"Horses to Water"

[Dan]

I'm interested in the drivers, the motivational factors that push - or
pull eportfolio take up in schools by teachers and students.

I’m interested in locating those magic ingredients that increase
teacher appreciation and student aspiration for ePortfolios.

I know things are changing with the increased focus on recording PLTS
and other soft-skills - but so many teachers we deal with don’t
appreciate the value of ePortfolios - and so many students just don’t
aspire to create them.

Forget blaming the functionality of the system, the user-friendliness,
the output - you can even dismiss the financial cost.

Why is it we can take these horses to the water - but we just can’t
make them drink?

Any ideas?

Dan

www.enterprise-tracker.com
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[John Pallister]

Magic ingredients a bit elusive and when we do track them down, I am
sure that they will be expensive. The ePortfolio process while being
incredibly powerful, in learning terms, is also very expensive in
teacher time. The time taken for the teacher to engage in the
constructive and reflective dialogue with their learners that
underpins reflective learning and the ePortfolio process. Teacher
time when used in this fashion costs-a-lotta, traditional teaching
benefits from economies of scale, but it is learning that we are
interested in.

Winning hearts and minds is a very difficult process, as with many
things tired teachers might hope that educational 'Fads' might 'go
away' if they ignore it for long enough. Forget PLTs; forget
Functional Skills; forget personalisation, they might go out of
fashion. Forget that our leaner come to us with different experiences
and expectations than any previous generation; forget that our learner
want to use technology and tools, and concentrate on teaching, the
thing that gets the examination results. A generation let down, we
live to fight another day.

The ePortfolio process support learning and can engage the learner, if
they have the opportunity to use it. Opportunities to use, must be
integrated into the learners curriculum, whole school, all subjects,
all years etc. For this to happen will require a massive CPD
initiative; harnessing the ePortfolio process. It has my vote!

[sigi]

Dear John,
these last 2 days I made another effort to take the horses not only to
the water but to actually make them drink ;-) .... I tried a new
strategy: Getting the sudents together with some willing teachers to
learn how to use an EPortfolio.... Everythng had been planned and
prepared , coordinated with the "management" , having their "official"
support, which meant giving teachers permission to join the
workshop ..... I thought by making students and teachers explore and
plan the use of EPortfolios in class I might get the train on the
way...... ended up quite frustrated as 90% of teachers showed more
or less open scepsis to hostility to change.... the 10% open to change
at least stayed with us! So I told my students who were eager to make
use of Eportfolioto put pressure on their teachers..... Will keep
you informed if change happens. We mustn't get frustrated and need to
be happy about even minor progress we can trigger
Sigi

[Kirstie C]

As part of our LLN strand, we are trialling ePortfolios with mainly FE
colleges. As it's voluntary, we have been lucky to work with
enthusiastic teachers. They have incorporated ePortfolio type
activities into their lessons in a piece by piece basis. So, we are
not advocating a whole system, rather encouraging them to use one or
two elements to support an area of their curriculum that they clearly
see would enhance their activity. These teachers are becoming the
champions of ePortfolio within their institutions and through funded
pilots are trialling a rich and varied use.

We (The Centre for International ePortfolio Development, University of
Nottingham) are running an event on 10th June which will showcase some
of these activities focussing on institutional change
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/news/towards-a-regional-ecosystem.shtml

Kirstie
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio
http://webapps.nottingham.ac.uk/elgg/ciepdproj/

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[Dan]

Hi Dan

We have an ePortfolio which has been launched for a year and now has
16,000 users on it. I knew we had cracked the problem you are talking
about when christmas day last year was our highest submission to date.

Firstly I would argue that PLTS have to be at the heart of the
ePortfolio because it is these that remain current throughout the
year, in fact throughout the learner's life.

Secondly the ePortfolio has to show progression on a weekly basis - we
have achieved this by defining 9 levels of competence in each of the
24 PLTS skill areas.

Thirdly the PLTS have to be defined in terms which are generic enough
to allow the learner to derive evidence from their home life, school
life and academic qualifications.

Forthly the entries in their ePortfolio have to have authenticity - we
have done this through an elaborate form of peer assessment in which a
learners work is assessed by someone in a different school who has
already achieved that level of competence

Finally (and this is undoubtedly the hardest) is to provide easy ways
for staff to praise achievement and signpost opportunities in their
lessons. Maybe it is too many years of content driven test based
curriculum but teachers are generally so disengaged from competencies
it is quite incredible especially since if you run a training session
and ask the question "what is education for" or "why have schools"
they always come up with the competencies as the critical core element
- making progress on this one but it is slow but accelerating.

Dan Buckley

On May 13, 10:02 pm, Dan <kok...@gmail.com> wrote:

[John Pallister]

Keep up the good fight Sigi!

