Eportfolios for Communication Skills and Intercultural Competence

Darren Cambridge

Northeast Association for Language Learning Technology

Easton, PA, April 4, 2009

European Language Portfolio• Funded by the European Union • A variety of frameworks for different national contexts and

languages • Three components– Passport – Europass– Dossier– Biography

PassportSelf-assessment of multiple dimensions of language ability according to common standards

ELP Biography

Key elements of an eportfolioEvidence of learning• Authentic• Diverse

Dossier

Reflection on evidence and identity• Interprets change over time • Examines performance across contexts• Articulates commitments and future aspirations

Biography

Assessment using common conceptual framework• Connects evidence and reflections to shared standards• Facilitates conversation

Passport

Overview

• Efforts to establish conceptual frameworks and assessment methodologies

• Ways of supporting reflective learning• Broadening our understanding of evidence• (A bit about eportolios and social software if

there’s time)

Assessment

ACE Assessing International Initiatives

• An initiative of the American Council on Education funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education

• Six participating institutions • Assessment using a combination of an

eportfolio and a survey • Website with resources for

assessment: http://tinyurl.com/aceinternational

OutcomesKnowledge

•Understands his culture within a global and comparative context (that is, the student recognizes that his culture is one of many diverse cultures and that alternate perceptions and behaviors may be based in cultural differences).

•Demonstrates knowledge of global issues, processes, trends, and systems (that is, economic and political interdependency among nations, environmental-cultural interaction, global governance bodies, and nongovernmental organizations).

•Demonstrates knowledge of other cultures (including beliefs, values, perspectives, practices, and products).

Skills •Uses knowledge, diverse cultural frames of reference, and alternate perspectives to think critically and solve problems.

•Communicates and connects with people in other language communities in a range of settings for a variety of purposes, developing skills in each of the four modalities: speaking (productive), listening (receptive), reading (receptive), and writing (productive).

•Uses foreign language skills and/or knowledge of other cultures to extend his access to information, experiences, and understanding.

Attitudes

•Appreciates the language, art, religion, philosophy, and material culture of different cultures.

•Accepts cultural differences and tolerates cultural ambiguity.

•Demonstrates an ongoing willingness to seek out international or intercultural opportunities.

Rubrics

Liberal Education for America’s Promise (LEAP)

• Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World– Through study in the sciences

and mathematics, social sciences, humanities, histories, languages, and the arts

• Intellectual and Practical Skills– Inquiry and analysis– Critical and creative thinking– Written and oral

communication– Quantitative literacy– Information literacy– Teamwork and problem solving

• Personal and Social Responsibility– Civic knowledge and

engagement—local and global

– Intercultural knowledge and competence

– Ethical reasoning and action– Foundations and skills for

lifelong learning• Integrative Learning

– Synthesis and advanced accomplishment across general and specialized studies

VALUE Intercultural Rubric

Reflection

Theories of Reflection• John Dewey - Critical Thinking

– Tacit knowledge – Rigorous analytical thinking

• Donald Schön - Reflective Practitioner– Key to effective professional practice and human thought– Reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action

• David Kolb - Stages of Reflection – Description, analysis, judgment, planning

• David Boud - Linking cognitive and affective– Examining emotions in professional performance

• Pablo Friere, Stephen Brookfield, et. al - Critical Reflection – Questioning assumptions – Understanding and challenging domination

Reflection with Eportfolios• Enabling multimedia and hypertextual evidence and

reflection – LSU– Stanford– LaGuardia

• Scaffolding the learning process – Concordia – Kapiolani

• Providing support and feedback – LRO– Skilled Immigrant ePortfolio

Enabling multimedia and hypertextual evidence and reflection

• Communication Across the Curriculum at LSU• Stanford Learning Careers Project • LaGuardia Community College Eportfolio

Communication Across the Curriculum at LSU

• Recent immigrants and first-generation college students

• Bridging home and disciplinary culture

• Impact on retention, student engagement, grades

• Visual design and iteration

Scaffolding the Reflection Process

• Concordia University (Montreal) ePEARL • Kapi’olani Community College Nā W a a̒

Scaffolding Self-Regulated Learning

ePEARL Project • Software for primary and

second school students• In use in schools across

Quebec and elsewhere in Canada

• Research on use in French immersion school for grades 5-6 shows gains in self-regulated learning attitudes and behaviors

