ePIC 2012 Newsflash

April-May 2012

ePIC 2012
London 9-10-11 July 2012

Editorial

ePIC 2012 update

• Conference programme

• Diana Laurillard

• Barrie Hopson: “Helping people become architects of their own future”

• Klaus Himpsl-Gutermann: ePortfolios in academic qualification

• Call for abstracts: Networked Identities—How Digital Technologies Reshape Identity Construction in the 21st Century
  

• 3 July 2012—Mahara Conference UK 2012
• 21-23, October 2012 —CAPLA Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• 16 – 19 July 2012—AAEEBL, Boston, USA
• 27-28 September 2012—ePortfolios Australia Conference (EAC2012)

Editorial

Portfolio careers and ePortfolios

For Barrie Hopson, keynote speaker at ePIC 2012 and co-author of 10 Steps to Creating a Portfolio Career, over a million people have been and are developing portfolio careers in the UK. According to the findings of the Eurobarometer survey 2009 * an average of 45% of European citizens would prefer to be self-employed, while 49% prefer the status of employee*. Actual figures for the self-employed in 2010, ranged from around 10% in the United States and Europe to well over 30% in Greece, Mexico, and Turkey**.

Why such discrepancy between the desire for self-employment and the reality? What would be required to overcome the barriers to self-employment and portfolio careers? How could technologies contribute in transforming the desire for self-employment and portfolio careers into a more tangible reality?

One of the dominant biases when addressing the issue of job finding is to consider that individuals are primarily looking for one employer, while if you are self-employed, your employer is your client. And you are probably looking for many of them! If your desire for leading a portfolio career includes being part-time employee, part-time entrepreneur and part-time self-employed, then you might need to confine your different professional identities within different communities to avoid possible clashes— e.g. accountant, ballroom dancer and taxidermist.

Whilst the path to becoming an employee is paved with services and technologies—public employment agencies, job boards, job adverts and social networks, the path to self-employment is not so well endowed. Where are the job-adverts, the job-boards and the social networks for those looking for self-employment?

Professionals have access to a number of freelance marketplaces such as Freelancer, TopCoder (claims 408,456 members and over $36 million in total payments to date), Elance (claims 1,489,248 registered contractors and over $541 million payments to-date), iFreelance, crowdSPRING (logos and graphic design), constantcontent ("Buy Unique Articles for your Website from Expert Writers") or ProjectSpring.com ("Connecting Programmers with Custom Software Buyers & WebMasters"). They provide more or less sophisticated reputation-building mechanisms improving opportunities to win bids and increase fees. Transactions usually start with a bid for a job to which freelancers respond with a quote—TopCoder allocates work through competitions.

Freelance marketplaces are outsourcing marketplaces; they are online temporary work agencies for online workers competing against each other. They use technology to improve traditional business processes, not to reinvent them. Crowdsourcing is an expanded model of outsourcing where tasks/problem solving are outsourced to an undefined public rather than a specific body. A survey of 166 problems posted to InnoCentive from 26 different firms found the odds of a solver’s success increased in fields in which they had no formal expertise (source).

Can we imagine the opposite to outsourcing marketplaces, i.e places where co-operating self-employed professionals are in a position to take the initiative of meaningful transactions with businesses (not just sending a CV) and where the community acts as a sales force? This is one of the many promises of Vendor Relationship Management (VRM)....(VRM should probably be rechristened Trade or Commerce Relationship Management but that is another story). eBay provides an interesting reference of a symmetrical platform: under the same account, one can be a buyer or a seller of a wide range of goods from lawn mowers to properties.

Add services to goods on eBay, and we might have a very decent platform to support self-employment. One could find a second-hand lawn mower, a person to mow the lawn, another to service the lawn mower (it's second hand!), a compost maker, etc. The person hired to mow the lawn would get referrals that could bring more (or less!) business and with the earnings would perhaps hire a self-employed plumber to install the radiators bought from another member of the community... This could encourage the globalisation of Local exchange trading systems (LETS) and the use of LETS Credits instead of local currencies. Of course, we will rapidly discover the inadequacies of eBay with regards to privacy and the ability to confine our different identities, or the problems of interoperability with other Trade Relationship Management silos. Yet, we will have made significant progress towards a global architecture for Trade Relationship Management which we need to make the dreams of self-employment a reality.