Getting the horses to drink from the learning trough; reminded me of
the 'story' of the farmer who had nearly trained his horse work
without him having to feed it, when it died!

Talking about PLTs, Google pointed out that a PLT was really a
Professional Learning Team. A Team that collaborates; promotes
dialogue and professional reflection; engages in Action Reaseach etc,
is that not what we do in our day jobs? is that not what we, as a
community, are doing here?

A Professional Learning Team that talks a lot about Personal Learning
and Thinking skills! A PLT talking about PLTs.

Talking about PLTs, as Dan highlights, our learner will be 'doing'
PLTs every day of their life-long learning lives. Through our
Professional Learning discussions we have achieved some consensus that
the ePortfolio process, is based on, and supports Reflective
Learning. You have watched me try to convince anyone in this
community, or my wider learning community that a Personal Learning
environment relies on learners being able to 'do ' PLTs, and that the
shift towards Personalisation relies on learners being able to 'do'
PLTs.


If, we are right, and the ePortfolio process does underpin and promote
development of Personal Learning and Thinking Skills, can any school
afford to ignore the ePortfolio?

[sigi]

John, the weird thing is that schools CANNOT afford to ignore PLEs and
ePortfolio... but they stubbornly persist in doing so..... ok, don't
worry for, I'm rather persistent in my efforts ;-) But is is essential
to have a network of supporters and co-fighters for the cause all over
the globe!
Have a nice day!
Sigi

[J Meades]

Hi everyone

I hope this is not too controversial but reading the posts I was struck by the language used. Many of the references were about teachers and e-Portfolios and the process, a few were about learners.

A question often asked is 'How do we get pupils to use an e-Portfolio?'. I have a theory that if we tell them they should be using it then they will not - normal human behaviour kicks-in. Tell a young person to do something and they will not and at best they question the motive and purpose. Many learners are suspicious, they have spent years being told do this, do that, learn this, learn that without success.

At last we are beginning to 'come to grips' with what is best for the learner in the learners view. If this is accepted, then all the PLTS begin to fall into place. Young people naturally, reflect, manage, etc - we don't have to teach them how to do that so much as recognise that they do it and facilitate it in their learning.

Maybe we're all trying too hard to ensure that learners engage with our process, our notion of an e-Portfolio and not their natural use of tools that become an informal e-Portfolio.

The experience in my college of using a combination of DrupalEd and Moodle seems to support the idea of allowing students to naturally take up the tools they need for their 'e-Portfolio'. The process for them is successful when the teacher ensures that learning is properly facilitated with appropriate resources and appropriate presentation of resources - not classroom resources put onto a learning platform but resources designed for a learning platform experience.

Having achieved this first step, it would be easier to adopt a formal e-Portfolio should it be necessary.

Jeremy Meades
NAACE Member

2009/5/14 John Pallister <jpall...@aol.com>

[Dan O'Brien]

I agree with the focus on students. I think I lost track in the original post and opened it up to include teachers aswell.

I must say though, I get very prickly when I hear teachers say "OUR kids won't do that - no not OUR kids" - especially when we see THEIR kids logging in over weekends and working on portfolios.

I wonder whether we could leverage the competitive nature of student to encourage the building of eportfolios?

Dan O'Brien

[Graham Jarvis]

My main concerns about all of this discussion is that those who contribute are, seemingly, convinced of how-e-portfolios could be used to support and enhance learners and therefore think teachers should be using them BUT is this any different to the Government, TDA, DCSF, Becta et al. telling teachers e-portfolios are a good thing-a bit like taking medicine? I also find the implicit criticism of teachers very worrying. Anyone who talks to teachers and students on a regular basis will realise many see one initiative after another being ‘handed down’ from on high and e-portfolios may be seen as such another ‘tablet of stone’. The last thing teachers need to see is more criticism-implicit or explicit. Talking to a group of teachers recently about new technologies and e-portfolios there was a general response-where do we find the time, the training, the support? –and before anyone is critical of that response I think we need to think carefully.

It is my experience from working with teachers and students that when they have ownership and believe that the time, effort and every other aspect of using a technology-whether it be e-portfolios, IWBs, hardware, software etc- is worthwhile then it is much more likely to be integrated into their teaching and learning.

If e-portfolios are to become part of teaching and learning then it will require a commitment by whole schools, institutions, FE, HEIs-teachers as individuals are unlikely to step out of their comfort zone when there is no support and in some case antagonism to suggestion that e-portfolios should be adopted.

I have been trialling e-portfolios with a group of students during the past year and have found a positive response not only about their own development but also the possibilities for schools in which they will soon teach-time will tell whether they will be able to be innovative once they are teaching full time.

It would be interesting to see the research that underpins the effective use of e-portfolios-particularly research which has been carried out over 2 or 3 years and how any findings could be used to convince teachers, lecturers, students and other educationalists about their value and the impact on learning.

