E-portfolio in education. Practices and reflections

The main activities of the digiFolio Project include: Building a common knowledge base supported by research work on the theory of portfolio usage; Paper and online publication of the results of the research work; Establishment of the pedagogical model for the training course; Analysis of the existing technological infrastructures for digital portfolio usage; Adjustment of the best tools and training course setup; Piloting and evidencing of the training course; Monitoring of the trainees' work by using a specific online teachers' support structure; International seminar. Website: http://digifolioseminar.org/?The present publication addresses the use of digital portfolios in educational context and it is one of the latest dissemination activities of the Digifolio project – Digital Portfolio as a strategy for teachers’ professional development, a COMENIUS 2.1 project which was carried out between 2005 and 2008. It involved several universities and teacher training institutions from five different European countries. The project, which main focus was the reflection on the potentialities of portfolios and digital technologies in the perspective of teachers’ professional development, came to its end with an international seminar which aimed at disseminating the work produced in the frame of a previous teachers training course, as well as allowing and welcoming the contribution of other education professionals with their practices and reflections on the above-mentioned thematic.Europeen Comissio

Do learning portfolios facilitate lifelong learning in students?

Background: The context of academic learning is changing, providing challenges to support student learning and to strengthen regulatory skills. Previous research on portfolios indicates promising findings for student learning. However, due to the rapid development in this field, with no systematic reviews performed since 2009, this review was considered important. The review is a starting point for a scholarly work aiming to improve student learning in a master’s program. The aim of this study was to explore the role of learning portfolios on students’ professional development and lifelong learning. Method: This literature review used a qualitative explorative approach using narrative overview and content analysis methodology. Results: The overall result showed that E-learning portfolios can be effective in supporting students learning and professional development. However, effectiveness relies on: careful implementation, that portfolios are embedded in the curriculum, ongoing support and training to students. Portfolios need to be well-motivated and easy to use; Perceived educational value, technological issues and problems related to portfolios inhibit motivation and use of portfolios. However, more research of higher quality addressing portfolios actual effect on learning outcomes is needed since the knowledge base is still inadequate e.g. so far focusing more on perceptions and experiences of using portfolios

Quality Assessment for E-learning: a Benchmarking Approach (Third edition)

The primary purpose of this manual is to provide a set of benchmarks, quality criteria and notes for guidance against which e-learning programmes and their support systems may be judged. The manual should therefore be seen primarily as a reference tool for the assessment or review of e-learning programmes and the systems which support them. However, the manual should also prove to be useful to staff in institutions concerned with the design, development, teaching, assessment and support of e-learning programmes. It is hoped that course developers, teachers and other stakeholders will see the manual as a useful development and/or improvement tool for incorporation in their own institutional systems of monitoring, evaluation and enhancement

Teaching and learning in virtual worlds: is it worth the effort?

Educators have been quick to spot the enormous potential afforded by virtual worlds for situated and authentic learning, practising tasks with potentially serious consequences in the real world and for bringing geographically dispersed faculty and students together in the same space (Gee, 2007; Johnson and Levine, 2008). Though this potential has largely been realised, it generally isn’t without cost in terms of lack of institutional buy-in, steep learning curves for all participants, and lack of a sound theoretical framework to support learning activities (Campbell, 2009; Cheal, 2007; Kluge & Riley, 2008). This symposium will explore the affordances and issues associated with teaching and learning in virtual worlds, all the time considering the question: is it worth the effort

Transforming pre-service teacher curriculum: observation through a TPACK lens

This paper will discuss an international online collaborative learning experience through the lens of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. The teacher knowledge required to effectively provide transformative learning experiences for 21st century learners in a digital world is complex, situated and changing. The discussion looks beyond the opportunity for knowledge development of content, pedagogy and technology as components of TPACK towards the interaction between those three components. Implications for practice are also discussed. In today’s technology infused classrooms it is within the realms of teacher educators, practising teaching and pre-service teachers explore and address effective practices using technology to enhance learning

Personalised trails and learner profiling within e-learning environments

This deliverable focuses on personalisation and personalised trails. We begin by introducing and defining the concepts of personalisation and personalised trails. Personalisation requires that a user profile be stored, and so we assess currently available standard profile schemas and discuss the requirements for a profile to support personalised learning. We then review techniques for providing personalisation and some systems that implement these techniques, and discuss some of the issues around evaluating personalisation systems. We look especially at the use of learning and cognitive styles to support personalised learning, and also consider personalisation in the field of mobile learning, which has a slightly different take on the subject, and in commercially available systems, where personalisation support is found to currently be only at quite a low level. We conclude with a summary of the lessons to be learned from our review of personalisation and personalised trails

Investigating how educational technologies can enhance learning experiences by assisting different learning activities

Current educational technology implementations are done independently and not necessarily linked, neither with key elements of the pedagogic model, nor accommodating different learning styles. This work focuses on developing a framework that would standardise the use of assistive technologies in education. In particular, the focus of this work is on how social media, computer-assisted assessment, augmented and mixed reality can be used to improve the learning experience in certain educational contexts. This research study is based on a combination of grounded theory that included a literature review on the following relevant areas, covering key topics that correspond to the dimensions of the proposed framework: i) communication in education; ii) assessment; iii) and feedback. This stage provided a review of the learning activity spectrum that can be affected by educational technologies. The deliverable of this stage was a detailed literature review with distinct links to the action research in the form of specific pilot studies. The following stage provides a discussion on the impact of educational technologies on learning activities. The main deliverable is a review of current technologies with emphasis on how they affect specific learning activities The research also included an element of action research in the form of six pilot studies: i) Google Glass: Student Experience; ii) Google Glass: Presentation Feedback; iii) Google Glass: Feedback on Feedback; iv) Google Glass: Voting System; v) Social Media: Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn; vi) Student Observable Behaviour. The pilots were conducted and analysed in order to provide sufficient evidence supporting the proposed framework guidelines. The framework proposed consists of four dimensions: i) content; ii) communication; iii) assessment; iv) feedback. This framework is a framework of good practice. It can be used to support academics who wishes to deploy educational technologies in support of a range of learning activities. Furthermore, the framework has the flexibility of applying different educational technologies for different scenarios without missing a standardised evaluation criteria