We look forward to your comments!

Serge Ravet

* Eurobarometer 2009: Entrepreneurship in the EU and beyond, A survey in the EU, EFTA countries, Croatia, Turkey, the US, Japan, South Korea and China (link).

** According to OECD, "in general, self-employment rates are highest in countries with low per capita income although Italy, with a self-employment rate of around 25.5%, is an exception. Ireland and Spain also combine high per capita incomes and high self-employment rates" (link).

See also: 2011 issue of Entrepreneurship at a Glance, a product of the OECD-Eurostat Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme (link). The 2012 publication will be released early June (link). 2010 Self-employment in the United States (link)

London, 9-10-11
July 2012

ePIC 2012 Update

For a complete view of the call: http://www.epforum.eu/epic2012/conference/call

Open Badges Track at ePIC 2012

We are preparing the programme of the Open Badges track that should comprise:

• Keynote address from a representative of the Mozilla Foundation.
• Tutorial / workshop with the early developers of Open Badges implementation.
• Plugfest of Open Badges implementation in ePortfolio platforms.
• Contribution to the definition of a roadmap (including the application to Europass).

More details in the next newsletter. Stay tuned!

Carla Casilli - keynote speaker

Carla leads Mozilla's Open Badge Infrastructure project and acts as liaison to Mozilla's Learning Group. At Mozilla, she focuses her twenty years of strategic design, branding, and simplified communications experience on the examination, improvement, and encouragement of alternative educational assessment efforts. She spearheads Open Badges communication outreach and strategizes on all aspects of badges including assessment, implementation, research and application.

Carla holds an MA in Media Psychology and Social Change from Fielding University and a BFA in Graphic Design and Writing from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Diana Laurillard - keynote speaker

Professor Diana Laurillard currently holds the Chair of Learning with Digital Technologies in the Faculty of Culture and Pedagogy. Current research is in two related areas: Teaching/Learning Design tools for teachers, and Digital interventions for low numeracy and dyscalculia. In both cases the intention is to bridge the gap between teaching and research.

Previous appointments include Head of the e-Learning Strategy Unit at the UK Governmentís Department for Education and Skills, the Visiting Committee on IT at Harvard University, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for learning technologies and teaching at The Open University.

Current appointments include the Board of the Observatory for Borderless HE, the Governing Board for the UNESCO Institute for IT in Education, the Council for FernUniversitet in Hagen, the Trustees Board for the E-Learning Foundation.

Barrie Hopson - keynote speaker

“Helping people become architects of their own future”

Dr Barrie Hopson’s current portfolio career includes… chairman of Axia Interactive Media, director of Live Happier, writer, presenter, consultant and chair of his local community association. He has a long history of involvement in the area of career development having established the Counselling and Career Development Unit at Leeds University in 1976 and subsequently went on to found Lifeskills International.

A fellow of the British Psychological Society he has written 40 books including the bestselling 12 Steps to Success through Service, The Lifeskills Teaching Programmes , Build Your Own Rainbow, and The Rainbow Years: the Pluses of Being 50+. His latest venture is livehappier.com a site dedicated to helping people to “Live Happier: The Ultimate Life Skill” – the title of his first ebook. His last book was ‘And What Do You Do? 10 Steps to Creating a Portfolio Career’, written with Katie Ledger. Barrie has worked widely as a consultant to commercial and educational organisations worldwide. He runs 10k charity races for the Stroke Association as his wife had a major stroke last year and will run his first half marathon this year.