If e-portfolios are to be integrated into our education system we need to provide a supportive environment based on objective evidence.

Thanks

 

 

Graham Jarvis

Associate Principal Lecturer in Education

Leeds Trinity and All Saints

Leeds

LS18 5HD

Tel: 01132837256

Mobile: 07734730080

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[J Meades]

I believe you are correct Graham. My experience of the last 12 months, working in a large Community Technology College, has been to provide a 'consultancy' service in school to teachers who want to develop their courses for use within an online learning environment. This approach, where a teacher does not have to know everything about online learning from the start, appears to be a successful and positive experience for them and removes the 'where do we find the time, the training, the support' barriers which are very real and block progress.

I am also concerned that e-Portfolios appear to be promoted as being a teaching aid and by association become useful for learning - it ought to be the reverse. In my view the approach needs to be from the learner perspective. Young people naturally gather 'portfolios', they may not call them e-Portfolios or even portfolios but they do gather information together in a variety of appropriate formats for their personal use. Our efforts ought to be about harnessing this natural occurence or at least explore that possibility as a methodology on the journey towards a more formal e-Portfolio (assuming that is what is required).

Jeremy
NAACE Member

2009/5/18 Graham Jarvis <G.Ja...@leedstrinity.ac.uk>

[Glenn Finger]

Hi Jeremy, Graham and others

 

I'm enjoying the interplay of ideas, particularly the extent to which some of the imagining and dreaming which ePortfolios might encourage in learners disrupts how learning has been perceived as happening in a largely pencil and paper world. This is the challenge for only a small number of teachers as the majority of those with whom I work in Australian schools believe that the new and emerging technologies present exciting possibilities for students to tell their personal stories of deep learning, rather than presenting insurmountable problems - though lack of access to computers, connectivity issues, infrastructure and technical support are continuing issues.

 

We've never asked for the research evidence to show that pencil and paper might or might not contribute to improving learning outcomes, and traditional portfolios of evidence have been in action for many years. The excitement for me with ePortfolios is that they enable students to collect, select and publish evidence of their learning in a rich, multimedia, hypertextual, dynamic way to complement what we have unquestionably accepted as the traditional technologies associated with spoken and written modes of communication to demonstrate learning.

 

The shift in Helen Barrett's conceptualisation of a move from an institution controlled ePortfolio system (ePortfolios 1.0) to a learner-centred controlled lifelong and lifewide ePortfolio (ePortfolios 2.0) is evident now with my teacher education students. That is, using social networking (edublogs, nings, etc), they design, create, share and connect with people locally and globally, and adopt ePortfolio processes whether or not their educational institution requires this, enables this, or can do this...provocative...and sorry about this, but this is not happening because someone leading an education system or University said that it should be done. It's happening because the students want to access information, communicate, connect, and construct knowledge at a time and place of their own choosing. They're not wanting to wait until the teachers decide whether or not it's a good idea, or wait until their teachers goes to PD to learn how to do it. The students attend school, live with the constraints imposed - correct uniform, socks, the rules and routines - then engage in rich learning environments elsewhere.

Jeremy, I think you're absolutely right in encouraging us to capitalise upon this.

 

Graham, I also think you're absolutely correct in arguing for the technical support, system and PD which helps teachers - and taking something out and helping teachers as teachers have insufficient time to deal more deeply with learning and teaching.

 

Arguably, the challenges facing teachers in relation to technological pedagogical knowledge (TPACK) is unprecedented. 20 or more years ago, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) was challenging enough for us as teachers, but PCK is now insufficient in the 21st century. I believe that where TPACK is in place, ePortfolios are well theorised as assessment for learning (though they can also be used as assessment of learning for high stakes accountability), and benefit learners.

 

Kind regards

 

Glenn

 

Associate Professor Glenn Finger Dip.T., B.Ed.St.(Qld), M.Ed.(UNE), Ph.D.(Griffith), F.A.C.E., M.A.C.E.L., ACCE Associate
Deputy Dean (Learning and Teaching), Faculty of Education Executive, Griffith University
Location: Gold Coast campus G30_3.29
Phone: 07 555 28618 Email: G.Fi...@griffith.edu.au
http://www.griffith.edu.au/education/school-education-professional-studies-gold-coast/staff/dr-glenn-finger

Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA)
Pearson Education Teacher Educator of the Year - 2008
Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning - 2008

-----eportfolio...@googlegroups.com wrote: -----

To: ePortfolios and PLTs <eportfolio...@googlegroups.com>
From: J Meades <mea...@gmail.com>
Sent by: eportfolio...@googlegroups.com
Date: 05/18/2009 08:03PM
Subject: {ePortfolios-and-PLTs} Re: "Horses to Water"