Eportfolio Platforms and Formats--What's Being Tried?

[Tamara Malloff]

What defines or constitutes an eportfolio in today’s educational context? I am curious as to what platforms, formats, and pedagogy are underlying eportfolio programs in B.C. and beyond.

We're currently using yolasite.com, a website builder for students to create their eportfolios, but there are problems with aggregating them into a "commons" for educators to provide feedback. Now we're looking into mahara.org, an open source eportfolio platform, but still want students to have enough flexibility so that they have "ownership" of their eportfolios.

 

What's working for you, or what are the challenges you are facing with developing an eportfolio program?

[Tim Winkelmans]

A number of districts are looking at the full LTK suite, which includes ePEARL.  I know Powell River has active interest, and the following appear to be installing LTK:

Saanich

EBus

Delta

Cowichan

Vancouver

SD 83 (check with Heather Leask)

The English school board in Montreal appears to be keen on it. 

 

Foothills school division in Alberta is using it: http://www.fsd38.ab.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=articl...

I found this one in West Virginia:  https://sites.google.com/a/wvde.k12.wv.us/model-information-media-c...

 

[Tamara Malloff]

Thank you, Tim for this list. ePearl may be worth revisiting. I am curious about why ePearl was chosen over Mahara, and wonder if you know.

[Tim Winkelmans]

I wouldn't know, just passing along what I'm partially aware of.

[Tamara Malloff]

Okay, thanks, Tim. Still much appreciated.

[Sebastian Alexandru]

I appreciate very full of substance as the two references by link.

I try to install ePearl for Ubuntu Linux first on the home computer.

Thank Tim.

[Tamara Malloff]

We've tried several eportfolio platforms at our school, Mt. Sentinel Secondary, including:

• Mahara (official)
• Google Sites (recommended)
• Yola (choice)
• Weebly (choice)
• Wix (Choice)

Our District now has our "own" Learning Commons (blogs, groups, and portfolios) called SD8Learns.

We're excited to be piloting our eportfolios using the Wordpress platform inherent in SD8Learns (which, by the way, is located on a Provincial server unlike most of the social media eportfolio platform options).

Coupled with a focus on Learning Competencies, our hope is that student eportfolios at the junior level will allow learners to focus on meta-cognition, inquiry, and growth without extraneous concerns (platform consistency, data storage, security, privacy). The Wordpress platform also supports mobile learning and uploads.

Hope to update our group on how things are going in the next few months...