Klaus Himpsl-Gutermann: E-Portfolios in academic qualification

Klaus Himpsl-Gutermann, of the Donau-Universität, Krems, Austria, has just finished his doctorate and will present the most important results in London. Central to his dissertation was a 3-year action research project, which was carried out in the extra-occupational master study course, “eEducation MA”, with the aim to develop, implement and, in particular, analyze, an integrative ePortfolio concept for academic qualification. The research questions and design focused on the benefit and relevance of the ePortfolio for students. The final analysis, therefore, relies on qualitative interviews that were carried out with alumni from two different age groups, primarily using the Grounded Theory Methodology. Resulting from their descriptions of problem areas, critical factors as well as learning strategies, his dissertation provides direct recommendations for the implementation of ePortfolios as well as various contributions concerning the theory of ePortfolios in the form of three models. The main result of the empirical study is a 4-phase-model, which describes the long-term use of ePortfolios from the perspective of students according to four phases: “orientate yourself”, “position yourself”, “identify yourself” and “present yourself”. Especially in the second phase, areas of conflict in the ePortfolio become noticeable between reflexive learning and the development of a “digital career identity“. Apart from that, the empirical study shows that the design of the portfolio was of crucial importance in the phase of orientation and identification, and that the students encountered the most difficulties with the process of reflection.

Link to the dissertation (at the moment only available in German): www.himpsl.at/diss

Social Networking

• Twitter: hashcode #epforall.
• Facebook: epforall group
• lanyrd: http://lanyrd.com/2012/epic/
  

Call for Abstracts: Networked Identities

How Digital Technologies Reshape Identity Construction in the 21st Century

An Open Textbook Project

Important dates

• 20 June 2012: abstract submission
• 10 July 2012: workshop at ePIC 2012
• 15 September 2012: final selection of abstracts / authors for chapters; finalisation of the editorial board
• 15 November2012: upload of short and long papers. Start of review
• 15 December 2012: upload of final version of short and long papers
• 15 February 2013: book publication

About this call

This Call for Abstracts is the first stage of a larger open text book project. Abstracts will be discussed during the Networked Identities Workshop to establish the foundations of the book and will be published in a special book of abstracts as well as in ePIC 2012 proceedings.

• Full text of the call: http://tinyurl.com/d8ccro6
• Book Website: http://www.identity21.org/
• Submission link: https://www.conftool.net/epic2012/
• Twitter hashtag: #id_21

Introduction

The environment in which we construct and express our identities in the 21st century is being dominated by the ubiquitous presence of digital networks and media. To what extent do digital networks and media contribute to renewed forms of emancipation and/or alienation? How can we maximize their beneficial effects to empower autonomous identity construction, whilst minimizing adverse consequences? Does the emergence of a Cyberspace challenge our current understanding of identity construction? Is it primarily an issue of 'assimilation' (integrating new means to do slightly differently what we did before) or 'accommodation' (the need to transform our representations and invent new practices)? What is the impact on the future of education, practice, research, technologies, business models, policies, etc.? Is there a risk that identity-related technologies and regulations might be retrofitted to the 'real world' with negative consequences on our freedom? How can citizens be empowered to make contributions to the technology and policy debates on identity issues?

The importance taken by digital technologies and social networks in identity construction can be witnessed with the emergence of new concepts, such as digital identity and digital self, new issues, such as fragmentation of personal data and total transparency, new architectures and protocols to manage identification, authorisation and trust, new social practices, such as social networking or personal branding... This is giving birth to a growing body of literature, from research publications and practitioner contributions to practical guidelines on "How to create your Online Identity?"

The aim of Networked Identities is to provide an understanding of the issues and solutions related to identity construction in a world dominated by the ubiquitous presence of digital networks and media.

The title of the book refers to the use of networks to construct one's identities as well as the interplay between the different identities and different identity components of an individual. It also aims at addressing the relationships between individual and collective identities, self-identity and identity-through-others.

