E-portfolios

Published in the TES 4th November 2005 (http://www.tes.co.uk/search/story/?story_id=2153806)

The government’s proposal to provide every learner with a lifelong e-portfolio, has sparked considerable debate as to the role, location and operation of such a scheme. At face value, the e-portfolio is an online coursework store, managed by teachers, that allows for easier moderation and marking. Alternately, the e-portfolio holds the key to a radical change in the way learning can occur inside and outside of our schools.

An e-portfolio can serve to widen the range of supported learning styles as it is just as easy to store video, photographic, auditory and 3D Cad work as it is written work. QCA have already committed to recognising such new forms of assessed work and the recent development of the DIDA qualification is a step in this direction. In ICT terms it is simple to control access such that a child can manage their e-folio with decreasing assistance from adults without being permitted to delete anything of assessed importance. Such self management of learning opens the door to the inclusion of work from outside school and clear progression to adult learning and evidenced CVs.

Whilst allowing multimedia, self managed evidence files is a worthwhile benefit in itself, it is in the area of assessment that most benefit is likely to occur. A host of research evidence confirms that we should be integrating assessment into the learning process. Analysis of a learners e-portfolio could provide suggestions as to what could be improved and how to go about this. If the learner acts on this advice and provides a piece of work as evidence, the e-portfolio could re-analyse and provide feedback. Although the portfolio would be drawing on self assessments, peer assessments and even parental assessments it could suggest which items should be put forward for formal verification. If this seems a bit far fetched take a look at four developments which currently appear to be converging on these functions

Firstly the world agreed SCORM standards which allow websites and programs to ‘talk’ directly with your e-portfolio and automatically feedback what you have achieved on the site. All new e-learning materials including the BBC online curriculum are being made SCORM compliant.

Secondly. The new version of windows (Microsoft Vista) due to be released mid way through next year, allows assessment tags to be attached to any piece of work by anyone or automatically by a website. Virtual folders then form dynamically by searching through these tags. Current basic versions of this allow automated filtering of your top rated music and content. Class server already has some connection between content and national curriculum criteria.

Thirdly. Peer review sites are growing fast on the internet for example www.fanfiction.net which allows children to write a story based on a topic that interests them and then have it peer reviewed. Although the assessments are opinion based rather than criterion based, they are valued by thousands of children. Especially the child who’s version of Harry Potter was reviewed by the author. It maybe isn’t surprising how important peer review is becoming on the internet given that this was the original reason for its creation. Blogs, threaded discussions and rateable content galleries are further aspects of this growing community of peer assessment..

Finally. Every Child Matters is based upon the notion of the child at the centre of the process supported by an infrastructure that allows for information sharing. This notion of the complete picture around which services assemble to help the child to progress, has demonstrated its effectiveness through initiatives such as Notschool.Net. This is a site which has been set up by Ultralab for students who have been out of education for a number of years. The system provides them with an e-portfolio which they add to and manage. Beginning with their interests it then groups them into communities of peer learners. These are then guided towards gaining evidence for recognised qualification. The success has been phenomenal in terms of A*-C pass rate higher than the UK average and now University graduates.

The universality of e-portfolios and their multi-age, multistage nature could clash with the idea of a content based national curriculum. This dilemma has been recognised by a number of states and countries around the world from Northern Ireland to Tasmania which are deciding to move towards a more competency based curriculum. With children all contributing to different aspects of their e-portfolios working at different paces within mixed age communities, interested in different content, gaining rich and diverse assessment on their creative multimedia evidence base, it begs the question, how would you teach them in groups of thirty? If we are Building Schools for the Future today we must look beyond the e-portfolio being simply a coursework folder with an ‘e’ in front.


If you want to get started
Free tools for getting started with e-portfolios can be found at the open source site (http://www.osportfolio.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=29) open source portfolio. These don’t contain very many analysis tools but is a useful starting point. Alternately you might wish to prepare your students for greater self assessment. There are hundreds of simple self assessment rubrics to get you started on the web but the one at http://rhem.spschools.org/specialprojects/webquest/studentrubric.html is quite liked by students.

If you want to read up on the debate
There are lots of papers debating this from those claiming this is the most significant change since the introduction of schools (http://www.educause.edu/pub/eq/eqm04/eqm0423.asp?bhcp=1 ) to those describing it as the new Millennium’s version of show and tell (http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm04/eqm0441.asp)
The place of skills in a range of world curricular http://www.inca.org.uk/pdf/INCA_lower_secondary_skills.pdf

If you just want a definition
http://www.deskootenays.ca/wilton/eportfolios/whatitis.php - a definition of e-portfolios or - http://www.eradc.org/papers/ePortfolio_Weblog.pdf

If you want to follow the references from the main article
Microsoft Vista http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.mspx
Northern Ireland http://www.rewardinglearning.com/development/ks1_2/curriclum_review/docs/FINAL_WebVersion_PrimaryPropsals_KS12.pdf and Tasmanian curriculum http://www.newtownprimary.tased.edu.au/TeacherResources/ELS/EllsIndex.htm
Not school http://www.notschool.net/ns/template.php?id=home
Government e strategy http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/e-strategy/
QCA new futures meeting the challenges http://www.qca.org.uk/10969.html
DIDA site about efolios http://dida.edexcel.org.uk/home/faq-centres/faq-eportfolio/
Edexcel

Some communities to monitor
Europortfolio http://www.eife-l.org/portfolio/
ERADC http://www.eradc.org/
The ePistle project between JISC and the University of Woverhampton http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=epistle&src=alpha
Nesta future lab children as knowledge builders
http://www.nestafuturelab.org/research/em_prog_07.htm