Saturday 31 January 2009

E-portfolios

In our sessions we suggest the use of e-portfolios to keep track of the activities your students do in their blogs. Also, e-portfolios can be used to make them reflect on their very own learning after working on each lesson.
Now after reading this article on e-portfolios, write a post on your thoughts about e-portfolios in language learning. These questions may help you write your post:


  • Do you think an e-portfolio could have any “value added” to your web-based lesson?
  • What are the advantages? Any disadvantage?

9 comments:

  1. Hi, folks, I hope that I am not intruding, but I've been doing a lot of research into e-Portfolios over the last two years. Perhaps some of my efforts may interest you:

    See my blog at:

    www.efoliointheuk.blogspot.com

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  2. I've done the reading on e-portfolios and found the concept very interesting.

    The concept requires a substantial effort on the students part (a good thing) and provides a useful assessment of many student abilities.

    Of the 4 areas (Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing) the e-portfolio could be very helpful in developing reading, writing, and possibly be used to measure a student's listening skills.

    It would also be helpful besides these 4 skills -namely testing a students organizing abilities far more than normal classroom assignments do.

    I suppose it could also be useful to check on a student's listening skills. (Have the student listen to transcripts then write about them.)

    So e-portfolios could cover 3 of the 4 skill areas, although for verbal communication the student will need additional help. Suffice to say, e-portfolios could be a huge asset in student development.

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  3. Hi Ray:

    Thanks for the link about e-folio in the UK. Interesting and useful!

    Teadira

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Hi Steve:

    Great post!You are right! As with f2f portfolios, students need to work a lot and they also provide a window to monitor students´learning.

    Teadira :)

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  6. Hi everyone!
    E-portfolios seem to be a great tool! You have your guidelines, the task and students' works and evaluation all in one place - it's so convenient when you have to present the results of your work and it gives the students a feeling of an artifact they've created. Of course, it will give added value to me blog-based lesson, it will make it complete.I definetely will employ this technology in my practice, outside this course as well. Right now I can see only advantages of e-portfolios: they are a new and challenging task for my students, they are very convenient for me as a teacher, they are very illustrative for my peers and authorities and parents as well.
    As for disadvantages - now I can see only technical ones - like poor internet connection with some of my students, but there definetely will be some pedagogical ones as I start working with the technology - nothing is perfect...

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  7. E-portfolios will be much more effective for me. I have been having students e-mail projects, homework and online tests but now there will be one convenient place for all of their work. No more complaining from parents about not knowing what the assignment is!

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  8. E-portfolios seem to be a great tool for teachers, students and parents. I believe that students will love the fact that they are digital. I'll try to implement them in my lessons.
    I knew about portfolios but I think that these are much better. I've also seen some samples of teacher's portfolios, showing their work when applying for a job. Those are also cool!

    Ma. Laura

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  9. Hello Everyone,
    E-portfolios give teachers and learners the opportunity to show the product of their joint effort in a neat and well-organized way. Either for blog-based or face to face lessons, the fact that their artifacts will be published on the web, give learners the chances of having a wide audience for their work, not only teacher and classmates but also parents, school authorities, other teachers and students, other schools, even from other cities or countries. In my opinion, this fact has a great impact on interest and motivation.
    At the same time, e-portfolios allow teachers to assess group and individual work easily, observe learning processes and show (why not show off) their classes production.
    As regards disadvantages, probably, the access to internet is not easy for a percentage of the population, because of economic reasons, for example; or connection problems. Anyway, this could be solved by group collaborative work.
    I'm eager to implement this tool because I think that it will produce a turning point in my teaching.

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