The 'E' Portfolio: 'E' for Excellence

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After spending much time creating my own e-portfolio I can certainly see the benefit for myself but I was still a little lost as to how I could use it in the classroom as my students are in Primary school and will not be needing to develop a resume anytime soon. Yes, I admit to being THIS naive about the true meaning and potential of an e-portfolio but in my defense I had not at that point connected that a digital portfolio and an e-portfolio were one and the same.

Thank goodness I didn't spend too long stumbling around in the dark though before the reality dawned on me. This was the creature that up until now I had thought of purely in assessment terms. (In truth that is all I have ever seen them used for until now.) Engaging digital records of achievement and in some upper primary classes I have actually seen the students contributing to this digital record by creating a clip of their works and achievements throughout the year. I envision that in the not to distant future students will be contributing to their digital portfolios more and more and that its use as an formative assessment tool will expand until every parent and future teacher will be able to access the children's portfolio and examine their progress from prep onwards. This enhances student ownership of their learning and connects school experiences with real life by requiring demonstrations of accomplishments (Brady and Kennedy, 2009).

Digital portfolios can use such technologies such as cd's, dvd's and the world wide web. This allows students to accumulate items in many different formats such as video, voice recording, online tools and more (Brady and Kennedy, 2009). E' portfolios can help create discussion between teachers, students and parents about where the students is at and the progress they are making (Brady and Kennedy, 2009).

Accordingly, e-portfolios also offer specific benefits associated with their development and use in a classroom:
-They increase learning effectiveness.
-Improve information technology skills.
-Enable accreditation beyond the classroom environment.
-Enable connections among formal and informal learning experiences.
-Enable an archive of ones artefacts and reflections.
-Enable the efficient management of students work.
-Increase transparency. (Curyer, Leeson, Mason & Williams, 2007, p.3)

In the classroom, e-portfolios could be used to answer two important questions for teachers. Learning management questions 7 & 8. How will I check to see the learner has arrived and how will I inform the learner and others about the learners progress (Smith & Lynch, 2006).
Presently in the State school system Prep is the only grade that have portfolios as their prescribed, take home assessment piece. The Early Years Curriculum Guidelines (Queensland Studies Authority, 2006) suggest that the portfolio should be co-constructed by all involved parties and that it is a dynamic record of examples showing a child's learning and development.

The EYCG (QSA, 2006) suggests a portfolio might contain notes of conversations with children and other involved parties, anecdotal records, checklists personal to the individual students with personal commenting attached, as well as images, recordings, objects and artifacts the students has made.

References

Brady, L. & Kennedy, K. (2009) Celebrating student achievement: Assessment and reporting. (3rd edition) Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.

Curyer, S., Leeson, J., Mason, J. & Williams, A. (2007) Developing e-portfolios for VET: Policy Issues and interoperablility. Retrieved December 1st, 2009, from
http://e-standards.flexiblelearning.net.au/docs/vet-eportfolio-report-v1-0.pdf

Queensland Studies Authority. (2009) Early Years Curriculum Guidelines. Springhill, Qld.: Queenland Studies Authority. In. Queensland Studies Authority. (2009) P-12 Assessment policy. Brisbane, Qld.: Author. Retrieved December 1st, 2009, from
http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/learning/981.html

Smith, R. & Lynch, D. (2006) The rise of the learning manger: Changing teacher education. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.