I have just stumbled on Helen Barrett's blog. Helen is one of the most frequent speakers at e-portfolio conferences across the world. She is committed to the notion that an e-portfolio should be a creative reflection of and owned by an individual and as a result would struggle with the sort of e-portfolio we deliver.
There is currently on her blog yet another debate about the purpose of an e-portfolio. I have left the following entry.
Since I have been involved in developing and working with e-portfolios over the past five plus years I have watched these discussions about what is an e-portfolio with waning interest.
There is nobody who would claim that electronic portfolios are just for assessment. However if there is no possibility that the learner can easily use the content within an e-portfoio for assessment, by which I mean that the learner/individual can use the content to demonstrate their skills and knowledge, then you are inevitably faced with question of So What? It was a question that Serge Ravet grampled with in a memorable paper a few years ago.
Furthermore who is to say that assessment limits creativity. I know of many people who use e-portfolios in a highly creative way even when the end 'product' is to do with assessment.
It is time this tired argument, with its tired and unnecessary semantic nuances is put to bed'
A few years ago I presented a seminar at a conference organised by Eif-l the European Institute of e-Learning where both Serge and Helen were speakers. My paper was a joint presentation with the Royal College of Nursing and was called 'Cake for the Masses' and was designed to show that it was quite possible for one e-portfolio system to be developed to meet multiple requirements.
I used the memorable poem by Roger McGough;
'You wanted one thing
I wanted the other
We couldn't have our cake
So we ate each other.'
In the debates about what an e-portfolio is we are in danger of losing sight of the key debate about what it can do to support learning.
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Chris, Thanks for your comments on Helen's blog. I look forward to further clarification from you about your take on what might be the full potential of eportfolios for assessment. You mention in your post a quote from Serge Ravet. Do you have a specific citation for this? It sounds like a good paper to read for further insight.
ReplyDeleteChris, Thanks for your comment on Helen's blog. I would be interested to read and discuss more about this as I am the person who posted the questions to her about assessment. I agree, the old "either/or" arguments are tired--and don't address the matter effectively.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a citation for the article by Ravet that you mention? I would be interested to read it in context. I found some of his things online following your reference here, and would like to see the specific source that you are referring to.
Thanks! Brian
Hi Brian,
ReplyDeleteApologies for the delay in getting back to you. The reference is as follows www.eife-l.org/publications/eportfolio/documentation/positionpaper
I think this was an important document because in my view what Serge is saying is, that if all an e-portfolio is, is a compendium of documents in whatever format and no matter how imaginatively they are collected then e-portfolios can be easily created using existing software. This is of itself is not a negative statement however if you do want to do soemthing really interesting with the data, like use it for assessment then you are looking for e-portfolios that offer 'more'.