversations is getting smaller, the frequency of conversations are increasing on these new social media platforms. Making this point, Sarah Perez over at Read/Write Web wrote this morning that there are too many choices, and too much content. Users of the latest social media tools are far more likely to post several times a day, more likely dozens of times, each one forming a new conversational beachhead. This can be overwhelming, but it can also be enormously stimulating and rewarding, as a form of collaboration, cross-pollination, brainstorming, serendipity, news gathering, and countless other activities provide one with a continuous connection to the broader world.

• To get a handle on how people are using these next generation social media platforms, I ran an online survey this week which I pushed out across my Twitter followers, Friendfeed contacts, and a random sampling of my personal contacts via e-mail (the latter without much regard if they used these tools.) The results largely reflect many of the points above, but there were some interesting write-in results as well.

• Here's how the Twitter survey results broke down:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/too_many_choices_too_much_content.php


• A lot of folks call these pull-based interaction systems, which value reputation and trust above all other things, Social Computing.

• The generally accepted basic tenets of Social Computing are:

• 1) Innovation is moving from a top-down to bottom-up model 2) Value is shifting from ownership to experiences3) Power is moving from institutions to communities

• http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=21Consequently, it appears that the two-way Web is increasingly moving the power out of the hands of trusted institutions and into the hands of everyday users, who decide for themselves what products they should buy, whose information they should consume, what marketing they want. Thus, online communities are increasingly driving the vision of institutions because these technologies put the majority of power into the hands of communities, essentially take it away from existing formal social structures and organizations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_computing

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=21


Current digital generation

• More capable multitaskers

• Naturally geared towards technologies

• Active learners• edyson: people who

alone quietly can grumble into their soup together can make a differece


Are the current generation of learners different?

• Want to provide a personalised learning environment for learners

• They want to


Want to provide a personalised learning environment for

learners

• Start by investigating the aspiration to create independent reflective learners

• Using the technology, they can store, access and share digital evidence


They want to

• Access and watch visual information

• Obtain instant results from their searches

• Play games and enjoy the rewards

• Chat to people they know• Use handheld technology• Be connected to people

they know• Be connected to the

information• Want fashionable

technology


Success Criteria: I want...

• To easily record plans and thoughts• To easily use multimedia technology, e.g. Camera phones• To enjoy using camera phone, iPod and social software• To use it to store evidence of personal activities• To have a structure provided• To easily search the evidence• Something to Help recollection of discussions between my teacher and I• To be able to access web-based portfolios from home• Access control• Something that allows reflection• Something that creates a digital record/story• Options of how to link evidence relative to previous evidence• Something that allows teachers to easily assess work I have done• Something that helps preparation for interviews/review meetings• A record of my work that I enjoy showing to my parents and teachers• To practice and develop my ICT skills• To enjoy the sharing process• To customise my work• Something that I am proud of• To be able to work on my portfolio wherever I am


The what and why

• Discussion of the common elements of an ePortfolio

• What the ePortfolio Process consists of


Discussion of the common elements of an ePortfolio

• Digital evidence

• Allows evidence to be shown and shared

• Includes the plans, hopes and aspirations of the learner


What the ePortfolio Process consists of

• Recognise that something needs to be learned

• Plan how they might do it

• Do what they planned to do

• Record the evidence of it

• Review and reflect the results


Are we there yet?

• The ePortfolio process requires a shift from teaching to learning

• Learners will want to know what is in it for them

• Not taking full advantage of the available technologies yet


The ePortfolio process requires a shift from teaching to learning


Learners will want to know what is in it for them


Not taking full advantage of the available technologies yet


http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/news/story/0,,2276712,00.html

• The art of being virtual•

Harriet SwainTuesday April 29, 2008The Guardian

The first step for anyone wanting to make the most of learning opportunities offered by new technology is to go shopping. Better still, get someone else to go shopping for you. Explain that you will need: a lightweight, web-enabled laptop in order to access essential learning tools, and be in constant touch with home, through emails and free telephone calls - for which they'll also need to throw in a headset. A printer will help you to get a good degree by avoiding library queues. You will also need a smartphone with a calendar application so that you can be on time for all lectures and seminars, meet assignment deadlines and remember great-aunt Dora's birthday. This will also allow you to text home to keep everyone informed of your movements, and to contact a taxi when stranded alone late at night and contemplating a lift home with a gang of youths and a pit bull terrier.

