Further+Ideas+E-Portfolios+Support+Learning

This information comes form McCombs and Vakili (2005) A Learner - Centred Framework for E-Learning Go to Useful References Page

**Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors**  Design learning supports relevant to online activities, because learning processes and strategies that learners have developed over time may not work in an online learning environment (Hardy & Boaz, 1997).  Create nonlinear and individualized linkages to existing and new information (Jonassen, 1996; Thorsen, 1998).  Provide access to real-time data and experts in fields of study (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999; McKinnon & Nolan, 1999) and to realworld tasks such as virtual simulations, real-time data, creating media clips, and student-created Web pages (Bransford et al., 1999; Goodyear & Steeples, 1999).  Provide ways to make unobservable learning (e.g., strategic thinking) available for reflection as well as online supports, allocations of time, and multiple passes through electronic conferences that can support metacognition and reflection on the learning process (Palloff & Pratt, 1999; Vakili, 2001).  Develop digital literacy and strategic thinking through searching, questioning, and discovering appropriate sources and uses of electronic information and a variety of resources (Bates, 1997; Gilster, 1997).  Focus on inquiry and problem-based learning supports (e.g., spreadsheets, science probeware, databases) to developing problem solving skills (Jonassen, Prevish, Christy, & Stavrulaki, 1999).  Provide ways for student to elaborate on and organize information (Thorsen, 1998) and allow for analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of learning (Phipps & Merisotis, 2000).  Actively involve students in discussing problems, participating in projects, and responding to activities (Egan & Gibb, 1997).  Convey difficult concepts with video conferencing and audio-graphics software in a constructivist approach (Harmon & Dorman, 1998).  Support collaboration (e.g., with computer conferencing, chats, Use- Net groups, multiple-user dimensions [MUDs], MUDs object-oriented [MOOs]) as an essential way for learners to construct their own knowledge, dialog and share with others, and contribute to a group (Jonassen, 2000; Jonassen et al., 1999). Motivational and Affective Factors  Avoid the assumption that online learners are those who prefer less personal contact with instructors, are independent learners, have high motivation to learn, are self-disciplined, and have high personal selfefficacy; this assumption is not warranted for a growing number of students (Wagner & McCombs, 1995).  Provide technical support such as needs assessment, prerequisites, 800 numbers, e-mail, peer networks, real-time chats, instant messenger software, and online tutorials (Phipps & Merisotis, 2000; Vakili, 2001).  Support exploration of meaning in a context where learner feels accepted, safe, challenged but not threatened, and encouraged to take risks (Combs, 1976).  Use Socratic questioning to probe learning that occurs, as well as ongoing feedback and guided practice that helps learners become selfdirected and motivated (Vakili, 2001).  Provide opportunities for personal control and choice in areas such as types of learning activities, criteria for evaluating learning progress and outcomes, and specific technologies to use for learning activities (Christensen, Anakwe, & Kessler, 2001; Harper, 2002; McCombs, 2001b).  Provide interactivity that is directly related to student perceptions about quality of the learning experience (Wagner, 1997).  Encourage motivation through opportunities for role taking, debate, and outside mentoring (Bonk & Dennen, 1999).  Allow students to create electronic portfolios and other authentic assessments such as student self-evaluations and rubrics that define online participation (Palloff & Pratt, 1999).  Incorporate initial and ongoing needs assessments that provide choice of activities and create optimally challenging environments; let learners make choices and see results in a simulated environment (Bransford et al., 1999; Egan & Gibb, 1997).  Provide ways for students to globally assess and evaluate class discussions and share feedback with peers and instructor, increasing motivation with work displayed (Bonk & Dennen, 1999).

