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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?

  • By Mary Grush
  • 10/23/12

This story appeared in the October 2012 digital edition of Campus Technology.

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.

About the Author

Mary Grush is Editor and Conference Program Director, Campus Technology.

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