• An MP3 player is vital, too, for listening to podcasts of lectures. This, of course, is only the start. You can supplement the list of essential kit depending on the advice of lecturers, and on what your friends get for Christmas.

• Just because you know a lot more about what all this stuff does than whoever bought it for you doesn't mean you know it all. And although, theoretically, once you're online you need never move from your study bedroom, you should make at least one trip to the library to sign up for training on tricks for using searchable journal articles and other relevant literature, not to mention Google.

• You should already have checked out your university's virtual learning environment. But physically attending an institution in Northumbria doesn't stop you virtually attending one in California, thanks to open educational resources.

• After a few weeks you may find you can't remember when you last took a meal break, while all you recall from your time online is that YouTube clip of cats doing the conga.

• Do remember that copying is a lot less impressive than collaboration. Check out what kind of plagiarism software your university uses and see if you can use it yourself to make sure you haven't inadvertently lifted your essay from somewhere else.

• Then, lovely as your new laptop is, learn to leave it alone sometimes. Sometimes, you may be able to find better information in a book - or even from a person.




http://www.guardian.co.uk/


• I am currently writing a report examining the flux in educational culture in particularly; The participation of young people in cyberspace constitutes play rather than work (http://www.goodworkproject.org/research/digital.htm), believes Carrie James*. Student's opting to play rather than work is a tussel that teachers and lecturers challenge on a daily basis, often seeing the two as polar opposites, applying the edict of School/College/University as a place of work/study, however I am interested in, like the Good Play project, exploring this new sphere of interactive/interconnected new-media which young people inhabit and experimenting with pedagogies. The GoodPlay white paper establishes five core ethical issues relating to new medias and education which I intend to examine in my essay, these are;

• Identity: exploring and 'playing' with different identities • Privacy: choosing when and how to share information to whom • Ownership/Authorship: understanding issues of control and credit for

intellectual work • Credibility: being authentic when representing one's competence and

motivations • Participation: accessing communities, understanding codes of conduct, and

engaging proactively Interested in your thoughts on this topic and any suggested reading

http://www.goodworkproject.org/research/digital.htm

http://www.goodworkproject.org/research/digital.htm


• I spend most of my time looking at networks from the perspective of learners and educators. I find my own personal network for learning far exceeds any other information source (including Google). As I begin to follow/read different practitioners and theorists, I begin to develop in my own understanding - especially if they represent a related, but not overly similar field. Media, news, video games, communication theory, philosophy, and other areas contribute to my understanding of the role of technology for learning. But learning is not confined to colleges and universities. As this article states, http://knowledge.insead.edu/contents/ibarra.cfm the ability to form networks is vital for achieving personal and career goals. When I suggest how important personal learning networks are, I often encounter the statement "I don't have time". As this author states: "If you want to succeed you need to make the time". She then goes on to suggest that we need to schedule time for forming networks so that it becomes habitual. I wonder how many educators regularly set aside time to consider the quality and diversity of their networks...

http://knowledge.insead.edu/contents/ibarra.cfm

http://knowledge.insead.edu/contents/ibarra.cfm


http://www.news.com/8301-13953_3-9941411-80.html

http://www.news.com/otl/?tag=repblog.promos

• John McCrea, vice president of marketing at Plaxo, said Google's Friend Connect is "flipping the model" from walled gardens (such as Facebook) to a more open social Web:

• Instead of widgetizing apps and bolting them on to some corporation's proprietary social graph, why not widgetize the social graph and socially enable any Web site or Web page?

• That's a big, bold vision that Plaxo is 100 percent aligned with. As to Facebook and MySpace, it is certainly great to read the rhetoric they are now putting forth. The meme of data portability, open social Web, and bill of rights for users of the social Web has certainly caught on!

• Alas, the devil is in the details, and we haven't seen any details (yet) from Facebook--just a Friday blog post signaling intent. It might be great, and we hope it is, but it's not clear what the actual substance will be.

• With regard to MySpace, the rhetoric is over-the-top goodness, including a declaration of the end of the era of walled gardens. Alas, the details, as they currently exist, for their "Data Availability" effort fall far short of the vision many of us share for users having ownership of their data, control over who can see it, and freedom to take it with them, wherever they go across the social Web.

