Desire2Learn ePortfolio

This will give every student the opportunity to store files, create learning groups with forums and dicussions, create multiple blogs, and even create their own “learning dashboard” similar to netvibes or pageflakes.

I have no misconceptions that this will probably end up getting a small handful of students in trouble.

Imagine being able to search and having one of those search returns be a tag within a video that takes you right to that context within a longer sequence.

Tagging also makes possible a true mash-up. If I am easily able to tag a section of a video, reference it externally and pull that stream through some type of API on call / on cue -- wow.

So a tagged section in essence IS chunking the videos. But in the case of Vimeo it's user chunked.

What makes Mahara different from other ePortfolio systems is that you control which items and what information (Artefacts) within your portfolio other users see.

Learner control over content access would be one of my essential criteria in selecting an e-portfolio system.

Create ePortfolios with the Amazing Acrobat 9

When we think of a traditional portfolio used in education, we may think of a collection of related papers, photos, pamphlets, or brochures organized in a folder or binder. Perhaps it’s a collection of materials that we compile over time to reflect progress and achievement. Now imagine if we add an electronic spin to the traditional definition and focus on the idea of a PDF portfolio; one that you could use to easily weave content together in a portable file format to use, share, and print whatever you need when you need it. That is the essence of the Acrobat portfolio

In traditional electronic portfolios an author is usually restricted to a one-size-fits all approach. This may be an HTML, PowerPoint, or MS Word style portfolio, each with its own features and limitations.

I have developed a design theory on how to build social portfolio software.

A social portfolio should: Support student ownership Enhance peer learning Focus on ease of use

In order to allow this kind of collaboration, Alex and the guys at Soundcloud could have used a standard player and tossed a comment stream below it. Instead they decided to expand the player and allow commenters to add notes directly inside on the waveform itself. The result is pretty cool. People can post tracks and receive a flurry of comments attached directly to the waves.

The player spans the full width of the screen, so it’s easier to set the playhead at the exact spot you want. Commentor’s avatars appear in the bottom of the player, and their comments pop up on hover.

Instructors start the process by defining assignments for their classes and “registering” them with the program

The student works the assignment and produces a solution in any number of media and venues, which might include the student’s ePortfolio (we define ePortfolio broadly)

The student combines their work with the program’s rubric (in a survey format)

We would like to see an environment that encourages e-portfolio practices, and that could be some government support in understanding the inter-operability issue

However, there remain concerns over the degree to which "reflective" work in an e-portfolio is assessable. There also are fears that such portfolios could be vulnerable to "cut and paste" plagiarism and invented narratives and reflections. Privacy is another issue, raising questions over whether assessors should have access to the entire e-portfolio and who owns it once a student graduates.

An e-portfolio is a process as well as a tool to capture different competencies and capacities

ANGEL ePortfolio 2.1 is even easier to use

Tight integration with the ANGEL Learning Management Suite (LMS) enables instructors to implement ePortfolio activities and assessment from within a course

provides students enhanced usability

The new release expands integration with the Angel Learning Management Suite and includes new usability features

Now Microsoft has added a set of tools, described in detail here, to support use by the scientific community.

It includes a virtual research environment (VRE) to allow research teams to share data, an authoring tool to capture metadata during the authoring process, a hosted e-journal service, a repository

Joehn Pallisetr is a UK based teacher who is enthusiastic about e-Portfolios. He blogs now on a group he has set up on Google. If you are interetsted in e-portfolios I recommend that you join.

We wanted to provide students with more appropriate ways to store andpresent evidence of their learning, achievements and planning; we developed and introduced ePortfolios. We soon recognised that although the ePortfolio itself was really useful, it was the ePortfolio process that was even more valuable. I came at things from a Personal Development Planning angle and this has influenced my thinking on ePortfolios. So why have I rambled on?  Simply to encourage people to interpret the‘P’ in ILP, as ‘Process’.

The point is that people will be using ePortfolios for their own purposes. It’s not just something that they’ll be told to use in a formal educational setting.

So, young people will choose to use ePortfolios in their leisure time; to use them for fun. Which you would almost never do with a CMS—I suspect almost no one chooses to use a course management system on their own time for fun.

The more engaged, the more time on task, the more that a person puts into something, the more they learn—this g'es along with all the data I’ve seen over the years.

There are times when something comes along that everyone talks about, something that really changes things. ePortfolios, of course, is one of those things, but it’s different in its very nature.

What’s happening with universities in this knowledge age is that the boundaries between the university and the rest of the world have pretty much dissolved. We are now a learning culture, or a knowledge culture.

ePortfolios are not a higher education application. It’s not a K-12 application. It’s a cultural application.

Trent Batson

And what we're trying to do here at WSU is bring outside employers into the process. Then we can have those employers validate that what we're doing aligns with what they find to be valuable. At the same time, we have the opportunity to demonstrate to employers who work with us the complexity of the work we do.

A real student-centered model would put the authority, or ownership, of that ePortfolio in the hands of the students: They could share evidence of their learning for review with peers, and offer that evidence to instructors for grading and credentialing.

An issue will be finding faculty with the imagination to integrate these options into their teaching and learning, and an even more difficult issue will be credentialing that kind of work.

In many ways, the site is a standard Web video portal. What's unique is that the Flash-based video files have an extra interactive layer that lets viewers insert text on top of any clip as easily as if they were typing an instant message, and it displays that comment whenever someone else loads the video.

“Next Generation” of Learning Management Systems, BlackBoard 8

to survive as a LMS, but that survival is not necessarily dependent on a technology or an innovation, rather it is a means of taking the imaginative experimentation of others and wrapping them up as a product that can be bought and sold like a pair of shoes. The insanely irresponsible advertising for BlackBoard 8 suggests that Academic Suite release 8.0 will “enhance critical thinking skills” and “improve classroom performance.” What LMS can do this? What Web 2.0 tool can do this? This is total bullshit, how can they make such an irresponsible claim? These things are not done by technology, but rather people thinking and working together. Our technology may afford a unique possibility in this endeavor by bringing disparate individuals together in an otherwise untenable community, yet it doesn’t enhance critical thinking or improve classroom performance, we do that, together.

they are taking the experiments and innovations of thousands of people and re-packaging them as their own, unique contribution to the educational world of Web 2.0

In the right environment the social networking potential of the learning landscape and eportfolio-related tools are features that facilitate and enhance the making of connections and the linking together of people, ideas, resources and learning… (pp. 30)

here is certainly a lot more worthwhile reading in the full handbook which contains contributions from over 100 of the world’s leading experts.