An interesting bit of discussion below provoked by a list serve post by Martin Owen citing a post by me on e-Portfolios. I am not in the least sure what Ray in trying to say in his musical metaphors. I think I will take it as a complement.
But his list is interesting. I agree with most of what he says. However I am not so sure of the practicality of the portfolio being housed in an external repository – or for that matter the desirability. MySpace is outside educational institutions but that does not make it a desirable place to host an e-Portfolio. The key is that the owner owns the data and that the owner can export, save and manipulate the data (and if necessary, transfer the data to another system).

And whist I might be sympathetic to controlling inappropriate content, I also think this is ultimately unfeasible. Better to teach students how to use everyday controls like spam filters. If something becomes forbidden it becomes desirable.On closed fora, I think sometimes fora (horrible word – forums sounds better though grammatically wrong) may be closed but sometimes should be open. And who should choose – that is the big control question.

Of course not all of the learner’s work will be stored on the e-Portfolio. But I think it is more than just a showcase. It can and will be most valuable where the work accumulates and progresses over time – the ability to review is part of the reflection process. That is why we try to keep our back catalogue of blog posts. A blog is more than a showcase of where I am now. It represents the development of my ideas over time.

But many thanks Ray for your comments and may the debate continue.

Martin Owen wrote:

>A positive coda to recent discussion.

Graham Attwell of Pont y Dysgu has written a long (7000 word) blog post on E-portfolios: “the dna of the Personal Learning Environment?”

“Facilitating reflection is not simple within a largely ‘input based’ curriculum where the main goal is to pass a series of prescribed examinations. The danger is that reflection is simply seen as irrelevant to the qualification driven motivation of many students within their school based learning (as opposed to outside school).”
http://www.knownet.com/writing/weblogs/Graham_Attwell/entries/7709663746

In response, Ray Tolley writes:

Not so much a coda, rather a symphony?

I remember some 50 years ago studying ‘sonata form’ and marvelling at the repeated patterns of statement A followed by statement B and then the various interplays, inversions and underlying themes with the occasional unrecognisable additional pattern.

All this is so similar to the e-Portfolio discussion, being impressed by the various themes and undercurrents, inversions and occasional red-herrings. Graham’s paper is admittedly a well rehearsed statement, almost as polished as his live presentations – but perhaps more a symphony than a coda? Not quite a Beethovean symphony but more like Schubert’s Unfinished – nice music as far as it goes, but, as I have often thought, what did Schubert leave out and why? Did he give up because he couldn’t resolve the third movement? Did he really run out of time? or, Did he not feel comfortable with the obvious conclusion he was coming to?

Graham asks the right questions and manages to get about enough to make sure that people in high places understand the problems, but what about solutions?

I repeat a few of my conclusions:

1. The e-Portfolio must be portable, both vertically and horizontally – this suggests that it should be institution free and thus housed in an external repository. This will also resolve the massive complexities of having embedded e-Portfolios within a VLE and the obvious complications of ensuring that every proprietary e-Portfolio is interoperable.

2. It must be owned by the user and capable of cosmetic treatment appropriate to the learner’s age, stage and style. This interface will mature with the student, KeyStage by KeyStage and on through CPD and Lifelong Learning and Leisure.

3. It must be ‘generic’ in that it is not modelled on any one curriculum delivery pattern nor loaded with curriculum content. – Content is already well managed by each school’s VLE.

4. It must free of any direct MIS intrusion – it is the private workspace of the student – and not to be tapped into by socio-political data mining as has been suggested in European circles.

5. The ‘permissions’ for others to view should be under the control of the user – even named teachers should be allowed to see some parts (but perhaps not other areas?).

6. It must provide access for appropriate web2.0 tools. However, concerning inappropriate content, I do not think that an AUP is sufficient – there must be significant controls in order to protect the vulnerable teacher as well as the child!

7. In order to allow e-safe collaboration closed fora or blogging tools, survey and feedback forms should be inbuilt – this will allow true reflection based upon responses by both peers and other adults.