• In the MySpace "Data Availability" model, the user can take their data for a walk anytime they want or to any place they want, but the data remains on a tether. There is no notion of copy, move, or sync. Participating sites must agree to have MySpace serve the data live in their page. That's a half-step wrapped in a beautiful flag of openness.

http://www.news.com/8301-13953_3-9941411-80.html


Have a look at

• http://www.ifets.info/journals/8_2/ets_8_2.pdf#page=155


• I think there is a conflict because we tend to try to fit a traditional curriculum into new technologies rather than identify how new technologies can enhance teaching and learning in a different way. A piece of research with 570 respondents in secondary schools show the width, breadth, skills, knowledge and understanding that the majority of these 11 - 16 year olds have in regard to the use of technology; blogs, Wikis, texting, emails, downloading, using social networking, designing their own websites and so on. Rather than seeing this as a threat which should be banned -why not try to use these skills to enhance our curriculum. Of course there needs to be rules and regulations about when and how they can be used-but given the right approach technology could really enhance what we and our pupils do. I recently saw a trainee teach plan and deliver a series of lessons based around storyboarding-using multi media software-the results were amazing as well as motivating for pupils who found traditional story writing less than motivating and in some cases tedious. The work was creative and innovative and her mentor could hardly believe the quality of the writing, imagination and work produced. I would have thought that it is ICT above all else that can really contribute to the personalised learning agenda. Thank Graham Jarvis


Session objectives

• Examine the impact that the ePortfolio process has had on learning, motivation and self-esteem

• Explore strategies that can be used to engage learners in the ePortfolio process


Why engage learners in the ePortfolio process?

We need an understanding of:

• what an ePortfolio is, and of the process that the learner must go through to compile and use one

• what is in it for the learner (Why should a learner have an ePortfolio?)


What? - An ePortfolio:

many different definitions for ePortfolios - common elements: • digital evidence owned by a learner; • structured and stored in some way that enables the evidence to found

presented or shared with others [teachers, parents, peers, potential employers/HE/Training providers];

• evidence being stored is likely to include:– plans– achievements – Learning experiences– Aspirations– reflections and thinking

A portfolio of digital evidence owned and managed by the learner?


Plan what youneed to do

Check and share your plan

DO IT!

Record evidence of whatyou have done or learnt

Share and presentevidence

Select and linkevidence

ePortfolio

Review and reflect on what you have done

What? – the ePortfolio Process

Recognise that something needs to be done or learnt


The ePortfolio process and Learning

Gain experience by engaging in activities

Encounter problems

Recognise the needfor learning

Develop strategies toovercome the problem

Experiment withstrategies

The ePortfolio Process

Plan what youneed to do

Check and share your plan

DO IT!

Record evidence of whatyou have done or learnt

Share and presentevidence

Select and linkevidence ePortfolio

Review and reflect on what you have done


Why might we want learners to follow the process?

Might it:

• Encourage learners to take an active part in their own learning? – encourage reflection, planning and dialogue about learning?

• Support the move towards Personalised learning? - placing the learner at the centre of the learning process

• Motivate and engage the learner?

• Raise learner self esteem?

• Support progression and provide opportunities for learners to develop a 'presentational' or self-marketing portfolio?

• Provide somewhere for learners to store evidence to support assessment processes?


The ePortfolio Process, Tools and Learning

•Transition•Employment•Training

E-Me

Technology + Tools

Learning


The How:

How to use the available tools and technology

How to structure, store and access the ePortfolio

How to support life-long learning and progression

How to engage the learners How to train teachers to support learners who are using

ePortfolio processes


engagement – the climate

I have access to the tools and technology I need

I know how to – in my learning

I know how to - technically

I know why I need one

School - You need one

Employers - You need one

Universities - You need one

Parents - You need one

Government Policy – You need one

I will commit my time

I want/need one

Not valuable

Too complicated

Will not enjoy

Have not got the time

do I really need one

learner


Need to focus on learning

• Tools and technology will change

• Life-long, life-wide hosting, inter-operability and anywhere, anytime access are important challenges

• But if the ePortfolio process has value why not use it now, harnessing the available technologies?

