1. Balancing the 2 Faces of E-Portfolios
Dr. Helen Barrett
November 19, 2010
2. Key Concepts
• Definitions
• Portfolios for Lifelong Learning
• Balancing the 2 Faces of E-Portfolios
• Identity Development
• Online Professional Branding
• Reflection, Motivation & Engagement
• Digital Storytelling and Reflection
5. What is a Portfolio?
• Dictionary definition:
a flat, portable case
for carrying loose
papers, drawings, etc.
• Financial portfolio: document
accumulation of fiscal capital
• Educational portfolio: document
development of human capital
6. What is a Portfolio in Education?
A portfolio is a purposeful
collection of [academic] work that
exhibits the [learner/worker’s]
efforts, progress and
achievements in one or more
areas
[over time].
(Northwest Evaluation Association, 1990)
8. Purpose
• The overarching purpose of
portfolios is to create a sense of
personal ownership over one’s
accomplishments, because
ownership engenders feelings of
pride, responsibility, and
dedication. (p.10)
• Paris, S & Ayres, L. (1994) Becoming Reflective Students and
Teachers. American Psychological Association
9. Four key pillars of Lifelong Learning
(Barbara Stäuble, Curtin University of Technology, Australia)
http://lsn.curtin.edu.au/tlf/tlf2005/refereed/stauble.html
10. Knowing the learner
(Self-awareness)
• Understanding prior knowledge
• Motivation for and attitudes
toward learning
• Help learners understand
themselves
• See their growth over time
12. Understanding how to learn
(Meta-learning)
• Awareness of learners to
different approaches to
learning
• Deep vs. Surface Learning,
Rote vs. Meaningful Learning
• Different Learning Styles
• Help learners recognize success
• Accommodate approaches that are not
successful
13. Evaluating learning
(Self monitoring)
• Systematic analysis of learners’
performance
• Responsibility to construct meaning
• Be reflective & think critically
• Learners construct meaning,
monitor learning, evaluate
own outcomes
14. Deep Learning
• involves reflection,
• is developmental,
• is integrative,
• is self-directive, and
• is lifelong
Cambridge (2004)
16. Managing Oneself
• “Success in the
knowledge economy
comes to those who
know themselves –
their strengths, their
values, and how best
they perform.”
• New Purpose: Use
ePortfolios for
managing knowledge
workers' career
development
• What are my strengths?
• How do I perform?
• What are my values?
• Where do I belong?
• What should I
contribute?
• Responsibility for
Relationships
• The Second Half of your
Life
Peter Drucker, (2005) Harvard Business Review
18. QUOTE
The e-portfolio is the central
and common point for the student
learning experience… It is a reflection
of the student as a person undergoing
continuous personal development,
not just a store of evidence.
-Geoff Rebbeck, e-Learning Coordinator, Thanet College, quoted in
JISC, 2008, Effective Practice with e-Portfolios
20. E-Portfolio Components
< Multiple Portfolios for
Multiple Purposes
-Celebrating Learning
-Personal Planning
-Transition/entry to courses
-Employment applications
-Accountability/Assessment
< Multiple Tools to Support
Processes
-Capturing & storing evidence
-Reflecting
-Giving & receiving feedback
-Planning & setting goals
-Collaborating
-Presenting to an audience
< Digital Repository
(Becta, 2007; JISC, 2008)
21. Multiple Purposes
from Hidden Assumptions
What are yours?
