Using+E-Portfolios+for+reflection

Using E-Portfolios for reflection.
Alison's Reflection 31 Dec 2009 As part of learning about e-portfolios I've decided to keep a record of my thoughts, reflections and new understandings about e-portfolios and my own learning journey using technology I've not used before. One of the key things about portfolios that interests me is how they can be employed in the process of active learning, not just as a presentation tool, so using this page as an area to record my reflections on the process of my learning for me has two functions. Firstly to see if reflecting in this way is helpful to my own learning and secondly to see if I can apply this type of technology in secondary classrooms.

I've got some reservations at this stage. I'm putting my raw thoughts online for our class to see. I like to think about what I say before I write and share ideas, so I feel slightly vulnerable thinking aloud in a public forum. I think one of the key points for using this tool is that you need to be disciplined and focussed in the purpose of the reflection. ​ Reflecting on the Technology Challenge

I've been on an incredibly steep learning curve. Prior to this I had never been on a wiki, let alone actually participate in one. I've created my own private page to practise the basics eg embedding videos and photos. I still face a barrier as to why some videos will embed and why some don't.

4 Jan 2010 Have successfully; embedded videos, created headings and copied and pasted text from word to the wiki. I want to learn how to put links within the page to go back to the top of the page. What I am finding difficult is visualising the wiki and arrangement of material. In some ways its like thinking in 3D with lots of connections as opposed to a linear format.

7 Jan 2010 Have created links to other pages....but have experienced major problems with cutting and pasting from word onto the wiki. I had prepared a word document that included tables and diagrams, but when I copied onto the wiki a lot of the text came up in separate boxes that I could not edit. I resolved the problem by creating another document in word, minus any of teh diagrams. The majority of the text transferred without problems but not all. So I had to re-type some text directly onto the wiki. This was incredibly frustrating and time wasting. However, one of the key recommendations for any institutions embarking in the use of e-portfolios is to have adequate IT support for users of the wiki. I am also experiencing problems with fonts and re-sizing text. It seems that some text I've copied from other places onto my word document refuses to be resized when transferred onto the wiki. Again, I just re-type directly onto the wiki page.

I need to learn how to retrieve work that goes missing using the history page.

Some of the readings make note of the technical support that needs to be given to students who are not familiar with technology. Completing this wiki has highlighted how important that is. Some of the readings highlight the disparities existing between students who have good ICT skills having an advantage over those who don't in the context of online learning. Again, having a person who is accessible to learners to troubleshoot problems is really important if we want students to enjoy the process of online learning.

Reflecting on my Understanding of E-Portfolios 4 Jan 2010 When I first started reading about e-portfolios I was sceptical about the 'scrap-book' aspect to which the technology lends itself. However, the more I read, I am heartened to see that educationalists are thinking about how to use e-portfolios to enhance learning. The intereactive aspect of e-portfolios has incredible potential. Helen Barrett, in par ticular writes about reflection being the heart and soul of portfolios and that without reflection an e-portfolio is just a digital scrapbook, a fancy electronic resume, a multimedia presentation...... She also has interesting ideas about how to structure reflection into how we use e-portfolios; eg reflecting on artifacts immediately, reflecting more summatively, having synthesised ideas and then reflecting for future goal setting and planning. .

7 Jan 2010 Re: E-Portfolios and learning. Basically the use of e-portfolios mirrors current best practice and beliefs about learning theory and pedagogy. It is how the tool is used to support learning that is critical. My diagram

I really like this quote used by Paris and Ayres (1994) **"There can be no significant innovation in education that does not have at its centre the attitudes of teachers and it is an illusion to think otherwise."** Postman and Weingartner. Teaching as a Subversive Activity

Regarding using e-portfolios as a tool for active learning. Readings make reference to the structure and design of courses. Thinking about my own classes I think e-portfolios can be introduced slowly. Teachers will need to be motivated to find new online resources and spend time compiling them and establishing a system that all learners can use and share. I think it will be ESSENTIAL to have the skill to retrieve information that goes missing.

Yang's Reflection

27th Dec 2009 I was trying to transfer my page design into wiki page. But after trying so many times, I still could find the way to embed HTML into a wiki page. It does support some simple HTML, but when the HTML code gets more complex, the page messed up. The page design view does not seem to accept multiple white space so I have to find other ways to work around it. From my learning experience of wikispace, I have to say that it is not as flexible as I thought. Good thing is that wikispace does support table well. I could easily copy a table from MSWord and paste it into wikispace and it works really well.

3rd Jan 2010 Just found out that video option in embed widgets only support some major video sharing websites such as youtube, google video and teachertube. If anyone wants to add a video onto a page by using provided HTML code, try other HTML option instead of video option in the embed widgets. I hope this helps.

4th Jan 2010 It has been a very interesting research on the development of e-portfolio systems. In particular, I came across two different approaches of e-portfolio systems: the traditional approach (institutional ownership) and the new approach (individual ownership). It is interesting to know the history and educational philosophy behind these two approaches. It seems like in New Zealand, the open source e-portfolio project Mahara is following the new approach. Personally, I do feel that the new approach might be a better way to go in order to support life-long learning. I would be very interested to see how Mahara might be adopted into New Zealand education system to support students’ educational development and life-long learning.

5th Jan 2010 In the past few weeks, I have been collaboratively working on this learning activity with Alison while travelling. I have visited Japan and now in China before heading back to New Zealand on the 8th of January. Both travel and collaborative learning are great learning experiences for me and I enjoy so much. I have been thinking about cultural difference in the use of educational technologies since my last project from another paper. It is very interesting to experience Japanese education, Chinese education and New Zealand education. Getting to know and feel how culture shapes value, way of thinking and educational philosophy.

Without a doubt Japan is a high tech country, I’d love to do some research on roles of technologies in classrooms of Japanese schools. Furthermore, I have experienced a very different way of use of technology in China. The Chinese government has implemented internet filter to restrict access from mainland China to some major social websites such as youtube, facebook and blogger. For whatever political or economical reasons, this action set a barrier for Chinese citizens to share knowledge with and learn from a global community. This experience made me think that in distance and Online education, to successfully adopt an educational technology, learners’ availability and accessibility to such technology should be considered at the first place.

The movie Avatar is a hot topic right now and many friends of mine are impressed by the technologies used in the movie production. If technology could help film makers to make something wondering like the Avatar, what about educational technology and education?