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on "effective practice with e-Portfolios"

"Effective Practice with e-Portfolios - Supporting 21st century learning" is a recent (September 2008) JISC publication and is well worth a read if you are into e-portfolios. The publication starts out introducing e-portfolios and looks at why they matter, then goes on to look at them from a number of different perspectives including:

  • the learner's perspective
  • the practitioner's perspective
  • institutional perspective
  • lifelong learning perspective
  • audience perspective
These perspectives are illustrated through the use of case studies. Much of the publication is in fact summaries of case studies and so represents analysis and results of real experience with e-portfolios. Hopefully the approach taken with this document will help a number of organisations/people gain support for their own proposed e-portfolio initiatives. Sometimes it can be quite difficult gaining support without having a significant body of evidence for what you are proposing. Such a cautious approach has its merits but by definition, puts you in a position of a follower rather than a leader. The JISC report helps build that body of evidence. Back to the report, the report identifies some compelling uses for e-portfolios including:
"facilitating the transition between institutions and stages of education, and in supporting staff appraisal and applications for professional accreditation. But perhaps the most pressing reason for taking a closer look at e-portfolios is the indication that the use of these tools can promote more profound forms of learning"
Of interest to me are the case studies relevant to lifelong learning and perhaps the models for e-portfolios that can be used to support this area. The impact of Web 2.0, social networking etc gets a mention and I would like to see more information about projects exploring these areas (the report has great links and references to a wealth of material). It is also refreshing to see case studies that "support models of learning appropriate to a digital age". It continually confounds me as to the extent to which this notion is still pushed into the background in many areas. Well done to JISC for providing this overview for what essentially covers a large body of work.

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