Mahara 09 Conference

I’ve been debating as to whether I should put the content of this posting here. This blogspot was created specifically for the Classroom Technologies Project but I think for now, I will keep all the eLearning posts in one place and if it becomes too much move my postings around.

What is an eportfolio? Click on the link for some more information.

Mahara? Well Mahara is an open source eportfolio tool that integrates with Moodle which is the new VLE we are looking at implementing. Once we have moved to Moodle it will be bye bye to the WebCT portfolio tool which I must admit is not the best of eportfolio tool out there.

The Mahara 09 conference was an opportunity to meet professionals from both FE and HE institutions and see how they have been implementing eportfolios and also find out more about Mahara and eporfolios in general. The session started with a presentation from Lisa Gray. She highlighted the various reasons for using them, employability, PDP requirement, assessment etc. One statement she made that got me thinking was when she said that it had the potential to transform the process of learning. I am hoping that some comments from those reading this blog will open up a discussion on this. The process of reflection is very useful to me though doing it is another story. I learn best when I reflect and get the opportunity to gather my thoughts. I think a structured/guided approach to reflecting would help any learner immensely. Activities that keep the learner engaged and interested and are meaningful would be a start and in fact the learner might not even know they are reflecting. Being able to keep evidence of my professional development in 1 place i think is so useful and no my USB stick would not suffice.....

Another statement made by Lisa during her presentation which got me thinking was when she was highlighting the various definitions of what an eportfolio is. The jury is definitely still out on this “The problem is that portfolio is a learning approach and not a technology." This is a statement taken from a publication by Trent Batson and the full document can be found here . We have so many different eportfolio systems out there, all to an extent providing the same tools. Have we been paying too much attention to the tool rather than the process? Getting all excited about the different eportfolio tools out there but not giving any guidance on how to effectively build, develop and transform the learning process? The whole process of what to present, how to reflect, how to engage and do something meaningful with the portfolio is what matters. Yes?????

Case studies on how eportfolios have been used can be found via the Jisc Info kit http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/case-studies/e-portfolios

Other than Lisa’s session I attended a couple of other workshops that were quite useful. I wont go into all the details they raised a few questions

Things to think about when implementing an eportfolio?

• Well make sure that you embed it into the curriculum to make it meaningful and purposeful. Don’t just tell students here is your eportfolio and I want this and this in it by the end of term.
• Think about what benefits there will be for the whole group.
• Provide some structure. The whole process of reflection is very hard.
• How about creating an eportfolio yourself ( I’m going to start on mine :-))

A presentation was done on Mahara and inter-operatability. Leap2A was a used to refer to a standard being developed that would allow users of different eportfolio systems to zip their files and move them to a different platform if need be. More information on this can be found here

A few things about Mahara that I need to look further into:

• creating templates (Can any user create a template and how is this shared?)
• Different user levels
• Portability and interoperability
• Enrolment on Mahara and Moodle - single sign on?
• What about a different name for the eportfolio rather than eportfolio. Call it something that makes it personal to the student???