**Developmental and Social Factors**  Structure opportunities for personal contact and develop communicative and social online activities to foster community and assist students in reducing feelings of isolation (Barab, Makinster, Moore, Cunningham, & IFL Design Team, 2001; Haythornwaite, Kazmer, Robins, & Shoemaker, 2000).  Provide ways for students to partner with teachers to teach them about technology, such as encouraging two-way communication and feedback relative to course expectations between students and teachers (Phipps & Merisotis, 2000; Sherry & Wilson, 1997).  Create hyperlinks to resources and discussions to aid in scaffolding learning and helping learners to reach the next level of development (Vakili, 2001).  Provide online facilitators to structure online communication, develop community, and provide social cues to encourage social interactions, create trust, and generate a sense of community (Mather, 2000; Vakili, 1996).  Create electronic spaces dedicated to social interaction, such as a student union, an electronic yearbook, and an electronic coffeehouse for social messaging (Haythornwaite et al., 2000), and view the use of technologies as critical to the learning process and ensure that the use facilitates interactivity (Christensen et al., 2001).  Use online games as a way to build teams, lower fear, encourage collaboration, and allow for interaction with the technical interface of a course (Vakili, 2001).  Allow students a role in creating the learning environment and the social norms for the learning community, including assisting in the online team building and ice-breaking activities (Ko & Rossen, 2001).  Allow learners to assume new or untraditional roles, with new role playing and simulation opportunities for conversation and learning (Bransford et al., 1999).  Utilize video and audio conferencing technologies for one-on-one and group dialogue (Barab et al., 2001), with opportunities for learners to redefine community with the removal of social and visual cues, a focus on message conveyed, and learning activities that allow students to develop electronic personalities via role playing or simulations (Palloff & Pratt, 1999). **Individual-Differences Factors**  Determine entry-level characteristics, behaviors, and skills in preassessments (Wagner & McCombs, 1995).  Provide multiple ways of displaying materials electronically, such as lists of lesson objectives for concrete-sequential learners and semantic maps for graphically representing the same information for other types of learners (Cyrs, 1997).  Create multiple pathways through text, graphics, audio, video, or animation that allows more learners to take advantage of the nonlinear and individualized learning features of online environments (Mather, 2000; Thorsen, 1998)  Allow multiple means for expression to build a diverse and inclusive learning community that supports global learning and cultures of learning (Barab et al., 2001).  Use strategies for individualizing learning such as nonlinear branching, multiple media, negotiated time schedules, and different learning structures (Jonassen, 1996; Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2000).  Use a variety of technologies such as multimedia and streaming technologies to appeal to different learning styles and meet the needs of students with disabilities (Black, 2001; Mather, 2000).  Allow up to 50% of the course to be online discussion, with online rubrics that evaluate the quality and quantity of contributions, timeliness, and significance of contribution to overall discussion (Ko & Rossen, 2001).  Provide ways for assignments to be graded electronically via a variety of assessments and have electronic feedback and grades available to students (Palloff & Pratt, 1999). Furthermore, in keeping with these specific implications, the characteristics of a developmentally appropriate framework to support ongoing, lifelong learning will:  Move from more structured to less structured supports and protocols for interacting as learners gain in experience and sophistication.  Provide various levels of learner choice and control to match the needs, experience, and interests of different types of learners, young and old.  Enlist various levels of mentoring and guidance as well as limits to the boundaries of the learning community based on learner needs, experience, and interests.  Provide various levels of direction and structure for academically related inquiries that match the interests, experiences, and skill levels of learners.  Allow for a range of individual and group approaches and topics that are matched with both required academic standards and individual needs, interests, and skill levels.  Support an ongoing process of learning and change, allowing for exploration and various levels of learning depending on interests, experiences, and skill levels.  Provide opportunities for intergenerational learning around topics of interest and relevance across the age span. An important property in these implications is the degree to which they converge with the more general implications in the previous section.

In summary, the overriding framework to guide the development of e-learning communities and cultures for all learners is one that (a) recognizes the holistic nature of learning as involving the four domains identified in the learner-centered principles; (b) provides strategies that align the characteristics of technology with learner needs in a nonlinear and dynamic learning process; (c) facilitates the forming of relationships and communities of learners that support the notion of learning as a partnership among all learners; and (d) acknowledges that the roles of teacher and student dynamically change as different levels of expertise are acquired.

CONCLUDING COMMENTS The key issues in using educational technology to support learner-centered principles and practices are:  Building ways to meet learner needs for interpersonal relationships and connections.  Finding strategies that acknowledge individual differences and the diversity of learner needs, abilities, and interests.  Tailoring strategies to differing learner needs for personal control and choice.  Assessing the efficacy of technology to meet diverse and emerging individual learner and learning community needs.