8. Not all of the learner’s work is stored on the e-Portfolio – it is a ‘snapshot’ or short-term showcase of what is relevant for a period of time.

I could go on, but for the sake of some, I’ll stop here. But for those interested in the musical allusions, think on:

– The last part of a piece, usually added to a standard form to bring it to a close.

www2.wwnorton.com/classical/glossary/c.htm
– A portion of a tune which seems like a tail, or extra measures, added to the last A section. It is repeated for every chorus, however. (2) An ending for a tune, used only once after the final chorus. …
www.apassion4jazz.net/glossary.html
– A “tail” or short closing section added at the end of a piece of music.
www.state.tn.us/education/ci/cistandards2001/music/cifamusicglossary.htm
– The Coda is a series of emphatic cadences that create a sense of finality in the movement. In Beethoven’s Ninth, Codas also act as “Second Developments” whose lengths sometimes rival or even exceed the other sections.
www.41085.org/acu/webdesign/Tutorial2/b9gloss.htm
– A few measures or a section added to the end of a piece of music to make a more effective ending.
www.dpi.state.nc.us/curriculum/artsed/scos/music/mglossary

A coda, or an unfinished symphony?

Technorati Tags: eportfolio

A presentation by Graham Attwell of Pontydysgu on E-portfolio Development and Implementation. Technical Mixing by Einion Dafydd.

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Here the german version of E-portfolio Development and Implementation.

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I’m often being asked if I can show examples of effective e-Potrfolios. And that is not so easy.

So I was delighted when Cristina Costa sent me the url to 2007 Senior Portfolios. The e-Portfolios were produce through the Key Learning Community who explain their mission as to “research and develop innovative practices      in teaching to celebrate diversity in our population and our communities      and to personalize education by building upon each student’s strengths      in the following intellectual areas: Linguistic, Musical, Logical-Mathematical,      Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Naturalistic, Interpersonal and Intrapersonal.”

As part of Key’s graduation requirements,      seniors must complete a  portfolio documenting their growth over      4 years. This year, for the first time, the portfolios are web-based and      available for viewing.

Its a great example of the creative use of e-Portfolios. And it neatly illustrates another dilemma in developing both e-Portfolios and Personal Learning environments. These e-Portfolio have been developed using Apple iLife software, which for all its limitations, is great for multimedia and is based on services layers between the different applications.

I am always caught by the dilemma between viewing the PLE as a collection of everyday software tools, and thus a process or approach, and the bundled (usually web) application seeking some sort of tool integration to make life easy for the user.

I’m in Poland for a meeting and conference organised by the European MOSEP project. You think the UK education policy is not always brilliant. Well this is the latest nonsense from the Polish government.

“The Teletubbies are set to be banned in Poland after a government media watchdog decided they encouraged homosexuality.

The children’s TV programme has fallen foul of Poland’s government-appointed Children’s Rights spokesman, who believes the show is “gay propaganda”.

A special committee has been appointed to examine the claims including allegations that Tinky Winky’s handbag was breaking down gender barriers and encouraging homosexuality.”

Source: Ananova

After a couple of beers last night we decided on a solidarity campaign with Tinky Winky. Agnieszka did a great job getting us the screen shots and Serge Ravet slipped this wonderful picture into his presentation on e-Portfolios at the conference today.

Â

Last month I spoke at a conference on Web 2.0 and learning organised by the Danish Knowledge Laboratory in Odense. And a great onfernce it was too. Made some good new friends and hope we will stay in touch.

I made a presentation on Personal Learning Environments and e-Portfolios. Anyway, they had a film crew at the conference and at lunchtime they interviewed me. They asked some hard questions – very good questions. And they have published the results on the web. You can watch the video here. Like the way they have done it with access to sections – anyone know how that is done?

This is a longish paper – about 7000 words – too long to post all off it in the blog. So I am posting here an exrpt with access to an RTF download of the full paper (perhaps I will post another excerpt tomorrow.

Have chosen to post the section on reflection – just because this issue seems to give everyone trying to work with e-Portfolios so many problems.