• Time to move from ‘talking the talk’ to ‘walking the walk’ stage


The learners that we teach:

• Carry phones with video cameras, music playback, audio recording etc.

• Want to play on computer/Internet games

• Want to communicate via blogs, chat rooms, text messaging, voice over internet, MSN etc.

• Increasingly have 'digital identities' and ICT based, social networks via MySpace etc

• Are "digital natives" living and learning in a rapidly changing world


Our learners…

• demand to receive information quickly

• can parallel process and multi-task

• prefer graphics before text

• prefer random access (hyper text)

• function better when networked

• thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards

• prefer a ‘games’ style interface[Steve Molyneux cited Dr. Bruce D. Berry, Baylor College of Medicine, On the Horizon (NCB University

Press, December 2001] http://www.durhamlea.org.uk/durhamconference


Students… (1)

• Are prepared to take ownership of their multimedia ePortfolios

• Are enjoying working with multimedia ePortfolios, particularly the creative opportunity that they provide

• Are prepared to give up their time to work on their ePortfolios during lunchtimes, after school and at home

• Were engaged and very proud of their ePortfolio and eager to discuss it, and their achievements with anyone and everyone


Students… (2)

• Develop the ability to record their reflections and then, following the discussions that sharing their reflections prompted, revise their plans.

• Develop the ICT/multimedia skills that they need to compile and maintain a multimedia ePortfolio;

• Have to decide where/how to link in new evidence, so they have to focus on the ‘bigger picture’ of their learning and achievements. Context and relevance gets a useful boost.


A Teacher’s View (1)

• enjoyed sharing the excitement and satisfaction with students who had used their ePortfolios as support in a formal interview situation.

• listened to teachers recount and report their positive experiences of the value of using ePortfolio in student-Tutor-Parent meetings.

• The same teachers reported the positive feedback, from parents who were impressed with both the content and potential of their son/daughter’s ePortfolio.

• Most parents also commented, positively, about their son/daughter’s ICT skills that the ePortfolio had allowed them to demonstrate in the meeting.


A Teacher’s View (2)

• recognised the obvious enjoyment that students derive from sharing evidence, with others, of what they have done or achieved.

• By talking with students about their ePortfolios, I have recognised the potential of the ePortfolio to provide opportunities for me to open up discussion with them about virtually any topic that I felt would benefit the learner.

• observed an increase in ICT/multimedia skills, with respect to using ICT as a tool for a ‘real’ job, not an assignment, task or an exercise, something that will help them.

• At the other end of the spectrum, I have watched older students develop a perception that ePortfolios meant additional work and that universities and employers do not value them.


“How my E-Me has helped me”(2006)

• “It helped me realise what I achieved/done”

• “It helped me think of things that will help me get the job I want”

• “It helped me draw everything I have done during the year together”

• “It helped me focus on my skills and qualities and what could be improved”

• “It helped me to put career plans and targets into perspective”

• “It has improved my presentation and computer skills”

• “It has helped me place all my evidence together”

• “It helped me to realise which skills I have, and those which I need to develop”

• “It helped me to analyse my year and it's events”

• “My E-me has helped me build on the skills I need for my future job role, and will help me when doing future interviews”


An ePortfolio: Never a finished product

• I was initially worried that if, when presenting their ePortfolios to visitors, a student ended up on an empty page.

• I thought that a page without evidence of their learning, progress or achievements would have no value.

• Not so, the fact that evidence had not been completed/presented generally promoted very useful discussion and reflections, after the excuses had been either explored or discounted.

• It also emphasises that a learners ePortfolio will never be a finished product.

• Life-long learning means that any medium that records learning will always be work-in-progress.


Digital natives motivated by and enjoying a multimedia

experience? OR a learning environment and

processes that really did cater for and build on the strengths of the digital natives that we are trying to ‘teach’?

a learning environment that: is appropriate to learner needs harnesses appropriate tools and technologies engages, motivates and challenges


Engaging Learners – The tools and technology

Use tools that enables them to:

• customise and take owner ship of their ePortfolio

• modify and add to the structure of their ePortfolio

• use multimedia evidence

• be creative with multimedia evidence


Engaging Learners – Whole school Policy

• Integrate the ePortfolio process into the school’s ‘way of working’

• Promote the advantages of the ePortfolio process to learners and staff + parents, employers, HE etc

• Build in time and opportunities for staff to sit down and look at the ePortfolios

• Provide a range of different audiences – audience gives value to the process

• Train teachers so that they can support learners who are using ePortfolios


Engaging Learners – The learning environment

Create a learning climate where: • Learners are provided with opportunities to reflect

and evaluate what they have planned, done, made, experienced or learnt.