Phases of Self-Regulation• Forethought

– Goal Setting– Self-efficacy

• Performance– Self-recording

• Self-reflection – Self-judgment– Self-reaction

Matrix Thinking at Kapi’olani

• First-year courses • Six native Hawaiian values

and four stages of the journey of a canoe

• Research documents impact on student engagement (CCSSE) and learning strategies (LASSI)

Providing Support and Feedback

• Learning Record Online• Skilled Immigrant ePortfolios

Learning Record Online • Five dimensions of learning and course goals• Observations and samples of work throughout semester• Rapid and iterative feedback through web interface • Interpretation and grade recommendations at middle and end• Midterm moderations

Skilled Immigrant ePortfolio

• Successful and harmonious integration of immigrants• Integrating and improving access to rich and diverse

resources and services that are hidden, dispersed or fragmented

• Regional initiative in Quebec • Modular personal portal links services to self-

representationSamantha Slade

sam@percolab.com

A modular widget-based environment

Integrating Language and Culture

Phase 1, Early 2009The Basics

Phase 2, Mid 2009Workplace Integration

Phase 3, Late 2009Daily Life

Language proficiency Personal profile Experiences Competence

Finding employment Health and safety Performing at interviews Local work culture Conflicts in the workplace Business networks Starting a business Team work Volunteering

Health Family Housing Leisure activities Banking Citizenship

Complicating Evidence • Link between evidence and reflection distinguishes eportfolios

and other digital means for– Supporting reflective learning– Managing information about knowledge, skills, abilities and

experiences • “Evidence” is the documents included in a portfolio on which

the author reflects • Use of evidence in practice is more complex than the

eportfolio literature often acknowledges

Academics as Test of Self• We intended for curricular

content to be an central source of evidence and ideas and strategies, but it didn’t show up this way

• Class work functioned as– A demonstration of

character virtues– An experience – A goal putting aspiration

towards those virtues in action

Characteristics of item used as evidence

Agency • Self-authored • Collaboratively authored (portfolio author and associates) • Other-authored Media •Media and modality of evidence (e.g., text, audio, image, streaming video, multimedia, etc.)

Purpose of incorporating evidence

Rhetorical Function• Intended (or deduced) function of the evidence (e.g., demonstrates or symbolizes) Object • Evidence reflects author’s knowledge, skills, character traits, beliefs, goals, or identifications

Characteristics of associated learning activity

Sponsorship• Institutionally sponsored (curricular, co-curricular, community organizations, etc.) • Self-sponsored • Unsponsored Participation• Individual participation • Group activity • Larger community/associational activity

Matches and Mismatches

• Reflective description of evidence • Content of evidence • Local – site of specific evidence use • Global – the whole portfolio • Matches and mismatches yield more

sophisticated understanding and resources for supporting portfolio authors

Being popular matters because

• It suggests intrinsic motivation, which we’d like to understand and tap.

• There are social practices related to use beyond academic settings we need to take into account.

Fits into the open spaces of daily life

• Short– Average blog post is 210.4 words– Mean length of “About Me” is 157 characters; median is 36

• Frequent– Time between last and penultimate post mean in 5 days; mode is 1

day– 60% of adults access SNS at least several times a week ; 37% access

every day– Average college student logs in at least once a day

• Brief– 59% of blog writers spend 1-2 hrs/wk– Average college students spends 20 minutes/day on SNS

Database Lowers Transaction Costs

• Data collection– Unstructured – “firstly, a dataset, a list of things” (Jarrett 2004)

• Interface – Provides structure; guide’s the reader’s experience– Emphasis of search in blogs and SNS

• Dynamic selection and arrangement vs.• Interface as a composition with an intentionally meaningful

selection and arrangement

• Number of fields completed predicts number of friends but amount of information in them does not

• Used by 80,000 residents• Most active users demographically

representative• Use across roles suggests intrinsic motivation

and lifelong learning• Integration of different life roles in single

representation with user control over contents and visual design key success factor

I think it'd be difficult to separate completely, you know, who I am and what my immediate family loves are versus just me as a professional educator and nurse. … I am not someone who's isolated to the world of professional nursing education. I also have conflicting, or competing maybe, obligations within my life that I need to balance, just as students do and other professionals do, and I think that that's a good thing, to show … people that are reading my sites, I have other obligations in my life, and I manage to hopefully balance them all and be able to perform to the best of my ability in all those domains.

Network SelfCreating intentional connections

Symphonic SelfAchieving integrity of the whole