Joise Fraser points to the "frenzy of e-Portfolio related activity in the UK at the moment".

She explains how "The UK Government’s e-strategy, Harnessing Technology outlined a clear commitment to ensuring learners have access to Personal Learning Space (PLS) where they can “store coursework, course resources, results, and achievements…with the potential to support e-portfolios”, available in every school and college by 2007-08", and goes on to say: "It’s proved to be a popular idea – with many institutions engaging in research and investigation, and even becoming early adopters of the currently available e-portfolio products."

'Harnessing Technolog'y is an interesting document - unusually so for an official government publication. However, whilst the policy does promote e-Portfolios, the main thrust is less ambitious.

The major emphasis is on personalisation. So far so good. But it is open to interpretation what is meant by that. My reading is that they mean primarily the ability of teachers to provide individually focused learning materials for learners and the use of intelligent agents (or something like that) to provide individual learning pathways. This falls far short of the more radical idea of Personal Learning environments and, critically, leaves control of learning in the hands of the institutions and teachers.

Still - that such a debate is even happening is good news.

Technorati Tags: e-portfolios, education policy, Persanal Learning Environments