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The Electronic Portfolio Boom: What's it All About?

11/26/2002

At the end of the semester—week 15—their last project was a second review and reconstruction of their portfolio: The students could "throw out" two of their papers. Secondly, they were required to write a paper about how they've changed as a writer, using their portfolios as a resource.

The University of Rhode Island now has four ePortfolio initiatives going with three different platforms. Our School of Education was the pioneer, developing its own tool and disseminating ideas on campus. Our College of the Environment and Life Sciences started their initiative this fall. In both cases, extensive programmatic work either precedes introduction of the ePortfolio tool, or is ongoing now that the tool is in place. As always, technology is just a potential. People energize that potential. And the tribal discussion continues.

ePortfolio Tools and Resources

Within the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative is a group called The Electronic Portfolio Action Committee (EPAC). EPAC has been led over the last year by John Ittelson of Cal State Monterey Bay. Helen Barrett of the University of Alaska at Anchorage, a leading founder of EPAC, has been investigating uses of ePortfolio tools for years. MIT's Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) has provided leadership and consulting for the group, along with its OKI partner, Stanford University. The Carnegie Foundation has been active within EPAC, as have a number of universities.

What follows is a list of ePortfolio tools now available or in production:

· Epselen Portfolios, IUPUI, www.epsilen.com

· The Collaboratory Project, Northwestern, http://collaboratory.nunet.net

· Folio Thinking: Personal Learning Portfolios, Stanford, http://scil.stanford.edu/research/projects/folio.html

· Catalyst Portfolio Tool, University of Washington, www.catalyst.washington.edu

· MnSCU e-folio, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, www.efoliomn.com

· Carnegie Knowledge Media Lab, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, www.carnegiefoundation.org/kml/

· Learning Record Online (LRO) Project, The Computer Writing and Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr/ contents.html

· Electronic Portfolio, Johns Hopkins University, www.cte.jhu.edu/epweb

· CLU Webfoil, California Lutheran University, www.folioworld.com



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