One curiosity about the paper is the references. I didn’t set out to do this but found in the course of reading for the paper that most of the interesting things I was reading were from blog posts. Is it juts the subject, is it me – or are things changing? Anyway the references include a couple of books, a good few conference papers, a video and a lot of blogs. And by the way – how do you reference someones comment on an Excite Comment Wall?

As always any feedback very welcome.

Facilitating Reflection

In projects and at conferences about e-portfolios, at some point the discussion seems always to turn to the issue of how to facilitate meaningful reflection.

Typical is the following blog entry by a teacher, John Pallister (2007a).Â

“We have begun work trying to encourage our students, 11- 18 year olds, to reflect on their learning and achievements. We are also encouraging them to record their thoughts and reflections as part of the review/reflection process. The review stage is informing the Action Planning stage, which again we are trying to get students to record.

It seems to me to be a Logical process, having done something, to review what you have done then to revise your original plan or create a new plan.

Early attempts have focussed on printed materials providing students with a number of prompts/questions which focus students on the review process. We have experimented with text based and audio/video formats for recording reviews/reflections. Early stages, not managed to find much help in terms of approaches that help/encourage/support students to reflect and record their reflections – still looking??

Although I am sure that having done something, all students will informally think or form some personal evaluation of their performance, I suspect that the review/reflection is at a very superficial level, perhaps enjoyed it, not going to do that again, did not do that very well, too difficult etc. If students walk away only having reflected at this level they will not have made the most of the learning opportunity.

The challenge is to somehow encourage students to spend more time on this reflection stage, exploring more what they have done/achieved. I suspect that this would help them to design more useful plans and, by thinking about their learning, become that elusive better learner.”

The problem may be that to move beyond the superficial requires intrinsic motivation. As such it is not possible to ‘teach’ someone how to reflect. However, it is possible provide learners with the skills required for reflection and to practice those skills and equally to provide a stimulus to encourage reflection (Buchberger, 2007)

Buchberger goes on to say: “I have my doubts about the usefulness of written reflection following certain prompts or guiding questions. We have been ‘forcing’ our teacher trainees to hand in written reflections on their performance in class each semester, which hasn’t proved very successful. It’s turned out to make much more sense if trainees, their mentors and the teaching practice supervisor (what a terrible word !) meet after class and in a very relaxed atmosphere analyse the lessons as “critical friends” (with a strong focus on friend !!). This is what we do regularly and trainees find it much more helpful than their written reflection papers. Perhaps – from time to time – a few notes summarizing such a talk might be a reminder and starting point for further student reflection. But again it should make sense for the student, not just to satisfy the teacher/trainer.

Stephen Warbuton (2007) attended a presentation given by a group at the University of the Pacific on ‘Dialogical Reflection in the Digital Age’. “Like many educators”, he says, “Jim Phillips and Erick Marmolejo, grappled with the nature of reflection – a term that often eludes definition. Their use of what they called ‘dialogic reflection’ was focussed around reflective activities based on a play between the academic vs. professional portfolios, the production of artefacts and samples accompanied by reflective statement with a summative assessment process slotted in right at the end. They identified general problems with the reflective process when situated within an educational context in that opinion-laden task lists do not get at the heart of the strength of reflection, feedback loops can be slow and not enough time is allocated to reflection which results in very little reflective speak (there is only play around reflective dialogue). As Kathleen Yancey points out in her book “Reflection in the writing classroom” – reflection is always a fiction where students write specifically to the needs of the tutor.

The key philosophy behind their methodology to reinvigorate the process of reflection lies in pushing tutors to unlearn traditional approaches to writing instruction paralleled with the use of reflection as a means to individualise instruction and personalise learning. “

Jenny Hughes has adopted a similar approach. In a video of a workshop she takes a group of adult learners through a process of providing constructive feedback to each other. Indeed, it is quite remarkable that adult teachers are not used to this process (Hughes, 2007). Her key point is that there are forms and structure and skills o providing feedback and in a similar way forms and structure to reflection. For learners these skills include:

•    Forming an opinion

•    Expressing and opinion

•    Articulating and opinion

•    Justifying an opinion

•    Defending an opinion

•    Supporting opinions of other

•    Challenging others’ opinions

•    Questioning others

•    Seeking clarification

•    Representing others opinions

•    Building on others’ opinions

•    Sorting fact from opinion

Each of these processes can be structured and supported within the e-portfolio development process. However, they also require skills on the part of the teacher or facilitator. These might include:

•    Facilitator skills

•    Active listening skills

•    Feedback skills

•    Intervention skills

•    Evaluation skills

Yet the practising of such skills or competencies or the embedding of such practice within everyday learning activities has implications for both pedagogic approaches to teaching and learning and to curriculum design and organisation. Facilitating reflection is not simple within a largely ‘input based’ curriculum where the main goal is to pass a series of prescribed examinations. The danger is that reflection is simply seen as irrelevant to the qualification driven motivation of many students within their school based learning (as opposed to outside school). Case studies undertaken through the MOSEP project suggest that development of reflection through e-Portfolios may work best in project-based learning and when reflection is linked to activities. It is interesting that in the Kit Car project case study (Attwell and Brandsma, 2006), the project was developed as an extra curriculum project and was not subject to the normal confines of curriculum and assessment rules.

It may also be that reflection is constrained by the dominant written form of evidencing within e-Portfolios. The widespread use of multi media is a feature of many of the social networking sites referred to earlier. Yet despite some attempts to encourage more use of multi media, most e-Portfolios remain text based, probably once more due to the demands of assessment policies. The issue of assessment will be explored further in the next section.

In January I published an artcile entitled ‘Personal Learning Environments – the future of eLearning?‘ in the second edition of e-Learning Papers, a new journal published by elearningeuropa.

The online journal subsequently invited readers to ask me questions about the paper. Very fine questions they were too. I have just got round to answering the answers will no doubt appear on the elearningeuropa portal shortly.

But if you impatient here are the questions and the answers. Seriously – I think some of the issues are worthy of further discussion – although I am not quite sure of the best forum for this. Anyway – feel free to add your comments here.

Question: Michael Feldstein, author of eLiterate weblog, writes about e-learning predictions for this year 2007 and says: “…despite a ton of buzz in the edu-blogosphere and some merit, ‘e-Learning 2.0’ will only see limited success in terms of widespread diffusion.” Do you think this is realistic or pessimistic? Do you agree or disagree with him?

ma_moreau (France)

 

Answer: I’m not really sure what e-Learning 2.0 is or indeed if it a useful concept. But if he is referring to the use of social networking and social software applications for learning then I think he is most certainly wrong.

2007 will see increased adoption, experimentation and implementation of all manner of different software applications – most not designed for learning – to enable creativity and sharing. This includes the use of blogs, wikis, e-portfolios and social networking software.

True – the diffusion will probably be limited at institutional level. Institutions have invested a great deal of resource in Virtual Learning Environments. But we increasingly see not only students but teacher as well bypassing institutional systems to experiment with new applications for learning.

 

 

Question: You say “PLEs are not an application”. So, how can we actually set up our own PLE? And you, do you have your own PLE? If yes, could you explain how is it organized?

antonf (Italy)

 

Answer: As Jan Lai says in the question below: “PLEs are more a methodology or an approach to technology enhanced learning than an application.” However they do imply a movement away from seeing e-learning taking place within external spaces – e.g. institutional Virtual Learning Environments – to an understanding of learning taking place in wider contexts – both on and off line – and including the home and work as well as institutional courses. So rather than go to institutionally controlled spaces to record and reflect on learning, the learner will establish and manage their own space. Access to that space and interchanges that take place will be under the control of the learner rather than the institution.

Yes, I do have my own PLE, comprised of a ‘mash up’ of different desktop and web based applications I use for my everyday work and increasingly reliant on local and web based services. It isn’t particularly efficient and it has some pretty big gaps at the moment – but I hope to develop it further over the next year. Central to my PLE is the people I work with and the applications I use for communication with those people.