• Showcase • Assessment • Learning
•
http://www.rsc-northwest.ac.uk/acl/eMagArchive/RSCeMag2008/choosing%20an%20eportfolio/cool-cartoon-
346082.png
22. Multiple Purposes of
E-Portfolios in Education
–Learning/ Process/ Planning
–Marketing/ Showcase/ Employment
–Assessment/ Accountability
"The Blind Men and the Elephant”
by John Godfrey Saxe
23. ePortfolio designs/strategies for
different purposes
Showcase Portfolios
(Employment, Self-marketing)
Organized thematically
(position requirements)
Focus of Reflection:
Suitability for position
Tools: Choice of portfolio
owner – personalized web
pages – digital footprint
Personal online branding
24. ePortfolio designs/strategies for
different purposes
• Assessment/Accountability Portfolios
(Summative assessment)
–Organized thematically (outcomes, goals
or standards)
–Focus of Reflection: Achievement of
Standards (rationale)
–Tools: Assessment system
with data from scoring rubrics
–Faculty role: Evaluation
25. Forms of Assessment
Formative
Assessments
Provides insights
for the teacher
Assessment FOR
Learning
Provides insights
for the learner
Summative
Assessments
(Assessment OF
Learning or
Evaluation)
Provides insights
(and data) for the
institution
Nick Rate (2008) Assessment for Learning & ePortfolios, NZ Ministry of Ed
26. Two “Paradigms” of Assessment (Ewell, 2008)
Assessment for
Continuous Improvement
Assessment for
Accountability
Strategic Dimensions:
Purpose
Stance
Predominant Ethos
Application Choices:
Instrumentation
Nature of Evidence
Reference Points
Communication of Results
Uses of Results
Formative (Improvement)
Internal
Engagement
Multiple/Triangulation
Quantitative and
Qualitative
Over Time, Comparative,
Established Goal
Multiple Internal Channels
and Media
Multiple Feedback Loops
Summative (Judgment)
External
Compliance
Standardized
Quantitative
Comparative or Fixed
Standard
Public Communication
Reporting
Ewell, P. (2008) Assessment and Accountability in America Today: Background and Content. P.170
27. Opportunity Cost
• The alternative you give up
when you make a decision…
• The cost of an alternative that must be
forgone in order to pursue a certain
action
What is the opportunity cost of
emphasizing accountability in portfolios
over reflection, deep learning, and
continuous improvement?
28. Goal: Balance in Electronic Portfolios
Accountability
(Institution-Centered)
Improvement
(Student-Centered)
(Or Course-Centered)
Opportunity Cost
?? ??
Purpose
Along a Continuum
29. Goal: Balance in Electronic
Portfolios
Accountability
Highly Structured
Uniformity and Standardization
Required Assignments
Faculty Evaluation
Complexity
Checklist
Data!
Improvement
Opportunity Cost
Engagement
Deep Learning
Personalization
Choice and Voice
Lifelong Skills
Ease of Use
Ownership
Time
Purpose
30. Goal: Balance in Electronic
Portfolios
Accountability
Opportunity Cost
Faculty Time
Ease of Scoring
Collection of Data
for Accountability
Institutional
Support
& Funding?
Improvement
Flexible Structure
Self-Assessment & Feedback
Lifelong Learning Skills
More Social Learning
Personalization
Choice and Voice
Engagement
Story
Purpose
31. Goal: Balance in Electronic Portfolios
Accountability
Faculty Feedback
Uniformity
Flexible Requirements
Data
Program Improvement
Improvement
Self-Assessment
Personalization
Choice and Voice
Student Engagement
Increased Achievement
Opportunity Cost
Social LearningFaculty Time Involvement
Complexity
Purpose
32. ePortfolio designs/strategies for
different purposes
• Learning Portfolios
–Organized chronologically
–Focus of Reflection:
Learning Activities &
Artifacts
–Tools: Reflective Journal (blog)
–Faculty/peer role: Feedback on
artifacts and reflection
33. Portfolio Learning
Figure 2 A model of e-portfolio-based learning, adapted
from Kolb (1984)
JISC, 2008, Effective Practice with e-Portfolios, p. 9
Experience
Understanding
FeelingReviewing
Reflecting
Publishing &
Receiving Feedback
Sharing &
Collaborating
Dialogue
Selecting
Synthesizing
Recording
Organizing
Planning
Conceptualizing
& Constructing
Meaning
35. Creating Digital Identity
• “YouTube and other social media can mitigate
the cultural tension between teens’ conflicting
needs for independence and community by
offering them ‘connection without constraints.’
What looks like narcissism and individuality is
actually a search for identity and recognition.
