[Air-L] ePortfolios

Sun Nov 30 20:14:19 PST 2008

Dear Aoir-ers -

Something on ePortfolios coming out of Australia and a conference at the excellent Queensland University of Technology coming up in February 09.

I would be interested to hear of other final reports on ePortfolios if anyone has the inclination to pass it along . . . 

Cheers, Denise

AeP Final Report

The research work undertaken in the Australian ePortfolio Project (AeP) commissioned by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) has been completed, culminating in the final report: ePortfolio use by university students in Australia: Informing excellence in policy and practice.  Electronic copies of the report can be accessed at http://www.eportfoliopractice.qut.edu.au/information/report.

Findings from the research undertaken as part of the Australian ePortfolio Project revealed that there was a high level of interest in the use of ePortfolios in the context of higher education, particularly in terms of the potential to help students become reflective learners who are conscious of their personal and professional strengths and weaknesses, as well as to make their existing and developing skills more explicit.  There are some good examples of early adoption in different institutions, although these tended to be distributed across the sector.  This means that ePortfolio practice in Australian universities is currently fragmented.

The recommendations from the report focus on four contexts where strategies may be employed to support and foster ePortfolio practice:

·         Government policy
·         Technical standards
·         Academic policy
·         Learning and teaching.

The ALTC has generously provided the AeP Project Team with further funding to progress two of the recommendations, specifically to establish a community of practice to encourage the sharing of learning and experiences of quality ePortfolio practice in higher education and to foster scholarship and research; and to establish a regular Australasian conference as a forum to explore and discuss effective ePortfolio research and practice.
AeP2 Symposium: 9-10 February 2009

The second Australian ePortfolio Symposium (AeP2) will be hosted by Queensland University of Technology on 9-10 February 2009 with an associated ePortfolio Showcase to provide delegates with the opportunity to investigate the features and functionality of the different ePortfolio tools.

The goal of the AeP2 Symposium is to begin to bring together the different pieces of the ePortfolio puzzle to build a cohesive composition that will benefit individual students, the quality of learning and the value of higher education outcomes.

The AeP2 Symposium will be of interest to all stakeholders who are involved in ePortfolios in education, as students, teachers, learning designers, administrators, careers advisors or employers. Representatives from higher education, vocational education and the schools sector are welcome to attend.

Symposium theme: Establishing an ePortfolio community of practice
Keynote speakers

·         Peter Rees Jones:       Consultant, JISC CETIS, UK

·         Wijnand Aalderinck and Marij Veugelers:  Portfolio NL, SURF Foundation, Netherlands

Symposium topics

·         Determining the impact of ePortfolios on student learning outcomes
·         Discipline specific initiatives, eg education, nursing, law, medicine, science, design
·         ePortfolios to capture and present professional standards
·         ePortfolios to capture and present graduate attributes
·         Developing students' reflective skills
·         ePortfolios in the Web 2.0 environment
·         International technical standards and interoperability
·         Challenges and opportunities in ePortfolio implementation

Further details

For information and online registration, visit http://www.eportfoliopractice.qut.edu.au/
Your symposium registration will be confirmed by email.
Email eportfoliopractice at qut.edu.au

Denise N. Rall, PhD. Internationalisation Project Officer
Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 AUSTRALIA 
Office: Room T2.17, +61 (0)2 6620 3577 Mobile 0438 233 344 
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/staff/pages/drall/
Presenter, Internet Research 9.0, 15-18 October 2008, Copenhagen, DK

--- On Sat, 29/11/08, Mariana Goya <mgoyam at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Mariana Goya <mgoyam at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Air-L]  Imagined communities
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Received: Saturday, 29 November, 2008, 10:56 AM
> Sometimes, it is also useful to see how old technologies,
> such as magazines, have helped to develop a sense of
> community among its readers. For this, the classic book of
> Thomas & Znaniecki, "The Polish Peasant",
> shows the role of a Gazette as a communication channel among
> Polish immigrants and how it created a sense of community
> among them. This work is previous to Anderson's.
> 
> Mariana
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:58:55 +1300
> From: "Philippa Smith"
> <philippa.smith at aut.ac.nz>
> Subject: [Air-L] Imagined communities
> To: <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
> Message-ID: <4930072C.B0F6.0036.0 at aut.ac.nz>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> 
> I'm seeking out references to Benedict Anderson's
> theory of
> "imagined communities" in relation to the
> Internet and how new
> technologies enable the construction of national
> identities.  Certainly this is
> mentioned in  Ananda Mitra's chapter "Virtual
> Commonality: Looking for
> India on the Internet"  in Virtual Culture edited by
> Steven Jones and in S.
> Jones' chapter in the same book "The Internet and
> its Social Landscape.
>   Mark Poster (1999)  National Identities and
> Communications Technologies in The
> Information Society 15:4, 235-240 is another reference. 
> But if there are any
> other references where people apply the theory in their
> research or discuss it
> please let me know.
>  
> Many thanks.
>  
> Philippa Smith
> PhD Candidate
> Institute of Culture, Discourse & Communication
> AUT University
> Auckland 
> New Zealand
> 
> 
> 
>       
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