E-portfolios must reform to maintain credibility
By Martin Kornacki (29-06-2009)
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E-portfolios need to become interconnected like social networking sites if they are to remain credible, according to the European Institute for E-Learning (EifEL).
Speaking in London last week, EiFEL chief executive Serge Ravet said e-portfolios, which are used to collate evidence of learning over a period of time, needed to become less fragmented and take advantage of the internet’s network infrastructure.
E-portfolios enable people to collect evidence of learning, skills and personal development that are stored on the web. They can also be used as tools for self-expression.
In future Ravet believes the portfolios will need to be able to cross-reference between themselves so that, for example, an entry on a degree qualification gained will link to a university website validating the claim. There are currently a number of different, incompatible platforms on which an individual can create an e-portfolio but a network is developing, in the form of the MultiPortfolio organisation, which EiFEL has recently become. A MultiPortfolio organisation can interact with and access many different e-portfolio platforms and MultiOrganisation e-portfolios are designed to interact with many different institutions.
“The key is to interweave our digital stories. The credibility of your story will be linked to other stories,” Ravet said.
The social networks of tomorrow would mean we became an internet of subjects with our digital identities interwoven together.
“We don’t want our information to be centralised, we want our data under control. At the moment, we have a fragmented digital identity and we need to make changes in the internet’s architecture,” he said.
Dr Helen Barrett, an international consultant writing a book on e-portfolios, said she dreamt of transferring the necessary technology to mobile phones in the future.
“I really think that in the future we will remove the ‘e’ from portfolios and learning and regard it as just learning, good learning. A lot of people are already using personal learning environments and web 2.0 sites. I think there is a general misunderstanding of what portfolios are. Portfolios are seen as meeting certain outcomes and not a story of deep learning,” she said.
EiFEL, an independent not-for-profit European professional association promoting the knowledge economy, predicts that everyone will have an e-portfolio within ten years.
For more information on e-portfolios visit http://www.eife-l.org/publications/eportfolio
Speaking in London last week, EiFEL chief executive Serge Ravet said e-portfolios, which are used to collate evidence of learning over a period of time, needed to become less fragmented and take advantage of the internet’s network infrastructure.
E-portfolios enable people to collect evidence of learning, skills and personal development that are stored on the web. They can also be used as tools for self-expression.
In future Ravet believes the portfolios will need to be able to cross-reference between themselves so that, for example, an entry on a degree qualification gained will link to a university website validating the claim. There are currently a number of different, incompatible platforms on which an individual can create an e-portfolio but a network is developing, in the form of the MultiPortfolio organisation, which EiFEL has recently become. A MultiPortfolio organisation can interact with and access many different e-portfolio platforms and MultiOrganisation e-portfolios are designed to interact with many different institutions.
“The key is to interweave our digital stories. The credibility of your story will be linked to other stories,” Ravet said.
The social networks of tomorrow would mean we became an internet of subjects with our digital identities interwoven together.
“We don’t want our information to be centralised, we want our data under control. At the moment, we have a fragmented digital identity and we need to make changes in the internet’s architecture,” he said.
Dr Helen Barrett, an international consultant writing a book on e-portfolios, said she dreamt of transferring the necessary technology to mobile phones in the future.
“I really think that in the future we will remove the ‘e’ from portfolios and learning and regard it as just learning, good learning. A lot of people are already using personal learning environments and web 2.0 sites. I think there is a general misunderstanding of what portfolios are. Portfolios are seen as meeting certain outcomes and not a story of deep learning,” she said.
EiFEL, an independent not-for-profit European professional association promoting the knowledge economy, predicts that everyone will have an e-portfolio within ten years.
For more information on e-portfolios visit http://www.eife-l.org/publications/eportfolio
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