Thursday 30 April 2009

Blog as Eportfolio

Can blogs be used as an eportfolio? Because my blog is part reflection and part dissemination I have never needed the use of an eportfolio. I can see the benefits of eportfolios but for the time being blogging suits me just fine.

Anyway way this post from Jeff Utecht (Web Link) got me to consider as to how you might encourage students to use blogs as eportfolios.

in Jeff's own words "It’s an easy concept once you understand how blogs work. Create a category for each subject…students collect digital documents via, mp3, images, uploads, etc. throughout the year reflecting on there learning. When it comes time for the Student-Led Conferences (SLC) students can go back through their year’s reflections pick the ones they want to share with their parents and simple add it to the Student-Led Conference Category.".

So you could ask students to collect particular pieces of evidence and store them under an agreed tag.

I like this idea as once again it shows the power of tagging and categorising posts. These elements provide a great deal of flexibility in terms of the context and purpose of the blog.

Jeff reflects on the long term benefit of doing this "Thinking long turn this blog continues to grow each year. Daniel continues to add his thinking, his reflections, his documentation of learning. As his content grows he’s able to not only reflect on what he’s learning now, but go back in history on his own blog and link to that prior knowledge and thinking from years past.".

Interestingly he also touches on the issue as to whether reflection should occur in private or in public space, citing the latter as being a more powerful learning experience. There are plenty of arguments against this - some students are not comfortable with sharing their views. However I do know that the possibility that this post might be read does make me put more effort into outlining arguments and so as a result is a more more powerful learning opportunity.

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