Progress toward providing students with ePortfolio assessment options may be impeded by the high cost of commercial hosting services.
Perhaps we need to consider leap-frogging ePortfolio technology in favor of low cost, student-generated Personal Learning Environments (PLE) instead.
What has been your experience using free PLE hosting services such as Digication, pbWiki, WikiPaint, Netcipia, Blogger, Ning, WordCircle, Connexions, MERLOT, Edu2.0, or OER Commons?
Overview One of the ways in
Overview
One of the ways in which we may be able to encourage University students to achieve more in their studies and gain the careers they desire is to enable them to reflect upon their own learning. This process of student reflection may include recognition of their achievements and skills, as well as planning ahead for their personal, educational and career aspirations. A novel and useful tool to assist in the process of reflection is the electronic Portfolio (ePortfolio). ePortfolios are the subject of this project.
The ePistle project will investigate the potential of ePortfolio use for student retention and progression in the catchment area of the University of Wolverhampton. It will create the opportunity for groups of students from two local schools and three Further Education colleges to use an ePortfolio system.
The project will then investigate the use of ePortfolios by these students in terms of the if, how, what, when and related to this it will uncover how best to embed these into a curriculum. The project will also investigate how ePortfolios are and can be used by both those students wishing to progress along their education path and those institutions who will accept them.
Aims and Objectives
The overall aims of this project are twofold. The first is to gain a better understanding of the way in which ePortfolios are used (or not used) by students and how best they can integrated into the curriculum. The second is to observe how ePortfolios are used for assisting progression from one institution to another, by both students and institutions’ admissions departments. The outcomes will be:
A set of materials and guidelines which will assist teachers to embed an ePortfolio into the curriculum
A set of guidelines to frame the use of ePortfolios for accreditation for entry into Higher Education; Policy statement or set of guidelines to frame the use of ePortfolios for accreditation for entry into Higher Education written
A set of guidelines for the use of ePortfolios in colleges and schools as artefacts to enable learners’ transition or progression to other institutions of education;
A policy statement or set of guidelines to frame the issues around storage, and ongoing access of learners’ ePortfolios is written and endorsed by ITS and legal team.
A report into the investigation of the issues which affect the use and non-use of e-Portfolios by learners.
Project Methodology
Two ePortfolios will be used in this project – PebblePad and ePet. In order to answer our research questions will be collecting the following materials and data through interviews and questionnaires: learning materials and workshop plans for staff about to encourage their learners to use ePortfolios; the views and patterns of use of ePortfolios by the students participating in the project; and the views and procedures of institutions who have ePortfolios submitted as evidence of learning.
Implications/ Deliverables/ Stakeholders
The need for this small-scale pilot project is threefold. The first centres on gaining a better understanding of how learners choose to use ePortfolios, in terms of the if, what, when, how etc. Clearly this may involve encouragement (or direction) from external agents to promote engagement. The second need for investigation addressed by this project is understanding of how best ePortfolios can be embedded in the curriculum and what classroom processes and materials might best assist this. The third need is to observe and evaluate if, and how, ePortfolios support the process of transition and progression between different educational institutions. At the end of the project the community will have a deeper understanding of how ePortfolios are used, can be embedded in the curriculum, and how they can support the process of transition and progression in the educational context.
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What would be the possible
What would be the possible implications of student e-portfolios? A better communication, a better information transfer, better students opportunities after they graduate? We still don't have access this technology in my area and it would help to know more about it. I am thinking about the possibilities of a Technical University specialized on research, this new feature could enhance technology transfer and bring new reliable opportunities.
Edublogs vs. Digication as PLE
At Foothill College, we are about to embark on a 12 month pilot test of Edublogs vs. Digication as student ePortfolio solutions.
James Farmer just launched Edublogs Campus (http://edublogs.org) which provides ample tools for a PLE. Individual edublog accounts are free and provide 100 mb of upload space. Also, see James Farmer's post about the inevitable PLE at http://incsub.org/blog/2006/the-inevitable-personal-learning-environment-post
Digication (http://digication.com) offers the first 1,000 accounts at an institution for free.
I am happy to share our pilot project experiences at the Symposium.
Dr. Judy Baker
Dean of Foothill Global Access
Foothill College
Los Altos Hills, CA
Does a Personal Learning Environment exist?
In my opinion, a real PLE does not yet exist. Elgg is as close as I've seen. I hope someone can prove me wrong here. Is there a tool I haven't yet seen?
Open Source E portfolio
Hi- I recently came across Mahara, "Mahara is a fully featured open source electronic portfolio, weblog, resume builder and social networking system, connecting users and creating online communities. Mahara is designed to provide users with the tools to demonstrate their life-long learning, skills and development over time to selected audiences." Apparently, Moodle can interface with Mahara.
