Eportfolio forum 2021 - DAY 2

 Another busy day at the eportfolio forum.

The day begins with a welcome back from Allison Miller. Began with welcome to country and went through various housekeeping items. All slides will be on slideshare

Indepth workshops begin. I attend the session with Dr. Kevin Kelly from San Francisco State University on 'applying universal design of learning (UDL) and learning equity principles to eportfolio projects'. Began with definitions of equity and UDL. Introduced the learning equity framework and UDL and how to apply them to eportfolios. The strategies introduced are not prescriptive but adoption of an equity-mindset. 4 parts - assessment (usig backward design); engagement to be ready to use eportfolios; content needed to suceed; and instructions to give to students so they are successful with eportfolios. Worksheets provided at each part to help make decision as to how to (re)design equitable eportfolio assignments - access, connection and belonging. Went through each of the worksheets and provided examples. Responsed collected on chat. Good examples and discussion ensued. Slides and workshops from this link.

See book for deeper dive - advanced online teaching - creating equity-based digital learning. Also see Carless and Winstone book - technology-enabled learning 

Then a series of digital interative poster and 20x20 (20 slides over 20 minutes) presentations.

First up, I attend another sesison with  Dr. Kevin Kelly from San Francisco State University & Kristina Hoeppner from Catalyst on 'eportfolios through the lenses of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and decolonisation (DEBID)'. Reviewed the principles derived by the taskforce - digital ethics - in 2020-2021 and shared the current taskforce objectives. Important to ensure all learners are welcomed to maximise the affordances of eportfolios. Defined DEIBD (see summary here) and shared strategies to support each. A good initiative, especially for eportfolios as there is little information to support them. Slides on this link.

Alan Hoskin, Pam Grant and myself (Ara Institute of Canterbury) then present our interative poster session on 'analysing user recommendations to inform the selection of eportfolio tools'. The project arose out of our realisation that portfolios were being used all over the institution for all sorts of assessments, but many of the rich pegaogical advantages of formative /collaborative learning were being missed. Our project establlished the diverse approaches used, due to the range of levels of learning and discipline contexts. We now have a series of pilots run and from these and the survey/focus group meetings with teachers, we have developed a draft 'eportfolio selection tool' as a means to help anchor 'eportfolio' discussions to improve how they are used. Poster available from this link. 

The next session is a 'facilitated conversation' with Panos Vlachopoulos, Arda Texcan and Gai Ramesh from Macquarie University on 'the journey of implementing the right digital platform for a student-centred, pedagogy-driven and employability focused lifelong learning'. Conversation menti - which collated questins and answers and contributions from the 6 presenters, ran through the reasons, drivers for the adoption of eportfolio tools by institutions; the support required to bring in a portfolio tool; key considerations for implementation (of Portfolium - student/learner driven rather than assessment driven - part of Canvas LMS); criteria for selection of the eportfolio tool; what were lessons learnt? 

The forum ends with closing keynote with Serge Ravet, Innovation Director from ADPIOS  who speaks on 'From eportfolio to open badges and ... back to eportfolio'. Began the presentation on setting the scene and the evolution of eportfolios, open badges, open badge passport, Bologna open recognition declaration, exploring informal recognition and the creation of the open recognition alliance. The focus for eportfolios was how to make learning visible; for open badges how to make informal learning visible; and open recognition is on how to to make informal recognition visible. Reviewed the journey from 2001 to present. Compared portfolio - archives, traces, past, story-telling with identity - projections, plans, futures, potential. Patchworks and 'digital threads of social fabric' used as metaphors for portfolios. Recognition is in the middle of the learning citizen/learning community and learning society/learning organisation. Argued that portfolios are a good idea but never really 'took off'. -- ' too many portfolios do not convey the authentic voice of the learner; they are more like the ventriloquist's puppets, an illusion of independent life'.! There is evidence of high-impact eportfolio practices (see book ). Open badges (pixels of holographic identity) seen as one way to 'validate' eportfolios. could be co-constructed, resilient, trustworthy, distributed, connected etc. True value of badges is based on trust between the issuer and receiver of the badge, creating 'networks of trust'. So are open badges a nice add-on or a means to reinvent eportfolios? Proposed recognition as a form of knowledge and therfore possible as a way to accredit portfolios and badges. Recognition si symetry between recogniser and regonised and has referees, practitioners, communities of practice, analogic. Whereas certification is asymmetrical between certifier and certified, based on frameworks, assessors, awarding bodys and analytical. Therefore, 'the remedy for lack of recognition is not just 'more recognition' but to empower individuals to recognise. In essence, moving from formal recognition of informal learning to informal recogntion of formal learning. eportfolios could be the 'wallets' and open badges the (non fungible) 'currency of the recognition economy. These add to our social capital. A good presentation provoking thinking on the role, worth, relevance and utility of portfolios. 

Allison Miller closed the forum with information on the 2022 forum to be held at the Univerity of Melbourne via mixed mode (f2f and online). Post forum, the team site will archive the presentations etc. 

Good to touchbase with the eportfolio community. Forum went well apart from small tech challenges presented by the microsoft Teams environment. The presentations I went to were all useful and provided much fruit for thought.