• Wesch: ‘In a society that doesn’t automatically
grant identity and recognition, you have to create
your own.’
• PopTech: Michael Wesch on Using Social Networking For Good, September
23, 2010
37. Some Basic Concepts
“ePortfolio is both process and
product”
Process: A series of events (time and
effort) to produce a result
- From Old French proces (“‘journey’”)
Product: the outcome/results or
“thinginess” of an activity/process
- Destination
38. Types of E-Portfolio Implementation
Working Portfolio
– The Collection
– The Digital
Archive
– Repository of
Artifacts
– Reflective Journal
– Collaboration
Space
Portfolio as Process
-- Workspace
(PLE)“shoebox”
Presentation
Portfolio(s)
– The “Story” or
Narrative
– Multiple Views
(public/private)
– Varied Audiences
(varied permissions)
– Varied Purposes
Portfolio as Product
-- Showcase
44. Structure of E-Portfolio Types
• Portfolio as Process/
Workspace
– Organization:
Chronological –
eDOL (Electronic Documentation
of Learning – U. of Calgary)
Documenting growth over
time for both internal and
external audiences
– Primary Purpose:
Learning or Reflection
– Reflection: immediate
focus on artifact or learning
experience
• Portfolio as Product/
Showcase
– Organization:
Thematic – Documenting
achievement of Standards, Goals
or Learning Outcomes for
primarily external audiences
– Primary Purpose:
Accountability or Employment or
Showcase
– Reflection: retrospective
focus on Standards, Goals or
Learning Outcomes (Themes)
46. Level 1
Portfolio Development
• Collection -- Creating the Digital
Archive (regularly – weekly/monthly)
– Digital Conversion (Collection)
– Stored in GoogleDocs (Office docs) or
Picasa (images) or YouTube (video) or
links to other websites
– Outcome of integrating technology
across the curriculum
48. Level 2
Portfolio Development
• Collection/Reflection (Immediate Reflection
on Learning & Artifacts in Collection)
(regularly)
– Organized chronologically (in Blogger or Google
Sites Announcements Page Type)
– Captions (Background Information on
assignment, Response)
– Feedback (Comments from Teachers and/or
Peers
– Goals set on a regular basis
– In Blogger, use Labels to classify entries
50. Level 3
Portfolio Development
• Selection/Reflection and Direction
(each semester? End of year?)
– organized thematically (in web pages or
wiki)
– Select Blogger entries using labels?
– Reflect: Why did I choose these pieces?
What am I most proud to highlight about
my work?
– Reflect: What do they show about my
learning?
51. Timeline
51
Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May
Level 1 X X X X X X X X X
Level 2 X X X X X X X X
Level 3 ? XXX
Level 1: Collection - Archive
Level 2: Reflection + Feedback
Level 3: Selection + Presentation
53. Electronic Portfolios
• almost two decades (since 1991)
• used primarily in education to
–store documents
–reflect on learning
–feedback for improvement
–showcase achievements for
accountability or employment
54. Social networks
• last five years
–store documents and share
experiences,
–showcase accomplishments,
–communicate and collaborate
– facilitate employment searches
57. Institutional Portfolios
• What happens when a learner leaves or
transfers?
Learners’
Digital Archives
and presentation
portfolios
Class
portfolios
Guidance
portfoliosEmployment
portfolios
Institution’s
server or
online
service
Limited
Time
Frame
Institutional
data
Blogs
Faculty-generated
evaluation data
Academic
focus
Social networks
58. Separate Systems Learner-CenteredSeparate Systems Learner-Centered
• Learners maintain collection across the
lifespan, institutions maintain evaluation
data & links
Learners’
Digital Archive & Blog
Learner-owned
Lifelong Web Space
Class
portfolio
Guidance
portfolio
Employment
portfolio
Institution’s
Server or
Service &
Purposes
Limited
Time
Frame
hyperlinks
Institutional
data
Meta-tags
Faculty-generated
evaluation data
Life-wide
focus Social
networks
59. Why Web 2.0?
Access from Anywhere!
