EIfEL are delighted to be launching this forum. The Institute founded the European Consortium for the ePortfolio and is spearheading an international campaign: Objective 2010 – ePortfolio for All. The aim is to make the ePortfolio the tool of choice for 21st century knowledge workers and citizens to valorise individual achievements, support renewed approaches to quality assurance of education and training policies and support lifelong and lifewide learning policies. As Anne Gilleran of European Schoolnet observed: “In a digital world, citizens must be able to present themselves digitally”.

So what is an ePortfolio? You may have come across a number of definitions of the ePortfolio, differing in their emphasis and scope.

We find two definitions particularly relevant: 1) “a collection of authentic and diverse evidence, drawn from a larger archive, representing what a person or organization has learned over time, on which the person or organization has reflected, and designed for presentation to one or more audiences for a particular rhetorical purpose” (NLII, 2003). 2) Ubiquitous, portable, electronic knowledge databases that are private, personalised and sharable, and are easily accessible via the web.” ( Stanford University Learning Lab)

Over the next few weeks we shall be looking at how the ePortfolio is being used, the impact it has had on learning and development and the future of the ePortfolio. First, we would like to hear your ideas about what ePortfolios are and their importance.

I haven't used portfolios much and I have an impression that it is an extension of CV. that is, a longer and larger version of your work experience, studies, skills, etc. In this sence a personal portfolio surely can help to register person's training and professional history.

What I'm uncertain of is if these new models of portfolios can help to register tacit knowledge which is result of informal learning. Are there examples on this kind of use of portfolios?

Hello to everybody....well in relation to the e-Portfolio, I do not know very much about it, but I feel it will be a challenge in the next future. With the continuous digitalisation process and technological process that is touching our society, the e-Portfolio will become a natural consequence of things...I also think that it will be something more than a simple CV, something that may give the chance also to store our "digitilised works"?....what I am instead wandering about is the "criteria and phylosophy" that will stay behind the e-Portfolio....it should add something new otherwise, I am not sure about the worth of introducing it in education and learning...
Just few small thoughts...bye for now!
Lucilla

I an a teacher of English in Málaga, Spain. I have been trying to implement the use of the portfolio among my students, but I haven't heard much about the eportfolio. I would really like to know more, since I feel that the "traditional" portfolio is another load of paper (in an era of digitalization is a little bit odd, isn't it?).

Hello to all and thanks for these questions. We could write pages in response, but I think it would be most helpful to make some brief points and then direct you to further sources of information. While it is true that ePortfolio can serve as a CV, its possibilities go way beyond this. As well as job-seeking, for example, it can be used for personal and professional development, to ‘showcase’ achievement, for assessment (validation and formal accreditation) and for social networking.

A key feature of the ePortfolio is reflection: the activity of analysing and owning lessons learned from experience. Reflection is what distinguishes deep from superficial learning and this learning can come from formal, non-formal and informal sources. It needs to be said that the paper portfolio, which has a long tradition in some countries, is also used for development and assessment. It can be used for such activities as collecting and selecting (e.g. evidence of competence), reflecting, projecting (demonstrating achievement) and celebrating achievement. The ‘e’ adds other dimensions to the paper portfolio.

The power of technology allows rapid archiving and a range of tools to present the owner’s work in different formats. It allows links to be made, which also promotes thinking. ePortfolios also critically encourage collaborating as ePortfolio owners may share information and reflections. And finally the ePortfolio makes it possible to publish on a small or large scale. Moreover, while most of the emphasis is on individual portfolios, we feel that in the future we shall see more organisational and community portfolios, which present the assets of their members. As far as the value of introducing the ePortfolio in education in learning is concerned, we find countries (the UK, France, Austria, the Netherlands…..) that have made a commitment to their use. Examples of the use of ePortfolios in initial and postgraduate education are to be found in many other European countries. Their use in training is less widespread and this is the next challenge as there will be many ePortfolio owners entering employment and wishing to continue using them as a lifelong learning tool.

There is a great deal of information available about the ePortfolio but a good starting point is the website of Helen Barrett:www.electronicportfolios.com.... The EIfEL website –www.eife-l.org... – contains further information, including presentations from our ePortfolio conferences, which give an idea of the breadth and depth of use. I shall provide further information this week – including references to European projects that have focused on the ePortfolio. We hope this helps and look forward to further contributions.

As promised here are further sources of information about the ePortfolio. There is an increasing number of EC-financed projects that have included ePortfolio elements.

EIfEL co-ordinated two of these – EPICC (http://www.epiccproject.info/...) concerned with interoperability of learning systems and Key-Pal (http://www.eife-l.org/activiti...), which produced ePortfolio methodologies and tools to help disadvantaged youth. These activities are being continued in our ongoing work on interoperability and in the Key-Pal partners’ current work.

Another project, Osmosys (http://zope.reu.pub.ro/osmosys...), developed ePortfolio tools for adult learning centres. We are currently involved in the MOSEP project (http://mosep.elggspaces.com/_w...), whose aim is explore the use of the ePortfolio for disaffected school students in the 14-16 age-group.

We recommend a very interesting blog on the MOSEP website that covers many of the key issues relating to ePortfolio use. Finally, EIfEL has produced a position paper on ePortfolio technology and we welcome responses. We are as committed to the ‘ePortfolio for all’ campaign as we were when we launched it in 2003 and have been very pleased to see worldwide developments since then.

What do you think about the idea of an ePortfolio being available to all?

Please can you explain to me the difference between non-formal and informal sources.

ePortfolios in itself does not contain the word 'learning' and we can only assume so on these pages is to apply to learning. That phrase in the context of education consists of these key phrases:
-- E-learning
-- PLE (Personal Learning Environment)
-- LMS (Learning Management System)
-- Web 2.0

For example, visit my LMS, BookLive:www.e92.hr..., Moj razred, Email: gost2, Zaporka: gost2

So you've found the e-classroom & Library in which you have content, assignments, tests. Since access through Browsers, means that you can access content from any place. That is mobile content.

Same as in yours working room, that content can be used in the classroom, in formal education, at a conference, on the trip etc. The material is organized, reviewed, mobile, unlike the folders and files on your local hard disk.