Electronic portfolios as facilitators of lifelong learning

1
Electronic portfolios as facilitators of lifelong
learning

• Insights into interoperability, legal and social
  inclusion issues
• Simon Grant, Andrew Charlesworth and Anna Home

2
Portfolio origins

• Artists and writers portfolios of works
• Trainee teachers collections of evidence
• Assessment by portfolio
• Presentation of portfolios
• to demonstrate competence or quality

3
Personal Development Planning

• UK working definition
• a structured and supported process undertaken by
  an individual to reflect upon their learning,
  performance, and/or achievement and to plan for
  their personal, educational and career
  development
• Closely allied to professional development

4
Records for PDP and reflection

• Records aid reflection
• Records can be made of reflection
• Can be a lifelong learning process
• Clear opportunity to integrate reflection with
  portfolios
• Goal of the reflective learner who manages
  their own learning

5
Portfolio definitions

• (in education, personal and professional
  development)
• What makes up a portfolio? (portfolio item)
• What, then, is a portfolio itself?
• What is an e-portfolio system or service?
• What is an e-portfolio repository?
• (not intended to cover finance, for which
  portfolio has its own meaning and significance)

6
A portfolio item is any one of

• a unit of information structured so that it can
  be integrated as part of a portfolio
• a unit of information that enables a related
  object to be integrated as part of a portfolio
• an object relating to the focal person

7
Any portfolio item

• must be related to the person at the focus of
  that portfolio
• must be valued by the person it relates to
• that person must have relevant rights over it
• to read mostly to publish often to edit
• An e-portfolio item is one that is held
  electronically

8
A portfolio (or e-portfolio)

• is a particular composition of integrated
  portfolio items, with a deliberately defined
  audience and rhetorical purpose
• An e-portfolio is one that is held and presented
  electronically, comprising e-portfolio items

9
An e-portfolio system or service

• uses information and communication technologies
  to give people an appropriate range of
  capabilities, which may be to record, construct,
  compose, store, retrieve, view, edit, or manage
  e-portfolio items, and to present them to or
  share them with others, whether as e-portfolios
  or otherwise

10
E-portfolio contexts and uses

• Assessment (e.g. of competency)
• Presentation (e.g. of evidence)
• Structured learning and reflection
• Personal and professional development
• is wider could integrate with other three

11
Interoperability

• If e-portfolio systems are to be used for
  lifelong learning, they should interoperate
• Several specifications have been suggested
• How can an e-portfolio system be built or made to
  be interoperable?
• Further discussion of definitions
• Europass, systems architecture, competences

12
Legal

• E-portfolios may hold
• personal information
• proprietary information
• An e-portfolio system will raise issues relating
  to ownership of code and design
• What legal issues should be considered when
  planning to build, adopt or use e-portfolio
  systems?

13
Social inclusion

• Use of e-portfolio requires specific skills and
  aptitudes that all citizens do not possess
• Risk E-portfolio increases social exclusion
• Opportunity Harnessing e-portfolio in digital
  and social skills development
• What might constitute a developmental
  e-portfolio application?