Interactivity!
Engagement!
Lifelong Skills!
Mostly FREE!
All you need is an <EMBED> Code
60. Web 2.0 is becoming the
Personal Learning Environment
of the “Net Generation”
Learning that is…
Social and Participatory
Lifelong and Life Wide
Increasingly Self-Directed
Motivating and Engaging
… and Online!
62. The Future?
• Future of Personal Metadata in the cloud
• World Economic Forum: potential impact on
human capital development and economic
implications.
(Quite big picture!)
• (Paul Kim, Stanford University)
PrPl and PCB: a new e-portfolio environment in th
63. The Future ofThe Future of
mPortfoliosmPortfolios
(m=mobile)(m=mobile)
67. Portfolios Can help learners
find their Voice…
and explore their
Purpose and Passions
through Choice!
68. ePortfolios should be more
Conversation
than Presentation
(or Checklist)
Because Conversation transforms!
69. Do Your e-Portfolios have
CHOICE and VOICE?
• Individual
Identity
• Reflection
• Meaning Making
• 21st
Century Literacy
70. Voice
6+1 Trait® Definition
• Voice is the writer coming through the
words, the sense that a real person is
speaking to us and cares about the message.
It is the heart and soul of the writing, the
magic, the wit, the feeling, the life and
breath. When the writer is engaged
personally with the topic, he/she imparts a
personal tone and flavor to the piece that is
unmistakably his/hers alone. And it is that
individual something–different from the
mark of all other writers–that we call Voice.
• http://educationnorthwest.org/resource/503#Voice
71. Strategies for Helping
Students Reflect
• Interactive tools
–Journals: Blogs & Wikis
–ePortfolio tools with built-in reflection
–Survey tools
• Student self-expression
–Digital Storytelling
• http://electronicportfolios.org/reflection.html
72. Self-Regulated Learning
Abrami, P., et. al. (2008), Encouraging self-regulated learning through electronic portfolios.
Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, V34(3) Fall 2008.
http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/viewArticle/507/238
Goals Captions/Journals
Change over Time
75. Similarities in Process
• Major differences:
– extrinsic vs.
– intrinsic motivation
• Elements of True
(Intrinsic) Motivation:
– Autonomy
– Mastery
– Purpose
76. Pink’s Motivation Behavior
Type X - Extrinsic
• fueled more by extrinsic
rewards or desires
(Grades?)
Type I – Intrinsic
• Behavior is self-directed.
XX
II
77. Successful websites = Type I
Approach
People
feel good
about
participating.
Give users
autonomy.
Keep system as open as possible.
- Clay Shirky
79. Mastery & ePortfolios
• Exhilaration in Learning
• Sports? Games?
• Compliance vs.
Personal Mastery
• Open Source movement
(Wikipedia vs. Encarta)
• Make a contribution
80. Mastery & ePortfolios (2)
ePortfolio:
Flow
Showcasing
Achievements
Increased self-awareness and self-
understanding
“Only engagement can produce Mastery.”
(Pink, 2009, p.111)
81. FLOW
• a feeling of
energized focus
(Csíkszentmihályi)
• Creativity
82. Student Engagement!
CQ + PQ > IQ (Friedman, 2006)
[Curiosity + Passion > Intelligence]
Find voice and passions through
choice and personalization!
Portfolio as Story
Positive Digital Identity
Development - Branding
“Academic MySpace”
88. Learner-Centered Philosophy
"A portfolio tells a story.
It is the story of knowing. Knowing
about things... Knowing oneself...
Knowing an audience... Portfolios are
students' own stories of what they
know, why they believe they know it,
and why others should be of the same
opinion.”
