Can We Talk? Electronic Portfolios as Collaborative Learning Spaces

This chapter describes the Northwestern University Collaboratory Project’s ePortfolio. As a resource in the Collaboratory, a Web-based collaborative learning environment, it provides collaborative learning spaces where K-12 students can share and discuss their work. Web document templates are used by students to create media-rich documents that can be viewed with only a Web browser. Of particular significance is how the ePortfolio’s document-based communication model is being used to support mentoring, peer review, feedback, and reflection, and to facilitate a community of learning that motivates and encourages students.

Future-Focused ePortfolios at Montana State University-Northern

This chapter introduces the idea of using electronic portfolios for enhancing the future thinking of an organization’s learners. At Montana State University–Northern, faculty are using ePortfolios to elicit deep learning by encouraging students to reflect on their work in terms of what is possible, what is probable, and what is preferable in their professional lives as educators. By detailing the context that MSU-Northern’s ePortfolio system entails, this chapter may assist practitioners to glean some of the advantages of and the factors for getting students to think systematically about the future using electronic portfolios, and researchers to address relevant issues surrounding the application of future-focused ePortfolios.

Facilitating Reflection Through ePortfolio at Tecnologico de Monterrey

The chapter describes the Tecnológico de Monterrey implementation of an original ePortfolio model at the Mexico City campus. This model is grounded on student reflection in three broad areas of students’ lives designed by Jesus Meza, PhD. The implementation was launched in August 2002, with 60 students studying two different majors. By January 2005, the number of student portfolios had grown to 5,000, covering 18 different majors. According to the mission of the Tecnológico de Monterrey for the year 2015, the authors consider that the ePortfolio model will evolve into a comprehensive communication tool reflecting the personal, academic, and professional achievements of the community at the Tecnológico de Monterrey.

How ePortfolios Support Development in Early Teacher Education

This chapter reports on a pilot study which examined how student teachers of a one-year Post Graduate Certificate in Education course in Northern Ireland developed reflective ePortfolios and then used them to embed ICT in their first (Induction) year as qualified teachers. Two central themes emerged. First, the process of constructing the ePortfolio developed confidence among the beginning teachers which supported them when faced with the challenges of starting teaching. Second, the ePortfolio was used to ease the transition from Initial Teacher Education to Induction, but where there is a lack of critical reflection, barriers to professional development can emerge. These issues are discussed within the context of technology policy, teacher training, and emerging technology in Northern Ireland.

Transition to ePortfolios

This project focused on student development in the freshman year as displayed in students’ ePortfolios. The experimental design allowed analysis of student attitudes about ePortfolios with results that may be useful to faculty and students at other institutions. Researchers found that careful alignment of an ePortfolio with the learning goals of a course can help students to adapt easily to the new technology and recognize it as a useful academic tool.

A Flexible Component-Based ePortfolio

This chapter provides case studies of embedding the ePortfolio in the curricula of two medical schools in the UK, one of which is outcomes based, while the other uses a series of patient scenarios to inform the teaching of clinical skills within a curriculum that emphasises the scientific basis of medicine. These case studies describe the implementation, evaluation, and process of embedding the portfolio within the respective curricula. They also illustrate the flexibility of a component-based ePortfolio to serve different pedagogic requirements. Research and evaluation issues are discussed, including an action-research approach with “fine-tuning” of technical features and pedagogy during the evaluation phase.

Electronic Portfolio Initiatives

The goal of this chapter is to help the reader learn to use research and evaluative data to select which activities improve an ePortfolio initiative; accelerate the pace at which people within an institution begin to use ePortfolios for those activities; and limit the cost, stress, and risk associated with carrying out those activities, including the ePortfolio infrastructure that supports them.

Using ePortfolios to Enhance Reflective Learning and Development

This chapter argues that it is essential that ePortfolio development is driven by pedagogical considerations, thus ensuring the effective use of these technologies to support learning. Drawing on experience of implementing ePortfolios in an institutional context, the chapter considers how best to meet the needs of learners within a system of effective eLearning support and emphasises the key role of developing reflective writing skills if the ePortfolio is to be an effective way of learning. Creating and deploying key learning activities that effectively use ePortfolios is now a much greater constraint to the correct use of ePortfolios in learning than the technical design or capabilities of ePortfolio software.

Using ePortfolios to Foster Peer Assessment, Critical Thinking and Collaboration

An ePortfolio is frequently seen as a space for electronically compiling and storing student work. After completing assignments, students generally submit their ePortfolio to an instructor, prospective employer, or other assessor. This chapter questions if the typical use of ePortfolios could be modified to create opportunities to encourage students (elementary school through graduate school) to engage in critical thinking, and provide feedback to their peers.

Perspectives on a Visual Map-Based Electronic Portfolio System

This chapter introduces portfolio system design perspectives that incorporate concept mapping and the map-based user interface. It also presents a prototype of a portfolio system that has been developed based on the discussed perspectives, along with its capacities and the lessons learned in the design and pilot-testing processes. The author argues that a concept map-based design can enhance a portfolio system, and a concept map as a visual aid can be an efficient user interface for students to better organize, present, archive, and retrieve multimedia contents. This chapter will help educators understand the benefits of incorporating the principles of concept mapping in the design of portfolio systems, and how the system capacities may support constructivist learning environments and qualitative assessment strategies linked to curriculum standards.