05 July 2009, 15:24

This recent post by David Warlick is intriguing to me.

 http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=1792

 He lists a comprehensive set of features that would be part of the "ultimate" e-Portfolio system.  Some of these are already present in mahara, and some might be in the roadmap.  I am going to think about them, and where I would envision them becoming part of our students' PLE.  I need to gear up for our pilot project beginning in a couple of months!

I think it is an article that you might want to read.

atw

06 July 2009, 12:24

Thanks for the link. Good stuff.

Interesting the range of reponses from veteran users to those who think it is the next band wagon.

The tech side is of course one side of this, the other that in ways is also challenging is the socio-political framing of attempting to get groups and organizations to see the utility and benefit of something like Mahara.

 Honestly some people don't get it at all, while some of us see the use of ePorts as a crucial and fundamental opportunity for how some thing like education can be re-envisioned, made more emanicipatory etc..

 Again thanks for the post.

tm 

06 July 2009, 13:44

I have been thinking about this for some time, and I *still* can't articulate it well, but I think that the group aspect of mahara is becoming more and more important to me.  I can certainly see users publishing individual portfolios/artifacts, but what I *really* want to see are group workspaces.  Now is that portfolio, or is that LMS?  I am not sure.  I want to see group projects, group study spaces, group discussion, group assessment/feedback, etc.  It isn't exactly social networking, but it does have aspects of social networking.  It also has aspects of a PLE, but I usually think of a portfolio as more oriented toward documenting learning than a personal collection of learning resources (although the views do allow you to do that).

I will keep thinking on it. 

atw

06 July 2009, 15:59

At my university we are using Mahara in Physical therapy more as an assessment/sharing tool but in Education as a meaning making/sharing venue for people's development at teacher-leaders.

 This fall I am introducing it to a group of undergraduates doing digital media as a working/collaboration space, but also to graduate students as a collection/reflection place for their course based masters work.

 I will know more about the helps and challenges later this year. There is no shortage of information and some research on the use of e Ports in academic environments.

The notion of documenting learning is key to my work. I spent considerable time consulting with "stake holders" on what learning outcomes would be for our college.

I am looking at gaining more funding to investigate much more thoroughly the in's/out's of Mahara use at our college. Hopefully I will gain some...as it does seem a way to meet the stiffening demands on people's time and energy, faculty and students.

 More as it unfolds.

tm

06 July 2009, 16:22

Hi Tim

Good luck with your research on documenting learning. 

The documenting of  learning should not just be focused on meeting course requirments but be able to be understood by people outside of the college - such as employers or other providers.

As well as the artefacts being able to be transportable the evidence of learning should be transportable so that it is understandable to other audiences. To achieve this requires the learning outcomes fairly generic and clear.

Evidence of groupwork is important to show as how you work in a group is an important aspect when evaluating a person. i think the use of group view, forums,  group assessment should be supported and a part of an eportolio.

Hopefully these features will become standard in eportfolio systems.

cheers

07 July 2009, 2:04

Yes. Outside availability is worked in against much wider "standards" from a variet of venues.

In other work I have been involved in the e Ports were part of meeting provincial certification requirements. 

09 July 2009, 21:05

Hi - an interesting post for sure! Oh, if only we had more resources, we could really nail some of these things that people are so interested in.

I can't wait until a couple of years from now when Mahara is a much more well-rounded portfolio solution

22 September 2009, 0:45

May be interesting for someone. I was looking for some information about e-portfolio and found a responce of Helen Barrett on David Warlick's post about next killer app.

David Warlick's ePortfolio features - blog post on July 31.