This will be achieved by inviting authors to explore:

• Current discourses on technologies—e.g. is 'personal branding' a concept conducive to emancipation or to the alienation of our identities as mere market commodities? Is social-networking a means to increase the value of social capital or an invitation to busily code our actions and thoughts for Google and Facebook to monetise them?
• What are the internal dynamics of the different stakeholders at the micro, meso and macro levels, the play across individuals, institutions, networks, technology and service providers and society at large?
• What are the emerging practices in identity construction, the enablers and disablers to innovative practices?
• What literacies are supportive of identity construction and how can educators foster these literacies with specific target groups like children, teenagers, adults etc.
• How do/could people, networks and organisations influence the outcomes one way or another?—There are different interests at stake and the conditions to empowering individual identity construction might enter into conflict with those of a number of corporations and States.

The main objective of this book is to provide state of the art information to those wishing to make informed decisions in relation to identity construction—citizens, educators, technology developers, service providers, employers, policy makers etc. This book also aims at exploring a range of solutions to identity construction through digital networks and media in terms of education, research, technologies, business models, policies and regulations.

Objectives of the Book

The objectives of Networked Identities are:

• To examine the impact of digital networks and technologies on identity construction and exploitation;
• To take a critical look at the concepts related to identity and digital technologies: digital identity, personal branding, identity theft, etc.;
• To explore whether the nature and substance of identities is transformed within a world mediated by digital networks and technologies;
• To deepen our understanding of the dialectic relationship between emancipation and alienation carried by digital networks architecture, the actual and potential practices they support and the narratives generated;
• ... (c.f. the call)

Suggested topics

Suggested topics (in relation to identity, digital networks and media) include, but are not limited to:

• Conceptual frameworks to understanding identity construction (and self);
• The relationship between the construction of individual and collective identities;
• Individuation;
• Identity literacies;
• Identity and reflexivity;
• Fragmented identities and digital integrity;
• Distributed identities;
• Mediated identities;
• Professional identities;
• Patchwork identities;
• Portfolio career and identities
• ... (c.f the call)

How to Submit?

Authors are invited to submit an initial abstract at ePIC 2012 https://www.conftool.net/epic2012/ in the track “Networked Identities.” The abstracts will be discussed during a workshop organised at ePIC 2012 to explore the different chapters and the grouping of authors per chapter.
Abstracts (20 June 2012)

Abstract length must be between 800 and 1200 words.
Contributions may include summary of research papers, position papers, work in progress, case studies, etc.

Workshop (10 July 2012)

The objective of the workshop is to:

• collect the first inputs of the community on the book project
• agree on
• book objectives—what impact do we expect
• book structure—to make it accessible
• core areas to be covered
• identify
• research questions
• potential contributors
• potential sponsors

The abstracts will be published in special book of abstracts and in ePIC 2012 proceedings.

Book chapters (15 November 2012)

Based on the outcomes of the workshop the Editorial Board will invite selected authors to collaborate on book chapters. After the workshop a public Call for Chapters will be issued to invite further authors from different areas of research including social sciences, education, psychology, philosophy etc.

Publication

The book will be published in February 2013 under Creative Commons with the ISBN Number 978-2-9540144-2-5. It will be freely downloadable from the book site: http://www.identity21.org/

Full text of the call: http://tinyurl.com/d8ccro6

Partner News & Events

Mahara Conference UK 2012

The Mahara UK 2012 Conference will take place on Tuesday 3rd July 2012 at Lancaster University. This year the conference will be hosted by LUNS and co-organised by TDM and Catalyst IT Europe.

Call for presentations will last till May 18th 2012.

Early-bird registration is now open and will be available till May 28th, from May 29th onwards the standard rate will apply.

Conference Hashtag: #maharauk12

CAPLA, October 21-23, 2012 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Please join the Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment (CAPLA) at the Westin Nova Scotian Hotel for the international Recognizing Learning conference on October 21-23, 2012 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

AAEEBL, 16 – 19 July 2012, Boston

The AAEEBL annual Conference, ePortfolios as a Catalyst for Connections: Celebrating the Curious, Creative and Capable Learner

For the third year, AAEEBL members and eportfolio practitioners from around the world will gather at the Seaport World Trade Center on stunning Boston Harbor for the AAEEBL Annual Conference. Once again, AAEEBL is co-locating with Campus Technology, and attendees will be welcome to attend either AAEEBL or CT sessions.

