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The ePortfolio Hijacked
12/12/2007
But don't call them "ePortfolios." They are assessment management systems, or what a friend said really should be called "accreditation management systems," and most likely they are not designed to support the learning values traditionally associated with portfolios.
Therefore, to live within this reality, but to revive the learning portfolio interest on campus, think of having multiple kinds of ePortfolios, managed in different ways, and with different constituencies.
A faculty member could use a learning portfolio in class and still enter results from that portfolio into the campus assessment management system.
The learning portfolio -- emphasizing student ownership of their own work over their time in college -- will find champions in writing programs, art departments, schools of architecture, music departments, and others. Student development offices or advising centers have also shown great interest in ePortfolios. Medical schools now have patient portfolios. ePortfolios can be applied in many fields and administrative offices. The days when we all talked about a single ePortfolio platform are over.
And let us hope that the days of confusing the term "ePortfolio" with "assessment management system" are also numbered.
[Editor's note: Trent Batson will be the editor of "Web 2.0," a new e-newsletter from Campus Technology. Watch for the first issue in mid-January, 2008.]
Trent Batson, Ph.D. has served as an English professor, director of academic computing, and has been an IT leader since the mid-1980s. He is currently a Communication Strategist in the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology at MIT. batsontr@mit.edu
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