Alan, Thanks for your timely response. It is a mark of the great enthusiasm and interest that people have for the whole concept of e-Portfolios that it took some eight months for one person to take the trouble to reply. If Becta's vision of all pupils having a functional e-Portfolio by 2010 is to be implemented we have just over a year to implant the vision in schools, educate staff, evaluate different applications, establish business plans, inform parents, devise policies, develop curriculum strategies and resources, assess required support, define implementation strategies, and eventually design e-Portfolio templates and scaffolds according to each individual school's ethos. A week might be a long time in politics or journalism but a year is a very short time in education.
I find it very difficult to accept many of the arguments presented. If Alan's perception of an e-Portfolio is common then JISC, CETIS, DCSF, Becta, DIUS, NIACE, Connexions, IMS and SALTIS to name but a few have all got it wrong and need to be re-educated. If Alan does represent a common view amongst teachers and administrators then we have an even bigger challenge to meet the 2010 deadline as suggested above. Does Alan actually believe what he writes or is he a very good devil's advocate?
1. The issue of Facebook etc. It is the very fact that many of these Web2.0 tools can be abused that an e-Portfolio, properly designed and managed, can help to avoid the trivial and irresponsible and yet at the same time promote the benefits. The functions of an e-Portfolio allow the development of responsible collaboration and self-representation. Alan is wrong to even suggest that there are any similarities or that there is any guilt by association.
2. The e-Portfolio is far more than any blog or wiki although it can contain such functions within it. How many childish blogs or websites have been started in a rush of enthusiasm only to remain discarded and hanging in suspended animation in cyberspace? Compare a handful of impassioned experts such as Alan November, Stephen Downes, Miles Berry, Phil Windley, Simon Grant and the Australian EDNA forum and we can see a continuity of writing. It is this sense of progression, of planning and of investigation that an e-Portfolio can scaffold for those of a lesser vision and experience.
3. Apart from the bold statement that "it does not aid learning", there is no reference to the benefits to Teaching & Learning. I strongly commend two books: ‘The Power of Portfolios' by Elizabeth A. Hebert and ‘Multiple Intelligences and Portfolios' by Evangeline Harris Stefanakis. For a well proven window on UK infants celebrating and evaluating their work, see the impressive work of Andy Preston of EduJam. Ask any Primary school teacher about how the compilation of a portfolio enables the child to think constructively about their work and progress, about what they are proud of both in school and beyond the classroom walls.
4. Alan then states that the e-Portfolio does not ‘deliver, mark or score assessments'. My first response is to say that in the UK we have no need of an e-Portfolio to do that; every school, by now, should have a working VLE capable of being hard-wired to their MIS system. Tools such as SmartAssess can be directly ‘wired' into the MIS and VLE. But again, the whole point of ‘assessment' for anyone who knows Latin, is that of ‘sitting alongside' the student. John Pallister's work at Wolsingham and MOSEP poignantly illustrate the concept of the form tutor, parents or potential employers discussing with the child the contents of their e-Portfolio.
5. The excellent work of Gill Coker and her Connexions team in Nottinghamshire illustrate one very powerful aspect of e-Portfolios, that of Careers Guidance. The e-Portfolio is an indispensible tool for this work, not only in terms of the accessibility of the relevant pages to selected audiences but also as a much tidier way of supporting the processes of study. - Far superior to the ‘chat about and do the worksheet' all in an odd 20-min Tutor Period. I know, been there, done that and now regret that Gill was not there to support me!
6. Becta's expectation for all children to have an e-Portfolio by 2010 is not taken lightly. Much work has gone into the development of e-Portfolios and is still going on in an expanding community within HE both in the UK and worldwide. Although my criticism of this work along with that of the VET initiatives in parts of Australia is that it could be seen as a ‘silo' development placed slap-bang in the middle of any real continuum of multiple transitions, research must start with those most capable of performing properly managed investigation, testing and reporting.
7. Yes, I have seen examples of "mindless trivia", in fact one American High School closed down its whole e-Portfolio delivery because of a few instances of this. Quite simply, the e-Portfolio must have purpose and should focus primarily on those aspects of the child's experiences that they value. As a craftsman I know very well that any tool must be introduced by explaining its particular merits and dangers rather than allowing the child to experiment. The same goes for the driving instructor or any teacher wanting their students to go on-line. It is therefore important that the whole concept of the e-Portfolio is properly introduced and adopted as a whole-school policy.
8. There is a popular misconception that the e-Portfolio should contain sensitive data - this is not so. There is no reason for any personal data to be made publicly available. In fact this is a good teaching point. At the later stages of KS4/5 secure personal data may be made available to potential employers or interview boards but this would be made available to identified individuals for a limited time-slot and through pass-worded access.
9. There is often a perception that the student should devise their own e-Portfolio during ICT lessons. Yes, as teachers, we have encouraged our students to devise similar presentation skills for public audiences in PowerPoint or Web design. As much as I enjoying teaching html, however, this is a complete waste of time in terms of e-Portfolios. Firstly, the number of students developing the skills necessary for html or php will exclude the majority of children. What of the 5-yr old? Should they all be writing in code? Or the elderly? Or the less-able? And then, of course, what of interoperability or agreements on tagging?
10. Any teacher is aware of the immense power of reflection as an educative process. Alan is playing with numbers when he asks "what purpose is an essay written aged 9 when I am 20?" But make the same comparison of the writings of a 6yr old with that of a 9yr old and consider how the child can be encouraged with the progress that the child has made or the impact that friends and teachers may have had in the learning processes. Again, when I have discussed with students their career objectives, it is very useful to refer back to progress made, of ‘stickability' or one's ability to overcome difficulties.
11. Comparisons are often made with ‘the Burgundy File' and its terminal failure to live up to any expectations beyond having left school. The beauty of the e-Portfolio is that it is specifically designed to support continuity through ‘multiple transitions' - it evolves with the development of the whole character of the owner, evolving, expanding and contracting according to specific needs - in a state of ‘continuous transmogrification'. But, as many teachers will maintain, it's not the finished product that counts so much as the processes involved. Again, the e-Portfolio is as much about process as a collection of artefacts.
12. Whatever one thinks about the 14-19 Diplomas, the e-Portfolio is the perfect tool for sharing student work amongst a number of different organisations. The e-Portfolio can be used independently of any institution's VLE enabling multiple accessions by a variety of permitted audiences.
13. Finally, my reference to the work of EIfEL and Serge Ravet in Europe. I have a very high regard for Serge and the work that he has done over many years. However, as much as I see his point about creating a ‘digital identity', I do not believe that the e-portfolio, being a personally owned and private ‘confessional', should be capable of being exploited by any political venture, however altruistic. It is my opinion that there are other ways of governments managing legitimate personal data and that, therefore, educationists should be aware of what they should or should not be demanding.
