DITeLearning/ePortfolio

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ePortfolio
An eportfolio is a learner-created collection of digital items: ideas, evidence, reflections, feedback, which presents a selected audience with evidence of a person's learning and/or ability. eportfolio based learning is the process of planning, compiling, sharing, discussing, reflecting, giving and receiving feedback.

Building a eportfolio throughout a course requires self-evaluation of the work that each individual is undertaking. Eportfolios have long been a key method for presenting what a student has learnt and it is a complex product with many different components. Constructing portfolios takes time, effort and commitment to the task. It contains evidence of a student’s work over time and may include accomplishments, a history of a person’s development, an outline of a person’s philosophy of teaching and critiques of one’s work by oneself and others.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this chapter the learner will be able to:
 * 1) Understand what the importance to build an eportfolio.
 * 2) Understand what the main characteristics of an portfolio.
 * 3) Understand which the main contents that an eportfolio have to have.
 * 4) Understand what kind of eportfolios can exist.



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Learning through Reflection
Fitzmaurice (2008) reflects that:


 * "In constructing a portfolio the student becomes more self-aware and more articulate about learning and his or own growth process. In the past decade with the growth of technology and computers in the classroom, there has been a growth in the use of electronic portfolios. The benefits of these portfolios are many as work can be stored digitally allowing students to edit, cut, paste and play back what they have entered. Electronic portfolios are a basis for students’ discussion of their own progress and a record of their reflections on what they have learnt. The creative activity of constructing a portfolio rests with the learner but in many cases there are required elements or components." 

The word reflection occurs a number of times and reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate it (Boud, Keogh & Walker, 1985). Reflection on practice is an essential component of any portfolio process and requires that the learner practice in-depth reflection and then writes a reflective account. Let us focus firstly on practising in-depth reflection using a model outlined by Gibbs.

This page will discuss the ePortfolio tool, and our web page will also be used to support this discussion.

We learn by experiences that allow us to (Wertenbroch & Nabeth, 2000):


 * 1) Absorb (read, hear, feel)
 * 2) Do (activity)
 * 3) Interact (socialize)

In addition, we also learn by reflecting on such experiences (Dewey 1933). Reflection is thinking for an extended period by linking recent experiences to earlier ones in order to promote a more complex and interrelated mental schema. The thinking involves looking for commonalities, differences, and interrelations beyond their superficial elements. The goal is to develop higher order thinking skills.

Many educators consider Dewey (1933) the modern day originator of the concept of reflection, although he drew on the ideas of earlier educators, such as Aristotle, Plato, and Confucius. He thought of reflection as a form of problem solving that chained several ideas together by linking each idea with its predecessor in order to resolve an issue.

Essentials of Reflection
Hatton & Smith (1995) identified four essential issues concerning reflection:


 * 1) We should learn to frame and reframe complex or ambiguous problems, test out various interpretations, and then modify our actions consequently.
 * 2) Our thoughts should be extended and systematic by looking back upon our actions some time after they have taken place.
 * 3) Certain activities labelled as reflective, such as the use of journals or group discussions following practical experiences, are often not directed towards the solution of specific problems.
 * 4) We should consciously account for the wider historic, cultural, and political values or beliefs in framing practical problems to arrive at a solution. This is often identified as critical reflection . However, the term critical reflection, like reflection itself, appears to be used loosely, some taking it to mean no more than constructive self-criticism of one's actions with a view to improvement.

Encouraging Reflection
Most educators believe that "reflection is useful in the learning process, even without the supporting research data." However, it is often difficult to encourage reflection among the learners. Gustafson & Bennett (1999) found that promoting reflection among military cadets by means of written responses in "diaries" was difficult. Cadets across three different years generally did not produce responses indicating any deep reflection. Although the results were disappointing, they are consistent with the research literature on promoting reflection that generally indicates it is difficult to accomplish (Stamper, 1996).

In their work, Gustafson and Bennett identified eleven variables that affected the cadets' lack of reflective behaviour. These eleven variables are grouped into three main characteristics:


 * 1) Learner
 * 2) Environmental
 * 3) Reflection Task

Gibbs Reflective Cycle

 * Context
 * Describe what has happened.
 * Write a description of the event/happening.
 * Explain who was involved, what you were trying to achieve, what happened.
 * Thoughts
 * What were you thinking at the time (Important to journal your thoughts at the time)
 * What were you thinking afterwards?
 * Feelings
 * What were your feelings or emotions at the time?
 * Were you feeling positive or were you experiencing negative feelings?
 * How did you feel about things afterwards?
 * Evaluation
 * How did things go?
 * Did they go well or were there problems and if there were, were you able to resolve them?
 * Analyse
 * Try to identify the factors that affected the outcome?
 * What helped and what proves a hindrance?
 * Can you make sense of why certain things happened?
 * What were you trying to achieve?
 * Can you make sense of this experience in the light of past experiences and future practices?
 * Reframe
 * What might you have done differently?
 * What other choices did I have?
 * Could you have adopted an alternative strategy or approach?Could you dome something to lessen the possibility of negative events?
 * Future Action
 * What will you do in this kind of situation in the future?
 * How do you feel about this experience now?
 * What have you learnt?