The Wales-Wide Web

Oh dear - the overwork is getting in the way of writing on the blog - sad - its much more fun.

Everyone suddenly wants to talk portfolios. Last week I was even asked by a group of students in Germany if I would do a seminar for them on the subject. today I have been asked if I can talk to a group of Italian exchange students on portfolios.

Now why so much interest? It's partly driven by student interest I think. A new generation of net savvy students are growing up and they want to use the web. Portfolio's are natural to them.

It's partly because of an increased interest on personal learning - as the use of the internet and the growing importance of work based learning break down the monopoly of educational institutions on learning.

My big frustration is that portfolios are still being seen as something for learners within the formal system. In Europe at least, it is partly due to pressures at a political level for increased mobility and transparency of qualifications. Interestingly, portfolios are also being seen in a European context as a way of expressing previous learning - particularly for socially disadvantaged young people or for those with low previous qualifications.

And of course it's partly due to the ongoing pressure for lifelong learning. Portfolios are seen as a way of recording on-going learning achievement.

That are many reasons to be hopeful that portfolios will work.

There are also a lot of reasons why they may not. My big frustration is that portfolios are still being seen as something for learners within the formal system. As always happens with any innovation, e- portfolio development has taken place in the context of existing paradigms of education and training. This means development has been dominated by universities and worse dominated by the assessment goals of higher education institutions. Put quite simply portfolios have been seen as yet another form of recording and assessing student achievement. What's wrong with this approach?

Firstly the assessment process is owned by the system and by the institutions. This means learners do not own their portfolio. Secondly institutional provision of portfolios has tended to militate against portability. When learners leave an institution the portfolio stays with that organisations - they do not own it - neither can they take it with them.

More problematically the range of achievement and learning reflected in the portfolio is constrained by curricula and course objectives. The only valid portfolio entries are those that support attainment of externally imposed objectives. Learners do not own their learning.

I think we need to look at the different activities in developing a portfolio.

I see them as follows:

• Identifying learning and achievement
• Reflecting on learning and achievement
• Recording learning and achievement
• Validating learning and achievement
• Presenting learning and achievement

Assessing plays no part in this. Assessment may take place against a presentation but it is not part of the portfolio process. The greater the restraint placed against learner recording and reflection - eg. reflect on how far you have achieved these competence - the less use the portfolio is in terms of learning.

...many existing portfolio applications place intolerable restraints on what is seen as valid learning Validating is not the same thing as assessing. Validation is the process of displaying evidence to back up reflected learning. Of course such evidence may help in the assessment process but that is something different.

There are great ideas and e-portfolio applciations being produced - mostly based on bloggs and social software. (see for instance the very impressive ELGG). there is also some pretty dire stuff (I won't name it - its not hard to find). What's wrong with many existing applciations? I've already talked about the ownership issue. More than that many existing portfolio applications place intolerable restraints on what is seen as valid learning. Most existing applciations conflate the different processes I described above or focus on only one or tow of those processes - usually recording, presenting and assessing. There has been little coniseration of how to support reflection. This is critical if portfolios are to move form beyond the priveledged university sector to become worthwhile for all learners.

Ok - I've run out of time. But more tomorrow...