Registration is now live!

ePortfolios Australia Conference 2012 (EAC2012) 27-28 September

The ePortfolios Australia Conference 2012 Organising Committee are pleased to announce that ePortfolios Australia Conference 2012 (EAC2012) will be held at Australian Catholic University in North Sydney on 27-28, September.

ePIC 2012 Newsflash

March 2012

ePIC 2012
London 9-10-11 July 2012

Editorial

ePIC 2012 update

• Extension of the call for contributions

• Open Badges track

• Gillie Bolton keynote address

• Social Network
  

• Supporting Reflection with Mobile Devices - Helen Barrett
  

• ePortfolio goes University of Teacher Education Vienna –  A two-year research project with Mahara

• IPLAN - CAPLA’s International Prior Learning Assessment Network

• New IJEP Issue
  

Editorial

21st Century Identities

We are living a paradoxical injunction: create you identity, market yourself, be your own brand, feel free to explore multiple identities; yet the traces of our experiments remain the property of 'free' services provided by Facebook, Twitter and Google. As MetaFilter user blue_beetle observed (source): "if you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold." While this might be an over-generalising statement, it certainly applies to a large number of  so-called ‘free’ (and even paying!) Internet services. You are free to use our services as long as they produce enough valuable marketing data. You believe that you are the customer? We know that you are the product we monetise.

“I once described the computer as a second self, a mirror of mind. Now the metaphor no longer goes far enough. Our new devices provide space for the emergence of a new state of the self, itself, split between the screen and the physical real, wired into existence through technology*.” For Professor Sherry Turkle, the new state of the self, itself, captures the fact that the connected life encourages us to treat those we meet online as objects: “it is as though we [people, Ed.] have become [the computer, Ed.] killer app.”

These reflections do not come from a Luddite, but from the founder and current director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. For Sherry Turkle, the very technologies that are supposed to expand virtual connectivity are also creating the conditions for increased real isolation and loss of intimacy. We expect more from technology and less from each other: "With sociable robots, we imagine objects as people. Online, we invent ways of being with people that turn them into something close to objects."

The encounter* with a reporter from Scientific American to talk about robots and our future shed a worrying light on a certain vision of humanity. The reporter accused Sherry Turkle of bigotry because she had objected to the mating and marriage of people to robots: "He accused me of species chauvinism: Wasn’t I withholding from robots their right to 'realness'?"

To follow the logic of the Scientific American's reporter, if robots should have 'rights' so should  robots with special needs like computers (robots with reduced mobility) or cars (intellectually challenged robots). The right to 'realness' of robots would symmetrically place humanity at the level of objects. Once reified, the human species could eventually become the efficient interface of robots and computers with the 'real' world, repeating on an unprecedented scale the story of The Servant (a Joseph Losey's movie ) where the master (James Fox) and the servant (Dirk Bogard) exchange roles.

We might not have to wait for the coming of the Robots to witness a humanity reduced to a status of objects. One of the characteristics of humanity is the need (and right) for privacy and intimacy (which rests on mutual and unconditional trust). Without privacy, no real intimacy is possible. Both are under attack: “You have zero privacy anyway; get over it,” said Scott McNealy, cofounder of Sun Microsystems in 1999; "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place," explained Eric Schmidt, Google CEO ten years later. Of course, as businesses operate in a world where privacy is still valued (for how long?) they implement so called privacy protection policies. But those policies are even less effective to protect our data, than a rabbit hole on the opening day of the hunting season is to protect a hare: it's too small, and even if it were large enough, they are waiting for you at the exit 24/24, 7/7... Where is the space for intimacy as our contracted private spaces are under the permanent scrutiny of human 'friends', computer 'bots' search engines, log files, etc.? The ersatz of privacy granted by Google and Facebook do not leave any space for true intimacy.