Deb Antoine
Instructional Designer
University of Illinois Springfield
Mahara
Sounds interesting. Looks like it is still in beta, but moving along quickly. My first reaction is that it is doing some things that would overlap with other applications I would probably integrate it with, such as the blog and social networking features. I wonder if you can turn those features off, if you want to use other applications better suited for them. I would also love to see it do more with Moodle than just single-sign-on. For example, a nice feature would be to enable the movement of your portfolio items that were created in Moodle into your eportfolio in mahara. From what it looks like here, you need to re-upload everything. Probably not necessary in the first release, but would be nice. Thanks for pointing this out though, I will download and take it for a test drive some time soon.
PLE applications
Hi Dave. I have been following these discussions and trying to track what makes up a "real PLE". Could you offer what you think one would be? What is missing out there? What are the challenges with having a PLE vs traditional LMS environment?
I also follow a couple groups that work on social networking applications and education applications (two different groups) for the open source software Drupal (the software this website was designed with). I believe Drupal has the makings of a PLE platform, but I want to understand what is needed first.
I would love to meet with anyone interested in contributing thoughts on how to develop the tool at the symposium in Arizona, possibly at the interest round tables. The resulting findings could be turned into a drupal PLE distribution package freely available to anyone.
RE: PLE applications
Hi Keith,
When I think of a PLE I envision a space at which the learner is at the center and can select or add resources without moving from that point. There are several platforms and stand-alone tools out there that are moving in that direction, but I think a true PLE is maybe 2 -3 years out.
To explain what I mean, picture yourself standing in the middle of a two dimensional room surrounded by a series of carousels. One carousel might have materials from all of a students courses on it. Another might have all of the documents (or other artifacts) an individual might work with – these can be either learning related, social or personal in nature. A third carousel might give the individual access to rss feeds, etc. A fourth would give access to communication tools. A fifth would….. you get the idea.
Now move out to three dimensions and picture rooms owned by other individuals with similar interests touching your room. Through the space in the walls they have access to the materials on any given carousel for which you have designated access. Granted geometry prevents us from envisioning this environment at too many levels, but the concept holds.
Add one final aspect – the ability to propagate carousels in other “grids” where users may have only one or two similar interests and you have the basis for interconnected PLE’s.
At this point many readers may be asking how this differs from what we see in any other environment. In every current environment I can think of the delivery point defines the experience or needs to be the focal point. To move to a true PLE we need to think in terms of the user being stationary and the resources as moveable objects. Buzzword, Zoho writer and Google Docs are headed in this direction, with Buzzword having, in my opinion, the best shareable architecture. However, these examples are limited in that they still require the user to enter the host framework – at least for now.
What I envision as a true PLE is a space where these resources become native objects once they are selected. Then when the user is finished with them they go back to the host environment. A crude example of how this might work, is in the case where you want a stream off of YouTube to play in a page you have built. You designate the source of the stream and then designate where you want it to play within your page or you provide a link to a similar resource from a point on the page. Now, the difference here is that the source is designated in advance. What if, from the users environment they could look at the YouTube carousel and select the video they wanted and have it display in their own environment? This changes the environment from a directed one to a selective one. That paradigmatic change is the one I think we need to consider before we can begin constructing true PLE’s.
e-portfolios and PLEs
While not exactly a PLE, we have been using the open source elgg.org suite of social software tools. It combines an e-portfolio (known as a presentation) with profiles, blogging and a suite of other tools. Most importantly, it allows indiviudal users to control who views all contrubutions and indiviudal users can set communities or groups and allow them reading and response privlidges. We use this tool at the "program level" that exists beyond an individual course for which we still utilize an LMS (Moodle).
I think the too make a strong combination. As I blogged a year ago I'm not sure that it is quite time to throw away the LMS - see http://terrya.edublogs.org/2006/01/09/ples-versus-lms-are-ples-ready-for...
Terry
Student ePortfolilos
I am just beginning use of ePortfolios with my developmental reading students at the community college where I teach. I use Carneige's Keep ToolKit (see Advancement for Teaching and Learning, then click on Keep ToolKit). It is free. At the end of this semester I can report how it went.
As for my own reflections on teaching and learning, I am using PBWiki (also free).
Question: Can anyone refer me to Research on: the impact of eportfolios on the teaching and learning in the college composition/reading classroom.
ePortfolios and composition research
The research question will of course shape the results, and it may be useful to conceptualize ePortfolio/composition research in terms of revision and making work public. That said, two institutional participants in the Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research group did work in this area:
University of Georgia
· Looked at reflection, revision, and assessment in first-year composition ePortfolios
· Contact info:
Christy Desmet
English Department
University of Georgia
Park Hall
Athens, GA 30602
706-542-2128
cdesmet [at] uga [dot] edu
Deborah Church Miller
English Department
University of Georgia
Park Hall
Athens, GA 30602
706-542-2128
dlmiller [at] uga [dot] edu
Kapi`olani Community College
· The research team designated first-year composition and second-year
Hawaiian language courses for the research study, and included a control
class for first-year composition.
Contact info:
Judi Kirkpatrick
(808) 734-9331
kirkpatr [at] hawaii [dot] edu
Tanya Renner
(808) 734-9385
renner [at] hawaii [dot] edu