C-Level View | Feature
E-Portfolios: Looking Back to Chart the Future
Can a look at our thinking about e-portfolios from a decade ago tell us where this technology is going today?
E-portfolio technology has often been labeled as "ready before its time." In truth, e-portfolios have not fulfilled--yet--the potential that their most fervent supporters see in the technology. A group of e-portfolio experts and campus IT leaders now has plans to hit the "reflect button by coming" together to review e-portfolio discussions in which they took part a decade ago. By doing so, they hope to get a clearer perspective on e-portfolio trends over time, to better map changing market needs to technology, and ultimately help shape the future of e-portfolios. Campus Technology asked John Ittelson, professor emeritus at California State University, Monterey Bay, about plans to reconvene members of a 2002 Ready2Net event that explored key e-portfolio directions.
Why are you bringing together members of the e-portfolio community to review their thinking from a decade ago?
Video courtesy of California State University, Monterey Bay |
"Reflection is a key part of folio thinking, so it seems only appropriate that, 10 years after the Ready2Net broadcast on teaching, learning, and assessment with e-portfolios, we take time to reflect on e-portfolio practices."
Do you think e-portfolio leaders will be ready to join this retrospective, reflective effort?
Video courtesy of California State University, Monterey Bay |
"[Yes, because] that's a folio practice! It's interesting how many of the leaders then are still active in the e-portfolio movement.... Looking at these experts talking about where they were and what they were doing, and for us now to look back, should give us a way of predicting the future of what we see happening in the e-portfolio space."
That Was Then
In October 2002, a Ready2Net program titled "Teaching, Learning, and Assessment With e-Portfolios" brought together the leaders in the e-portfolio field. Here's a brief clip of some of what was said:
Video courtesy of California State University, Monterey Bay |
"A growing number of colleges and universities across the United States are encouraging or, in some cases, even requiring students to create some sort of digital or electronic portfolio." --Kenneth C. Green, founder, Campus Computing Project
Click here to view more clips from the 2002 Ready2Net program.