And, as if all this was not enough, there are now employers asking prospective employees for access to their Facebook or other online accounts as part of the job application process (source). Why should such a request be treated any differently than asking for the keys to our home or safety deposit boxes? Ultimately, is frisking one's identity through Facebook or Google that different from peering through the windows of one's home?

The creation and exploration of our identities require the possibility of intimacy. Without intimacy our identities are at risk of being under the scrutiny of the panopticon of hyper-connectivity, hence destroyed. And it would be illusory to believe that intimacy could remain possible in the 'real' world with an intimacy-less 'virtual' one: we are at the frontier of those two worlds, busily coding our actions and thoughts for Google and Facebook to monetise them. If marketers ever dreamt the possibility of wire-tapping our conversations, Twitter has made that dream true. If marketers ever dreamt the possibility to place cameras in our homes and bedrooms, Google and Facebook have made that dream true. While wire-tapping telephone conversations is still illegal (for how long?) we have been made to believe that it is acceptable when Google, Facebook and Twitter scan our conversations...

To what extent does the Internet and hyper-connectivity contribute, or hinder, our ability to be the master of the construction and exploration of our identities? Should the mastery of the tools, competencies and methods for identity construction be included in the curriculum of initial and continuing education? If yes, how? What legislations and regulations (e.g. breaking Facebook into many independent ‘Babyfaces’, as Bell did in the 80s)? What technologies could contribute, beyond privacy, to true intimacy? How can we involve all citizens in the definition of 21st century identities?

We look forward to your contributions!

Serge Ravet

* S. Turkle“ –Why we Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other”, 2011. See also S. Turkle “Life on Screen –Identity in the Age of Internet”, 1995

London, 9-10-11
July 2012

ePIC 2012 Call for Contributions Extended

The call for contributions has been extended and a first draft of the programme will be published this week with the first submission accepted.

New calendar:

For a complete view of the call: http://www.epforum.eu/epic2012/conference/call

Open Badges Track at ePIC 2012

We are preparing the programme of the Open Badges track that should comprise:

• Keynote address from a representative of the Mozilla Foundation.
• Tutorial / workshop with the early developers of Open Badges implementation.
• Plugfest of Open Badges implementation in ePortfolio platforms.
• Contribution to the definition of a roadmap (including the application to Europass).

More details in the next newsletter. Stay tuned!

Keynote speaker: Gillie Bolton

Dr Gillie Bolton will deliver a keynote address at ePIC 2012 on Tuesday 10 July 2012. She will explore the benefits of reflective writing to support a range of activities, from reflective practice to personal development and therapy.

Dr Gillie Bolton began seriously researching about writing after a medical professor colleague thought it was her students' relationship with her, not the writing, which made a difference to them. A determination to prove him wrong led to carefully detailed observation and research.   In all personal and professional development processes (and therapy and counselling) the personal relationship is key.  But with writing, the primary personal relationship is with the self as first reader: the self becomes the vital interlocutor.

With Write Yourself, Dr Gillie Bolton provides a complete introduction to facilitating creative writing for therapy or personal development, both with individuals and groups.

‘Write Yourself is a powerful handbook that is the culmination of Gillie Bolton’s sustained scholarship and wisdom focusing on therapeutic creative writing for reflective self-insight. Her ideas and practical knowledge provide uplifting support for writing group facilitators, as well as individuals, in exploring practical approaches to expressive writing. This work is an important and lasting contribution to the field.’
- John D. Engel, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Behavioral Sciences, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine

Social Networking

• Twitter: please use hashcode #epforall. All tweets from the conference organisers will be published under the account @epforall.
• Facebook: please join the group epforall
  

Supporting Reflection with Mobile Devices - Helen Barrett

Helen Barrett recently published the first draft of a poster session relative to supporting reflection with mobile devices. The Reflection Cycle, is based on a theory of Self-Regulated Learning that was the underlying theory of the ePearl ePortfolio system developed at Concordia University. She has adapted the process to include suggestions for mobile apps with supporting websites, or those that include the ability to upload artifacts to Dropbox, GoogleDocs, YouTube, etc. more...

ePortfolio goes University of Teacher Education Vienna –  A two-year research project with Mahara

Thomas Strasser & Bence Lukács, www.eportfolio.or.at

Since the winter term 2010/11, the University of Teacher Education Vienna  has been using Mahara as a development, presentation and reflection portfolio. Due to its pedagogical versatility and user-friendliness, Mahara has become a vital component for students in order to develop various skills relevant for their future profession as teachers.

