There are so many benefits to creating an e-portfolio. E-portfolios give students a larger sense of purpose for their work. There are many students who find so much more meaning in sharing their work with an audience beyond that of their teacher. Students want recognition, reaffirmation, engagement, and especially to feel as though they have been "heard". E-portfolios provide a platform for each of these and more. As a result, e-portfolios generate a stronger feeling of ownership on the part of the student and in turn, encourage a greater acceptance of responsibility for one's work. Knowing that their creations have the ability to be shared on a global level, can give students a stronger focus and a deeper feeling of purpose, both of which help validate the students efforts. E-portfolios also encourage students to reflect on the digital footprint that they want to leave and therefore, become more thoughtful about their work. Through this process of reflection, students can start to collect or curate that work for which they are most proud to showcase and receive feedback and engage in dicussions with a wider audience. E-portfolios can expand a students' perspective on the world and therefore, generate a greater sense of empathy for and understanding of the world around them.
Balancing the purpose and the product of the e-portfolio is to recognize that the e-portfolio can have a different purpose for different audiences, as indicated in Dr. Barrett's slides on Balancing the Two Faces of E-Portfolio. Again, as she states in her slides, as a process, they can be organized chronologically, with learning as the primary focus, and the reflection process is immediate. As a product, the e-portfolio can be organized by theme, and the main purpose is as an assessment tool for accountability, and the reflection process is retrospective. Having watched Dr. Barrett's slide show and having read the New Zealand Ministry of Educations Guidelines to Digital Portfolios for Beginners, I understand that thinking through the organization of e-portfolios during the planning process and throughout the creation process is key to balancing the purpose and the product.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Reflections on Lesson One
In lesson one, I reviewed what can be considered an ePortfolio. I suppose what is most interesting is that there is significant control over what can be considered an ePortfolio and what tools to use to create the portfolio. With a paper portfolio, work is shared through one medium (paper) but with an ePortfolio, the tools vary significantly and can consist of video, photos, writing samples, graphics and other creative outlets. I also think that ePortfolios allow for more collaboration than paper and it is easier to create a shared portfolio with a class or a group of people. With paper portfolios, this is more challenging.
In my classes this past year, we created a wiki that documented our larger projects that we worked on throughout the quarter. Under the definitions of an ePortfolio that we explored in the readings and videos, this wiki would suffice as an ePortfolio, although it was not created by just one individual. However, it was a tool used for documenting and sharing our work. We did not have the comments section enabled but had we done this, it would have also been a way for our larger audience to provide feedback on our work.
The assessment activities caused me to reflect on how realistic of an approach we can take to implementing ePortfolios and more specifically, on what scale do we want to create these on. In some ways, the assessments raise more questions, such as, at what age do we begin an ePortfolio, are they maintained from year to year using the same tools, what type of teacher/student training is involved, and does the technology support the long term implementation of an ePortfolio? I enjoyed reviewing some of the example ePortfolios that students had created in 2009 and continued to maintain throughout the years. I noticed that these were very small schools in which students had some of the teachers for more than one year. I also wondered what happens when the original creation tools become obsolete or better tools are invented and become more appealing. How does one manage the work that this can generate?
In summary, I think that the creation of ePortfolios can be limited so as not to overwhelm or they can be a daunting project if not carefully considered from all angles. I also believe that they can be a rewarding way to engage both students and teachers in an academic setting. EPortfolios reinforce the notion of continuous learning and growth while tracking that process in a multi-dimensional format.
In my classes this past year, we created a wiki that documented our larger projects that we worked on throughout the quarter. Under the definitions of an ePortfolio that we explored in the readings and videos, this wiki would suffice as an ePortfolio, although it was not created by just one individual. However, it was a tool used for documenting and sharing our work. We did not have the comments section enabled but had we done this, it would have also been a way for our larger audience to provide feedback on our work.
The assessment activities caused me to reflect on how realistic of an approach we can take to implementing ePortfolios and more specifically, on what scale do we want to create these on. In some ways, the assessments raise more questions, such as, at what age do we begin an ePortfolio, are they maintained from year to year using the same tools, what type of teacher/student training is involved, and does the technology support the long term implementation of an ePortfolio? I enjoyed reviewing some of the example ePortfolios that students had created in 2009 and continued to maintain throughout the years. I noticed that these were very small schools in which students had some of the teachers for more than one year. I also wondered what happens when the original creation tools become obsolete or better tools are invented and become more appealing. How does one manage the work that this can generate?
In summary, I think that the creation of ePortfolios can be limited so as not to overwhelm or they can be a daunting project if not carefully considered from all angles. I also believe that they can be a rewarding way to engage both students and teachers in an academic setting. EPortfolios reinforce the notion of continuous learning and growth while tracking that process in a multi-dimensional format.
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