1. 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, , Helsinki, Finland

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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)

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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?

13. 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?