Eportfolio forum 2021 - DAY ONE

 

Attending and presenting at the eportfolio forum today and tomorrow, hosted this year using Microsoft Teams, by the University of New South Wales.

The conference begins with welcome and housekeeping from conference convenor, Allison Miller. Professor Patsie Polly welcomes delegates to country and UNSW. 

The Professor Louise Lutze- Mann director of education UNSW introduces the speaker for the opening address - Professor Rorden Wilkinson who is UNSW pro-vice chancellor for education and student experience.He sets up the context for the conference, espeically given the experiences of the last year with the move to online learning due to the pandemic. Took a positive perspective on how we need to learn and evaluate the opportunities availed. Provided information on UNSW evaluation of the role of portfolio. 

The Opening keynote is with Dr. Bill Wisser, director of the Teaching and Learning Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He presented on 'regrounding portfolios in the science of learning and practice of pedagogy'. Began with two stories. The first on the fear of the unknown and the second how perspective is governed by our known context. Important to remember, learners bring these with them into our classrooms. They are not 'jugs to be filled' but teachers need to connect with what they bring with them amd extend their horizons beyond what they normally or already know. Revised cognitive theory of learning (input, sensory register, working memory, long term memory, attention, encoding retrieval, chunking etc.). Connected these to expertise and how experts process their information. Novices use algorithms but experts use heuristics. Portfolios have a role as it allows learning to be processed/organised and then re-collated and shared (to teach is to learn). Need to shift from modeling coaching and scaffolding to also articulation. reflection and elaboration. Moving from being able to do to being able to share/teach. Important to not just allow for the performative aspect of learner but also to capture the learning journey. Assessments should be not only of learning but FOR learning. 

After a 'ice-breaking session (using Bingo) and morning tea, the  'Intensive' workshops begin and I select the workshop with Megan Haskins from University of Denver & Kristina Hoeppner from Catalyst who facilitates a conversation on 'digital ethics and portfolios: what next?' Provided details on a task force looking into digital ethics and progress to date. Shared resource on the complexities of eportfolio ethics. Then breakout rooms formed to discuss how ethics used currently; how these used; what barriers have been encoutered; and additional resources may be of benefit. Good discussion in our group around privacy, IP, ownership of eportfolios, resources/guidelines to support the many small but important aspects of adminstrating eportfolios, and providing a robust eportfolio platform for learning. A short 'timeout' followed for participants to reflect on issues and come up with any questions. Q & A followed. 

Then a series of short sessions. I attend the session with Aslihan McCarthy (La Trobe) and Kate Mitchell (University of Melbourne) (presenter) on 'constructing a symphonic self in a post-pandemic world: the case for eportfolios'.Usually eportfolio are seen to be tools for accredition, assessment and educational outcomes. The focus in this presentation is on well-being(emotional) and resilience. Defined the symphonic self as how individuals form coherent aligment across their various selfs - network self, identity/s etc. Important to help students develop capacity to tackle both global and personal challenges and view and value their life narrative both within and outside of work - plus the boundaries between the personal, professional and civic. The symphonic self can be incorporated into eportfolios as they are a 'living portal' (Nguyen, 2013). The eportfolio needs to be a process, not product; be flexible for agency and creativity; reflection should be at the core; structures should scaffold, be integrative and inclusive and be ongoing and iterative. At a practical level, pedagogy of the portfolio is central (including digital ethics); curriculum includs integration and implementation beyond the degree and provision of an infrastructure to support the portfolio. 

Next session with Dr. Jennifer Masters and Jacqui Patten from PebblePad with presentation on 'connecting with the profession: Using PebblePad to map learning activities against professional standards'. Introduced the PebblePad function to 'map my learning'. Professional standards are used as framework for professional qualifications and ongoing Professional development. Progressive learning experiences contribute to the attainment of these standards. Course development often hinge on these standards through the alignment of explicit learning activities. Students need to understand how to collect, collate and show the evidence of meeting standards. Shared an example and demonstrated how this works in PebblePad using capability blocks. Important if using to have the standards visible. 

Last session for the day for me is with Shari Bowker & Dr. Christine Slade from University of Queensland with 'assessment and feedback using eportfolios: shifting to a new paradigm of practice'. Reviewed the challenges associated with feedback, proposed a new paradigm for feedback with focus on student feedback literacy. Then applied these to eportfolio design and support the development of feedback literacy through eportfolio compilation. Usually, feedback provided part way through course and then another occasion just before final summative assessment. Often feedback given and nothing else happens, or a sandwich model for nice feedback on both sides of stronger feedback!. Feedback should be a spiral to support ongoing learning. Summarised research on feedback including constraints imposed by large class numbers, lack of time, students' reliance on teachers (rather than other forms of feedback). Their study wanted to shift students to become active participants in feedback. Feedback literacy includes the interelated aspects of making judgments through appreciating feedback and managing affect and taking action once judgement is made (Carless and Boud, 2018). Educators have to support by helping students appreciate feedback, practice making judgments, support sutdents to manage affect and enable them to take action. Eportfolio can support these by working through longitudinal feedback on journals, support evaluation and defining of self-evalutation, have reflective prompts and design multi-stage or iterative sequences of tasks to help students action feedback. Action plans may be useful as well. Check their previous workshop for more detail. 

Using microsoft teams as the platform for the forum seemed to work well. Just a couple of glitches with presenters on Apple Macs who are unable to see their presentation when they share screen. Also they are unable to see the chat.