Electronic portfolios as facilitators of lifelong learning Insights into interoperability, legal and social inclusion issues Simon Grant, Andrew Charlesworth and Anna Home EDEN 2005 Annual Conference, 20.-23.6.2005, Helsinki, Finland

Portfolio origins Artists’ and writers’ portfolios of works Trainee teachers’ collections of evidence Assessment by portfolio Presentation of portfolios to demonstrate competence or quality

Personal Development Planning UK working definition: “a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their learning, performance, and/or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development” Closely allied to professional development

Records for PDP and reflection Records aid reflection Records can be made of reflection Can be a lifelong learning process Clear opportunity to integrate reflection with portfolios Goal of the “reflective learner” who manages their own learning

Portfolio definitions (in education, personal and professional development) What makes up a portfolio? (portfolio item) What, then, is a portfolio itself? What is an e-portfolio system or service? What is an e-portfolio repository? (not intended to cover finance, for which “portfolio” has its own meaning and significance)

A portfolio item is any one of a unit of information structured so that it can be integrated as part of a portfolio a unit of information that enables a related object to be integrated as part of a portfolio an object relating to the focal person

Any portfolio item must be related to the person at the focus of that portfolio must be valued by the person it relates to that person must have relevant rights over it to read; mostly to publish; often to edit An e-portfolio item is one that is held electronically

A portfolio (or e-portfolio) is a particular composition of integrated portfolio items, with a deliberately defined audience and rhetorical purpose An e-portfolio is one that is held and presented electronically, comprising e‑portfolio items

An e-portfolio system or service uses information and communication technologies to give people an appropriate range of capabilities, which may be to record, construct, compose, store, retrieve, view, edit, or manage e‑portfolio items, and to present them to or share them with others, whether as e‑portfolios or otherwise

E-portfolio contexts and uses Assessment (e.g. of competency) Presentation (e.g. of evidence) Structured learning and reflection Personal and professional development is wider: could integrate with other three

Interoperability If e-portfolio systems are to be used for lifelong learning, they should interoperate Several specifications have been suggested How can an e-portfolio system be built or made to be interoperable? Further discussion of definitions Europass, systems architecture, competences

Legal E-portfolios may hold personal information proprietary information An e-portfolio system will raise issues relating to ownership of code and design What legal issues should be considered when planning to build, adopt or use e‑portfolio systems?

Social inclusion Use of e‑portfolio requires specific skills and aptitudes that all citizens do not possess Risk: E-portfolio increases social exclusion Opportunity: Harnessing e‑portfolio in digital and social skills development What might constitute a “developmental” e‑portfolio application?