Comments on: Learning about e-Portfolios http://www.pontydysgu.org/2008/01/learning-about-e-portfolios/ Pontydysgu.org Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:23:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: John Pallister http://www.pontydysgu.org/2008/01/learning-about-e-portfolios/#comment-977 John Pallister Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:20:27 +0000 http://www.pontydysgu.org/2008/01/learning-about-e-portfolios/#comment-977 Hi Graham – picking up on the ‘moving the use of Web 2 tools for learning outside the Edubloggers circle and into the mainstream of education and training’ - as a secondary school teacher MOSEP was the first European Project that I had been involved with. The project has taken me through a very steep learning curve, from knowing about Social Software and Web 2 tools to being able to employ them in my everyday practice. I regularly communicate and collaborate with teacher and lecturers across Europe. The project has consumed a massive quantity of my own time, however, I believe that every student I have taught during the past 18 months has benefitted from my involvement in the project, they have seen me use Skype, Blogs, Social Bookmarking and Wikis, naturally. My activities have prompted many discussions about digital identity etc. and many of my students have either communicated face-to-face or via Skype with colleagues from many European countries. The project has helped me to develop my thinking on ePortfolios and has forced me to develop my understanding of the relationship between the ePortfolio Process and the Learning Process. I am now even more convinced of its value and regularly contribute to online discussion about ePortfolios. Even though I have not managed to capitalise, for my students, on all of the opportunities that European Collaboration provided, I would recommend all teachers to get involved with project work. I will go further and suggest that it becomes a requirement, for the professional development of UK teachers, that they should all, at some stage in their career, get involved with a European Project. But, I am worried that we are ignoring the potential of the ePortfolio process to support learning while we engage in an every so interesting, and expensive academic and technical exploration. A lot of people are talking the talk - somehow we need more walking the walk. I also worry that, we becoming too obsessed with the tools and technology If the ePortfolio process has the potential to support learning why are we not using it (widely) now? The only certainty is that the tools and technology will change. If it is the process that is important to learning, would it not make sense to concentrate on the development and integration of the process? Have we fallen in to trap, that often snares our students, that the majority of our attention is being concentrated on the 'nice' bits, the technology and the tools? We could end up in a situation where we have all the tools and technology in place for the learners to use TODAY - then we might discover that the process does not actually support learning! Somehow we need to get more schools involved in the projects that will hopefully result in us finding out how we can harness technology to support both learning and the learner – but we are too busy teaching – can we trust the academics to do the job for us? Hi Graham – picking up on the ‘moving the use of Web 2 tools for learning outside the Edubloggers circle and into the mainstream of education and training’ - as a secondary school teacher MOSEP was the first European Project that I had been involved with. The project has taken me through a very steep learning curve, from knowing about Social Software and Web 2 tools to being able to employ them in my everyday practice. I regularly communicate and collaborate with teacher and lecturers across Europe.

The project has consumed a massive quantity of my own time, however, I believe that every student I have taught during the past 18 months has benefitted from my involvement in the project, they have seen me use Skype, Blogs, Social Bookmarking and Wikis, naturally. My activities have prompted many discussions about digital identity etc. and many of my students have either communicated face-to-face or via Skype with colleagues from many European countries.

The project has helped me to develop my thinking on ePortfolios and has forced me to develop my understanding of the relationship between the ePortfolio Process and the Learning Process. I am now even more convinced of its value and regularly contribute to online discussion about ePortfolios.

Even though I have not managed to capitalise, for my students, on all of the opportunities that European Collaboration provided, I would recommend all teachers to get involved with project work. I will go further and suggest that it becomes a requirement, for the professional development of UK teachers, that they should all, at some stage in their career, get involved with a European Project.

But, I am worried that we are ignoring the potential of the ePortfolio process to support learning while we engage in an every so interesting, and expensive academic and technical exploration. A lot of people are talking the talk - somehow we need more walking the walk.

I also worry that, we becoming too obsessed with the tools and technology

If the ePortfolio process has the potential to support learning why are we not using it (widely) now?

The only certainty is that the tools and technology will change. If it is the process that is important to learning, would it not make sense to concentrate on the development and integration of the process?

Have we fallen in to trap, that often snares our students, that the majority of our attention is being concentrated on the ‘nice’ bits, the technology and the tools?

We could end up in a situation where we have all the tools and technology in place for the learners to use TODAY - then we might discover that the process does not actually support learning!

Somehow we need to get more schools involved in the projects that will hopefully result in us finding out how we can harness technology to support both learning and the learner – but we are too busy teaching – can we trust the academics to do the job for us?

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