Comments on: This ain’t yo mama’s e-portfolio, part 2

By: Twitter is a force to be reckoned with « Learning Technologist jottings at Goldsmiths

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:57:51 +0000

[...] this. Jim Groom supports the idea of the blogfolio (This ain’t yo mama’s e-portfolio part 1, part 2) and cites Barbara Ganley: “Twitter to connect, blog to [...]

By: Pedablogy: Musings on the Art & Craft of Teaching » Blog Archive » More than a Website: An Online Environment for Scholarly Conversation

Sat, 24 May 2008 10:42:27 +0000

[...] who wanted to contribute to ask for those privileges. A couple of Jim Groom’s recent posts (here and here) suggest that these ideas may not be science [...]

By: Reverend

Reverend — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:36:04 +0000

@Andre

I totally agree with your take on eportfolios. Cultivating the possible benefits and value of an eportfolio is different than having a mandatory assignment followed up with a traditional assessment. And, like you, I never really think about an eportfolio as particular to any one class, but rather an ongoing, dynamic space that reflects several classes and frames one’s range of experience, changing ideas, various interests, and accomplishments over time.

It may be the space for a new (or at least different) kind of assessment, wherein a student is asked to reflect on their process and measure the value of their experience, rather than being handed a grade for a terminal project.

You;re a rockstar!

@DebraH,

I can;t help but echo Andre

By: Andre Malan

Andre Malan — Fri, 16 May 2008 23:08:05 +0000

I have always been very opposed to students creating mandatory, assessed e-portfolios. E-portfolios are really only useful if students can see the large potential benefit that can be gained from e-portfolios (especially if they are kept open). For assessment the most I would do would be to award extra credit for those students who create e-portfolios successfully. In most courses learning the technology is an added benefit… not the goal of the course. Thus, achieving proficiency in the technology is a “bonus” skill that the student walks away with and should then get “bonus” marks for it.

As far as balancing privacy when encouraging open participation, one way that I’ve seen is to allow the students to create a pseudonym under which they can participate. If the student is cautious, they can successfully remove their real identity from all of the online interaction. They in fact get to create a new identity. You get a “Superman effect” where students are much more comfortable expressing themselves in a different guise. If they are being assessed, the only person who has to know who the pseudonym links to is the assessor.

By: DebraH

DebraH — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:36:52 +0000

Thanks Andre – I have been looking at WordPress as a possible alternative – though our internally developed system DOES have similar capabilities. But *I* find the interface & navigation of ours unwieldy, so I’m sure my less-technologically-comfortable students would find it intimidating. On the other side of the coin, as ours is still under development, there may be some potential for tweaking. Having not used ELGG natively I’m not sure what potential there might be for this.
On a larger question, how can we balance, do you think, our commitment to encouraging practice for our students in participating in online communities through the use of blogs etc against the innate desires of some to remain private and unexposed? There is also the issue here of the common practice of allocating an assessment component for “participation & contribution”. I have never done this, but the pressure is on, from the perspective of the argument: “if we expect them to do it as part of their course, then some part of the assessment must be allocated to this activity.” And it is very time-consuming for students totally new to the practice.

-Debra

By: Andre Malan

Andre Malan — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:44:40 +0000

Debra, we are struggling with the very same tensions here at UBC. Using WordPress as a platform has allowed us to overcome most of that. We are able to make the blog-folios of those who wish completely open to the world. WordPress has the ability to make posts private or password protected. Your second student would simply password protect all of her entries and then just give the password to the assessors.

WordPres allows the student to decide who can see their content on a post by post basis.

By: DebraH

DebraH — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:06:07 +0000

Coming in lately to this discussion of e-ports vs blogs or combinations as a faculty member who uses both, I am struggling with the institutional/personal and the individual-privacy/collaborative-collective tensions. Any thoughts on how to reconcile the relative differences in need for privacy among students using blogs & e-ports. An example: one student in a new course has an active, pre-existing blog and has created an e-port (for reflection and ultimate assessment at end of accreditation) INSIDE the university’s password-protected system (Elgg-based) but wants to share this more widely. Said student has made their e-port as publicly-accessible as possible within the system – tagging, open to all etc. Another student less comfortable with technology, more private personality, panics at the thought of making their e-port open to anyone but those actually assessing it at the end of the accreditation program & insists on keeping their e-port restricted to logged-in members of faculty & is even loathe to allow other members of the same class to access it …?

Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas? Advice?

-Debra-

By: » Enlaces en Diigo 05/11/2008 | DigiZen

» Enlaces en Diigo 05/11/2008 | DigiZen — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:31:07 +0000

[...] This ain’t yo mama’s e-portfolio, part 2 at bavatuesdays [...]

By: This ain’t yo mama’s e-portfolio, part 3 at bavatuesdays

This ain’t yo mama’s e-portfolio, part 3 at bavatuesdays — Sat, 10 May 2008 22:24:55 +0000

[...] Posts on bavatuesdaysMay 8, 2008 — This ain’t yo mama’s e-portfolio, part 2 (3)May 7, 2008 — This ain’t yo mama’s e-portfolio, part 1 (13)March 26, 2008 — [...]

By: Reverend

Reverend — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:19:28 +0000

Andre,

I love you! And I agree entirely, so many folks stepped up to the plate in the comments to offer their thoughts. In many ways, this is a topic that has been written about so extensively that I could never do it justice, but as more people share what they’ve done, we both can learn exactly the pitfalls and possibilities we’re up against.

For example, @Bill, brings up some really good questions about customizing presentation, annotating previous work, and re0imagining chronology. pages and themes may help in this respect, but there will always be limitations. I also love Alan’s distinction between a simple presentation tool and a more reflective, dynamic publishing space, not unlike the blog. The more I think about it, e-portfolio is really just a familiar label that will draw people in, but the underlying design and presentation will be far more similar to the blog than any traditional ideas of a portfolio. I like the idea of an active archive that you can pull out of dynamically and visual imaginatively. In many ways the future of the portfolio may be the future of cools visualization tools or these publishing platforms.