Question: Hello Graham. I’m involved in company training and in one of your presentations you claimed that social software can be used in workplaces for informal learning. Could you tell about this more in detail? What application you would recommend and how this kind of learning could be integrated to the formal training that the company carries out? Many thanks for your time!

jennyli (Norway)

 

 Answer: There are two approaches to this. One is to use social software attempt to encourage and facilitate informal learning in the workplace. regardless of curricula. The second is to use social software to extend the present formal training. And of course both approaches could be combined. Which approach is adopted does have implications for pedagogy and learning arrangements. If employees are encouraged to take part in informal learning – outside the context of formal programmes – and if the company wishes to recognise or certify that learning – then some form of Accreditation of Prior Learning will be needed.

Anyway, coming back to the software, wikis are being extensively used for collaborative documentation and exchange of ideas. My favourite is MediaWiki. Many companies are introducing social networking software for developing communication and facilitating the formation of Communities of Practice.  ELGG is a great application for this.

Web logs are another applications which can be used for individual to reflect on their learning from everyday experience. Web logs can also be extended to develop an e-portfolio, although this will require some support.

I read somewhere that IBM are encouraging employees to make podcasts and are excited by the wealth of informal knowledge being shared through the podcasts.

Question: Hi Graham, I would like to have your point of view on the effort by Bolton University to create a “all inclusive” PLE software. I have personally a very skeptical position towards the desire to transform an informal approach to e-learning (that’s how I see PLE: a methodology and not a software) into a “platform”. Do you see any future for such kinds of “formalization” of PLE?

Thanks a lot, Jan

Jan Lai (Italy)

 

Answer: Hi Jan, there is always a space for innovative, well thought out experiments in developing new applications. And who knows, PLEX may turn out to be a great tool. I suspect, though, it is more a proof of concept and research tool, than an application designed for mass use. As such I think this is fine, as long as it is seen as an application developed to support the idea of the PLE, rather than a tool which is the PLE.

Question: Dear Prof. Attwell, we are using a PLE (a mash up of ELGG, wiki and social bookmarking) for sharing knowledge inside my organization (a research center).  Do you think that PLE could be considered suitable in every context (schools, universities, workplace) and for all kind of competences? In which way do you think that PLE will affect the learning and training evaluation?

epanto (Italy)

Answer: It is interesting that you say you are using such a mash up for sharing knowledge. I think one of the developments which is inherent in my concept of the Personal Learning Environment is to close the gap between Knowledge Management and learning. It seems a little absurd that such a big gap has been allowed to develop in the first place. But as to your question – could a PLE be considered suitable for every context – I think that the key ideas behind the PLE – of user controlled learning – is suitable for every context. Of course how it is introduced, the form and organisation of the PLE and the amount fo help that learners will require will differ greatly. And yes, I think it is suitable for all kinds of competences. However, once more, we have to recognise that the pedagogic approach and the form of the PLE may well differ according to subject or competence. A PLE could be used very differently for studying history or for learning to become a carpenter. But the principles are the same.

Question: Hi Graham. Today many elearning experts are talking about Immersive Learning Simulations, Rapid Interactivity tools,  Games, learning interactions, etc. How would you relate these with Personal Learning Environment?

sarus (Germany)

 

Answer: In much the same way as I see anything else working as part of a Personal Learning Environment. I don’t really understand why people are getting so excited about the use of games. After all we have always used games in learning – quizzes and competitions are hardly new. true – we are only just beginning to develop the use of on-line games and environments. But that is just because we have been very slow in developing new pedagogic approaches to e-learning. I have said before that I think the introduction of e-learning led to a reverse in pedagogic innovation. We are just getting back on track now. As for immersive environments, I think there is considerable potential. But if I look at much of what is being developed in Second Life, it is not very inspiring. We are in danger of recreating the traditional lecture theatre – the only difference being that our avatar attends instead of us in person. I also worry a little about who is managing these environments and for what purpose. I do not think that MTV, for example, has a great interest in learning. And many of these environments require considerable bandwidth and modern computers with a  fast graphic card. Nevertheless the developments here are definitely worth following.