• Learners feel comfortable sharing their reflections and revealing their own strengths and weaknesses

• Teachers value the ePortfolio process and are able to provide feedback and support to learners

• The process is valued more than just the product• Spelling mistakes etc. are accepted - Always work in progress


Engaging Learners – Make sure they know why you

want them to compile an ePortfolio

• Important that learners know why you want them to compile an ePortfolio - Watch the ‘what can an ePortfolio do for me’ Podcast


Engaging Learners – Make sure they know what it is

that they will need to do

• Make sure that they understand the ePortfolio process and how it fits in with what they already do – watch the ‘Compiling your ePortfolio’ Podcast

• Emphasis the Assessment for learning – – pupils will improve most if they understand the

aim of their learning, where they are in relation to this aim and how they can achieve the aim (or close the gap in their knowledge)

– being part of the review process empowers pupils to take action to improve their performance. http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_4338.aspx


Engaging Learners – Implementation

• Phase in the ePortfolio process from Yr 7, Yr 1 or birth!

• Make sure that you have convinced all staff of the value of the ePortfolio process


Engaging Learners – Working with them … (1)

• Find time to talk to learners and encourage them to reflect on what they have done, learnt, achieved or plan to do

• Encourage them to record their reflections and then, following the discussions that sharing their reflections prompted, revise their plans.

• Encourage learners think carefully about where/how they should link in new evidence – this

makes them focus on the ‘bigger picture’ of their learning and achievements


Engaging Learners – working with them … (2)

• highlight success and achievement, help them to recognise what they have done to ‘generate’ the success – link reflections into their ePortfolio

• encourage them to identify their strengths and what has worked well for them – build these into future plans - link reflections into their ePortfolio

• encourage them to look for opportunities to improve – what they need to do next time to improve their performance


Create a LEARNING CLIMATE:• learners have opportunities to reflect on what

they have planned, done made, experienced or learnt

• learners feel comfortable sharing their reflections• teachers value the ePortfolio process and are

able to support to learners

Update WHOLE SCHOOL POLICIES so that they:• Integrate the ePortfolio process into the school’s

‘way of working’ • Encourage departments to integrate the

ePortfolio process into their schemes of learning; • Build in time and opportunities for staff to sit

down and look at the ePortfolios• Provide a range of different audiences.

Use TOOLS and TECHNOLOGY:

• that learners want to use

• enables them to customise and take owner ship of their ePortfolio

• that lets them modify the structure of their ePortfolio

• that supports multimedia evidence

• that provide creative opportunities

Make sure that LEARNERS:

• know why you want them to compile an ePortfolio

• Understand how it fits in with what they already do

• Understand what they will need to do

• Have the ICT and multimedia skills required

Train TEACHERS so that they - can support learners who are using ePortfolios

all PARTNERS - parents, employers, HE etcunderstand and value the ePortfolio process

Towards an Action Plan

Plan an IMPLEMENTATION strategy – phased in from Yr 7 OR Yr 1

Environment:• reason for ePortfolio

• learner support inc technical

• ICT/multimedia resources

• explicit evidence requirements

• integrated into curriculum

• trained staff

• skills/competencies valued

• review/reflection embedded

• opportunities to present ePortfolio

Process - learners:

• use ICT/multimedia skills

• select and structure evidence

• use ePortfolio to review learning

• work with teachers to reflect on their learning/achievements

• take responsibility for their ePortfolio

• select and organise evidence for presentation (for a purpose)

Learning: Skills development

• reflection, action planning/target setting

• progression and career planning

• ICT/Multimedia/communication

• learning and achievements structured/recorded

• improved self-esteem and self-confidence

• creative opportunities provided

• assessment evidence compiled

ePortfolio

‘By-products’

an eportfolio - what is in it for me?

Education

social activity

forms of social media

new social media platforms

latest social media

therise of social mediawas

personal web sites

online conversations

twoway web