(Paulson & Paulson, 1991, p.2)
89. Digital Storytelling Process
• Create a 2-to-4 minute digital
video clip
–First person narrative
[begins with a written script ~ 400
words]
–Told in their own voice [record script]
–Illustrated (mostly) by still images
–Music track to add emotional tone
91. My Final Wish…
• dynamic celebrations
• stories of deep learning
• across the lifespan
92. Dr. Helen Barrett
• Researcher & Consultant
Electronic Portfolios & Digital Storytelling for
Lifelong and Life Wide Learning
• eportfolios@gmail.com
• http://electronicportfolios.org/
• http://www.slideshare.net/eportfolios
Notes de l'éditeur
There are the two major approaches to implementing e-portfolios. Janus is the Roman god of gates and doors, beginnings and endings, and hence represented with a double-faced head, each looking in opposite directions. He was worshipped at the beginning of the harvest time, planting, marriage, birth, and other types of beginnings, especially the beginnings of important events in a person&apos;s life. Janus also represents the transition between primitive life and civilization, between the countryside and the city, peace and war, and the growing-up of young people.
Adjectives to describe purpose
What is a portfolio? Some people think about their investments. But the dictionary provides this definition: a flat, portable case for carrying loose papers, drawings, etc. A portfolio in education is a purposeful collection of work that demonstrates efforts, progress and achievement in one or more areas over time. Portfolios in education have traditionally been collections of papers, often stored in a notebook or file folder.
Lifelong learning is understood as a cyclical process with four key pillars: e-portfolios can support them all.
While the above pillars are of importance in any effective teaching and learning process, the main characteristic of lifelong learning is the reflective nature of the entire cycle. A portfolio provides the best environment for that reflection.
&quot;Knowing the learner (Self awareness)&quot; focuses on understanding the learner&apos;s prior knowledge, motivation for and attitudes towards learning. A portfolio can serve as a mirror, helping a learner understand themselves and see their growth over time.
&quot;Planning for learning (Self management)&quot; refers to the setting of goals and the development of a plan to achieve these goals. A portfolio can serve as a map for future learning.
&quot;Understanding how to learn (Meta-learning)&quot; describes the awareness that a learner has developed with respect to different approaches to learning (deep versus surface learning; rote versus meaningful learning) and different learning styles. Portfolios can contain different artifacts that can help learners recognize their successful learning strategies and become more aware of how to accommodate those learning approaches that are not as successful.
&quot;Evaluating learning (Self monitoring)&quot; refers to a systematic analysis of all aspects of the learner&apos;s performance. &quot;Self monitoring is synonymous with responsibility to construct meaning ... [and] is very much associated with the ability to be reflective and think critically&quot; Portfolios can include reflective journals where learners construct meaning, monitor their own learning, and evaluate their own outcomes. Some more advanced portfolio management systems allow learners to align artifacts to outcomes, goals or standards on a systematic basis, which could help find gaps in performance.
Who knows what this means?
Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves – their strengths, their values, and how best they perform.
As defined in a JISC publication, Effective Practices with e-portfolios: The e-portfolio is the central and common point for the student experience… It is a reflection of the student as a person undergoing continuous personal development, not just a store of evidence.
(Geoff Rebbeck, e-Learning Coordinator, Thanet College, quoted in JISC, 2008, Effective Practice with e-Portfolios)
Portfolios in Formal Education: Exploring Personal and Professional Identity
Building a Professional Online Brand.
This diagram of the components of an e-portfolio system was developed for an e-portfolio research report published in 2007 by Becta in the U.K. This diagram shows some major distinctions: between the collection of work (the archive of evidence) on the bottom, the various presentations of a subset of that work (what we think of as multiple portfolios, depending on purpose and audience) on the top and the various tools used to mediate the process, in the middle.
There are multiple purposes for ePortfolios, which has led to a lot of confusion. It reminds me of the famous poem of the six blind men from India touching an elephant. Each man touched a different part of the elephant and, not seeing the big picture, described the animal as a snake or a spear or a fan, etc. The same can be said for ePortfolios, as shown in the picture on the right. There is no single purpose for creating an ePortfolio. A portfolio can be created for each of those purposes.
I will be emphasizing this purpose for portfolio development.