Question: Dear professor Attwell, I’m involved in the “Personal EU” organisation concept: www.personaleu.eu. How do you see the challenges of the initiative as a step towards an European “dream team” society?

takapiru (Finland)

 

Answer: Hi – I certainly like your ideas around developing intercultural networks and I appreciate the variety of different social software tools that you are using to do it. However, I am not quite sure I understand the idea of the Personal EU.  

I tend to think that knowledge is best shared and developed through communities of practice. Communities of practice as Etienne Wenger says are based on a shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artefacts, vocabulary, styles, etc.) that members have developed over time.

Whilst the EU may style itself as a community it most certainly is not a community of practice. As such I am slightly sceptical about developing the kind of people based portal you appear to envisage. Of course it may be that I have misunderstood your ideas.

For me a dream team society would be one that rather than seeking the highest levels of implementation of information technology sought to eradicate poverty and inequality. But perhaps I am just old fashioned!

waiting for the eportfolio ‘pull’:

As part of the MOSEP e-Portfolio project we have created our own portfolios in ELGG Spaces. As always it is difficult getting people started but there are three of us there now and I hope the other project partners will get involved in the next ten days.

But one of our colleagues, John Pallister, who is an IT teacher at Wolsingham School in Durham has posted a brilliant series posts based on his personal experiences in introducing e-Portfolios in his school.

I am reposting his entry from yesterday in its entirety in the hope it will inspire others of you to go read his blog.

Why are our students prepared to work with their eportfolios? Acknowledging that some students, especially some of the older students, are a little reluctant to develop their eportfolios- the vast majority will work on them with very little ‘push’ from staff. The older students, who are not as ‘interested’ in their eportfolios, are tending to fit into the waiting for the ‘pull’ from the universities and employers category. Of course it is always easier to sit back and wait until the big picture is clear, rather than to do something, but we are dealing with students – we need to sort out the ‘big picture’ and declare the drivers now. – Quite a job! For ??

The creative environment provided by the multimedia authoring packaged has helped to motivate our students. It could be argued that, without evidence of reflection, the eportfolio is simply a creative product. Well, I see every day, evidence that students are proud of the product and want to develop it. We have won the first battle, we have sorted out the software/hardware and have given students a multimedia authoring tool that they want to use. As a by-product, the ICT multimedia skills level in the school has risen significantly.

The majority of my recent posts have focussed on reflection and audience. Historically, although as Gerlinde suggests, reflection is a natural part of what students do, students have not wanted to explicitly reflect. The ‘write about your holidays’ prompt was always a hassle and even ‘writing up science experiments’ and reflecting on whether it proved or disproved the original hypothesis tended to became a mechanical process without a lot of meaning/value for the student. Students tended to develop the set responses that they thought teachers wanted, they regurgitated these responses and thought very little about the process and how the might tackle it in the future/ what they ad learnt etc.

Again, picking up on Gerlinde point about student reluctance to record reflections in a written form, they might have gone through a very useful reflective process, and then not wanted to record their reflections in writing, or, they might have rushed-off some stock written reflections, devaluing the whole process.

Can Technology do it, (help), of course it can. Students might be more prepared to record audio reflections – why should a students reluctance to write, or their poor literacy skills stop them from reflecting, might the microphone liberate the learner?

How, as teachers, we encourage students to reflect and record their reflections is the next challenge, closely followed by how we contrive/provide/engineer ‘audience’ to support the process. I suspect that we need to encourage and link recorded reflections against the evidence of the original learning/activity. A general Blogg would probably be very awkward for the audience. – The calculations, if every learner in the UK created a blogg, who would be doing the reading? Ah – audience again!

waiting for the eportfolio ‘pull’, John Pallister :: Blog, February 19

Are you using ELGG as a portfolio in your school? If so I would be very grateful to hear from you. I am working on a project called MOSEP which is piloting e-Portfolios in six European countries, specifically for the 14 – 18 year old age group and with a  focus on socially disadvantaged learners (whatever that means).

We would very much like some case studies / information on how others are doing it. You an email me on graham10 at mac.com.