 |
 |
Andy said: > I put forward a slightly different definition at > http://efoundations.typepad.com/efoundations/2007/07/portfolio-n.html > > "a digital collection of creative work, designed to show > evidence of learning and/or ability" > > based on existing definitions of the word 'portfolio'. > > It does strike me that we need to be clear about whether the > e-portfolio is just "the digital collection of evidence" or > whether it includes "explicit assertions based on that evidence". > > My gut feeling is that, as with physical portfolios, any > assertions about what the collection is evidence for should > either be left implicit or made outside of the e-portfolio > itself. So, one might attach an e-portfolio to a CV as > evidence for the claims made in the CV (but the e-portfolio > itself would not include those claims)?? Or to give a concrete example: Is my ePortfolio: (a) a selection of PHP scripts that I've written (which may be a subset of some larger set of resources of various types that I own/maintain) Or (b) a selection of PHP scripts that I've written _plus_ a set of "statements" (I'm using the term loosely for now) saying: - Script 1 provides-evidence-of my understanding of the use of variables in PHP - Script 2 provides-evidence-of my understanding of the use of arrays in PHP - Script 3 provides-evidence-of my understanding of the use of SQL queries in PHP (etc) My reading of the IMS ePortfolio spec is that what it calls an ePortfolio (which I'm quite happy to accept may be a different thing from what we're now calling an ePortfolio here!) might well include this sort of information - and indeed a large part of that spec concerns itself with detailing the various relationship types that might exist between different types of "stuff". i.e. from the perspective of that spec, my ePortfolio is more like my (b), not just my (a). I agree that from one perspective a physical portfolio is "just" a bundle/collection of items. But that really captures only the "structural" dimension. I think in reality it does involve more than that, but in the physical case some of that "more" is provided by me when I present my portfolio: I get the chance to say to my interview panel, "Script 3 provides-evidence-of my understanding of the use of SQL queries in PHP" (etc). But in the ePortfolio case, isn't this a significant part of the ePortfolio itself? But yes, whichever way we decide, I agree that the most important thing is to be clear and consistent in the way we use the term. Pete --- Pete Johnston Technical Researcher, Eduserv Foundation Web: http://www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation/people/petejohnston/ Weblog: http://efoundations.typepad.com/efoundations/ Email: [log in to unmask] Tel: +44 (0)1225 474323