My vision of portfolios is David Weinberger’s concept of the Internet as “small pieces, loosely joined.” This is a visual model that I created that showed the ePortfolio as a “mash-up”. Many of my artifacts are on my website. My digital stories are stored on my .Mac account, or could be stored on YouTube. I have a blog where I maintain my learning journal. I store my images on Picasa, another Google service. Other people use Flickr. I can put my bookmarks in del-icio,us, my podcasts on iTunes, my social network on MySpace or FaceBook. My presentation portfolio is comprised of my reflections and links to my artifacts that are spread all over the Internet.
Michael Wesch is a cultural anthropologist from Kansas State University, famous for his YouTube videos on the impact of the Internet on our lives and learning (The computer is us/using us
There is a difference between the building blocks of a Personal Learning Environment [PLE} often called the working portfolio, and a particular story that is told to a specific audience -- often called a presentation portfolio. The working portfolio is the repository or the digital archive of the artifacts. A working portfolio also includes a lot of personal information about a learner, and may also include a reflective journal, sometimes called a blog if it is stored online. The presentation portfolio is the narrative or the story that the portfolio tells. There may be multiple views, both private or public, for various audiences and for various purposes.
With the current approach to electronic portfolios, the digital archive and the presentation tool are most often combined in a single system.
Japanese!
Catalan
Spanish!
Mandarin
The boundaries are blurring between eportfolios and social networks. As we consider the potential of lifelong e-portfolios, will they resemble the structured accountability systems that are currently being implemented in many educational institutions? Or are we beginning to see lifelong interactive portfolios emerging as… mash-ups in the Web 2.0 cloud, using Blogs or wikis or Twitter, Facebook or Ning, Flickr or Picasa or YouTube, etc.?
Electronic Portfolios have been with us for almost two decades (since 1991) used primarily in education to store documents and reflect on learning, provide feedback for improvement, and showcase achievements for accountability or employment.
How is social networking impacting ePortfolio development? It is having a huge impact on our social and political world!
Social networks have emerged over the last five years, and are used by individuals and groups to store documents and share experiences, showcase accomplishments, communicate and collaborate with friends and family, and, in some cases, facilitate employment searches.
[Erin’s story – Messiah – feedback immediate.]
The traditional portfolio literature identifies the processes shown in the left column. The value-added of technology shows in the right column. Social Networking is added in the middle. First, we have the collection process; with technology, that leads to creating a digital archive of the work. The second step involves selecting specific pieces or work from the collection to demonstrate a particular outcome, goal or standard. With technology, that process is done by creating a hyperlink to the documents in the archive. Some researchers have found that the process of hyperlinking may lead to higher levels of thinking about learning, or meta-cognitioin. The process of reflection helps the learner construct meaning from the work they have selected, and technology creates new models of storytelling to help with that meaning-making. Direction is setting goals for the future, and celebration is a formal exhibition before an audience, either real or virtual. Technology creates new opportunities for collaborating and publishing, especially with Web 2.0 tools. Social networks involve…
Common Tools vs. Proprietary systems
With the current approach to electronic portfolios, the digital archive and the presentation tool are most often combined in a single system. When a student leaves the educational institution, that work remains, and is often purged when a student leaves. When ePortfolio management systems are institution-centered, they tend to be limited to the time that the students are enrolled, and the contents tend to be focused on academic goals. However, learning is lifelong and life wide.
There is a need to separate the needs of the individual (for a personal learning space, to collect both the artifacts and a learner’s reflections on their learning over time) and the institution (for data about student learning/achievement, and the presentation portfolios created for institution-determined purposes). The digital archive belongs to the learner, and should be under the control of the learner throughout their life. Each artifact should have a unique identifier, so that a learner can access their work for use in a variety of contexts. This digital archive should have the capacity for meta-tags, searching by keywords, date created, date changed, etc.
The ownership of electronic portfolios needs to be re-conceptualized, as well. Learners own the work they create. Institutions own the teachers’ evaluation of that work. Learners should be able to choose how much of that evaluation they will include in their own digital archive.
So I’d like you to think: What are the engagement factors that drive the use of social networks and how can we incorporate those factors into ePortfolios?
