One of the alternative ways of assessing is e-portfolio of learning. One definition to electronic portfolio is “a collection of authentic and diverse evidence, drawn from a larger archive representing what a person or organization has learned over time on which the person or organization has reflected, and designed for presentation to one or more audiences for a particular rhetorical purpose” (National Learning Infrastructure Initiative, 2003). Using portfolios in assessment has been used for a long time, but e-portfolio is new but more effective and efficient. It is a source of evidence of the learner’s learning and reflection of his/her work. It shows how a student learns and makes progress and change.
There is a big number of e-portfolios. Here are some softwares that could be hosted somewhere on the internet and applied in teaching and learning. Some of them are free and others are not.
· http://www.avenetefolio.com/
· http://www.chalkandwire.com/eportfolio/
· http://www.tsresearch.com/download/free_download/portfolio/?gclid=CKeV-MGr1aECFQuS3wod8T9JJA (free version with limited use)
· http://elgg.org/ (free)
E-portfolios of these types do sophisticated work that facilitates the job for us as teachers, but I think we can also opt for simple tools from web 2.0 by keeping records about students in wikis, blogs, forums, discussions… Every electronic tool that would help get a clear image about our students’ work and progress is feasible.
Cordially yours,
Hamid.
Videos about e-portfolio to share with you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KM4JjG80aw
http://www.teachers.tv/videos/5431
References:
http://www.futured.com/documents/FuturEdePortfolioforAssessmentWhitePaper.pdf
http://electronicportfolios.com/web20.html
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3001.pdf
Dear Hamid,
ReplyDeleteportfolios are nice and useful, and they are not difficult to create. I have been using portfolios for many years and some of the advantages are: students have all their work in just one place, when designing the portfolio they become more creative, they like to see, touch, hold their portfolio, and at the end of school, they can keep it as an evidence of their hard work.
So far, I have used only traditional portfolios - i.e. on paper. Next year I will try to change this and have e-portfolios for my students. I hope they'll like this idea too.
Thanks for sharing the links - really helpful.
All the best,
Nadina
Hello Nadinne,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment.
Though Portfolios on hard paper are demanding, they are always interesting as they help visualize our students progress. E-portfolios are handier, but we should pay for both for for the software and hosting it in website. Of course there are some free versions but with limited use. I'll search for more free ones and post them here if I find any.
Yours,
Hamid.