“Portfolios should be less about telling and more about talking!” Julie Hughes, University of Wolverhampton
Do your e-portfolios have Voice? As Maya Angelou said, “When words are infused by the human voice, they come alive.”
Do your portfolios represent individual identity, include reflection, and provide an opportunity to make meaning? ePortfolios are essential for 21st Century Literacy.
How do portfolios and reflection fit into the learning process?
BEFORE - goal-setting (reflection in the future tense),
DURING - immediate reflection (in the present tense), where students write (or dictate) the reason why they chose a specific artifact to include in their collection
AFTER - retrospective (in the past tense) where students look back over a collection of work and describe what they have learned and how they have changed over a period of time (in a Level 3 portfolio)
There are many similarities between these two processes; the major differences are often in extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation Dan Pink describes the essential elements of true (intrinsic) motivation in his new book, Drive, the concepts of autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
Pink says, “It is devoted to becoming better and better at something that matters. And it connects that quest for excellence to a larger purpose.” (p. 80-81)
Pink identifies two types of Motivation Behavior: Type X Extrinsic, fueled by extrinsic rewards or desires. And Type I Intrinsic, where behavior is self-directed. I am on a campaign to make electronic portfolios a more intrinsically-motivated process.
Pink quotes Internet scholar Clay Shirky ...the most successful websites and electronic forums have a certain Type I approach [to motivation] in their DNA. They&apos;re designed-often explicitly--to tap into intrinsic motivation. You can do the same with your online presences if you listen to Shirky and: Create an environment that makes people feel good about participating.
Give users autonomy.
Keep the system as open as possible. That’s also good advice for developing ePortfolios.
The urge for Self-Direction is basic human need.
It is a Natural state to be Active and Engaged
ePortfolio Implementation should adopt the motivating characteristics of autonomy found in social networks
Choice
Voice
Sharing and Feedback
Immediacy
According to a tweet I read from Chad Hamady, True Mastery NOT possible without FUN! (Chad Hamady @chamady Twitter, January 16, 2010)
There is an inherent exhilaration in Learning “It’s fun to get better at something!” – Why do we play Sports and Games?
Is it for Compliance or Personal Mastery
Look to the Open Source movement (popularity of Wikipedia vs. the demise of Microsoft’s Encarta) – Authors and programmers look for Challenge and Improvement – To make a contribution to the greater good
In their spare time, people gravitate toward activities where they gain mastery
ePortfolio Implementation should adopt the motivating characteristics of mastery found in social networks
Flow, Showcasing Achievements, Increased self-awareness and self-understanding
“Only engagement can produce Mastery.” (Pink, 2009, p.111)
Csíkszentmihályi popularized the concept of Flow as a feeling of energized focus. According to Wikipedia, it is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task.
According to Will Richardson, “Our job in education is to engage, deepen, and extend a student&apos;s passions and interests
Thomas Friedman, in his book, The World is Flat, presents this formula: CQ + PQ &gt; IQ (Friedman, 2006) [Curiosity + Passion &gt; Innate Intelligence]
Learners find their voice and passions through choice and personalization!
A portfolio is a student’s Story of their own Learning. It’s Positive Digital Identity Development or Personal Online Branding – In my earlier research, some students called their ePortfolios, their “academic MySpace”
We should use ePortfolios to document our MASTERY of skills and content. Showcase our Achievements! Share our Expertise! Support Personal & Professional Development!
Pink’s third concept is Purpose. All of us want to be part of something larger than ourselves
When people learn, they want to know the relevance of what they are learning
The more people understand the big picture, the more they will be engaged
Here is a good question:
Because Purpose and Passion Co-Exist.
Not Digital Paper!
As I close my presentation, I want remind us that reflection and relationships are the “heart and soul: of a portfolio (and Social Networking)
NOT the Technology!
My final wish to you is that all your electronic portfolios become dynamic celebrations and stories of deep learning across the lifespan as we are preparing and nurturing today’s children to create and inspire tomorrow’s world!
I welcome your dialogue and conversation about these ideas. I’m waiting to respond to your questions! Thank you very much!