In autumn 2011, Thomas Strasser initiated the official research project:

The role of competency-based learning within the context of the ePortfolio software Mahara at practical student teacher courses at University of Teacher Education Vienna. Technical steeplechase or methodological perspective?

The project team consists of various professors and students. An official collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences Vienna (www.fh-campuswien.ac.at) was initiated in order to exchange ideas and expertise concerning the use of Mahara on a bilateral level.

The two-year research project has the following scientific focal points:

• General reception of Mahara’s technical components among staff and students.
• Didactical versatility of Mahara
• Development of various competencies, e.g. self-organized learning,  within the context of Mahara
• Development of a dissemination strategy, i.e. presentation of scientific research results, production of manuals, etc., aimed at the secondary and tertiary education levels.

The thematic focal point at the beginning of the project (semester 1) is on the technical implementation procedures with Mahara in practical student teacher courses. The student teachers and their staff will undergo an enquiry about the basic reception regarding the use of Mahara. Seen from a methodological point of view, the project team designed a questionnaire implying considerations/questions like: general, subjective reception of Mahara’s user-friendliness (i.e. usability) , quality of technical in-house support, etc. After the analysis of the empirical data with the data collected, the project team will publish a practical handbook (cf. Mahara newsletter December 2011, www.mahara.org).
One of the main tasks of the 1st semester for the research team includes creating a specific Mahara handbook/manual for student teachers. The idea of the handbook is to help student teachers at the University of Teacher Education Vienna to efficiently work with Mahara.

Chapters included:

• Why are we using an e-Portfolio?
• basic outline of Mahara
• suggestions for a Mahara-structure:
• a profile page
• a gazette page (cf. Murphey, 2011)
• and a page for personal reflections (practical training)

The handbook will include  screenshots and step by step explanations for the complete setup of the new e-Portfolio.
The students’ main profiles will be made public (presentation portfolio) including an introduction/cover letter, list of skills and competencies and contact information.

Apart from the profile page, the Gazette will act as a development portfolio and the digital folder page will be the place to upload specific reflective tasks (i.e. reflective portfolio).

The Gazette features:

• thought a day (reflecting on practical training or general studies)
• a link a day (sharing interesting and useful subject-related links with colleagues)
• useful material (student teachers will be able to share their materials)
• plans/milestones

The reflection or digital folder page will make it easier for the students and their tutors to reflect on their practical training (tasks, reflections). All reflections will be uploaded onto the same page. At the end of their studies, the student teachers will have all their reflections in one place including the feedback of their tutors/professors.

Dr. Thomas Strasser
University of Teacher Education Vienna
thomas.strasser@phwien.ac.at
www.learning-reloaded.com
www.eportfolio.or.at

Bence Lukács
Student University of Teacher Education Vienna
bence.lukacs@me.com

IPLAN - CAPLA’s International Prior Learning Assessment Network

The Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment (CAPLA) is Canada’s only non-profit membership organization for the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). Formed in 1994, CAPLA’s members (individuals, organizations, groups) come from across Canada and abroad.

In 2006, as international exchanges and interest in sharing expertise increased, CAPLA formed the International Prior Learning Assessment Network (IPLAN) as a virtual network of RPL practitioners, policy makers and administrators. IPLAN was born from a desire to share and discuss ideas, experience, resources and good practice through a global network. As online discussion groups and resource listings increased as a basis for sharing, IPLAN identified its objectives as:

• Supporting an international network of educators, government, professional associations and agencies, human resource practitioners, employers and career counselors (all essentially RPL practitioners) to ensure that PLAR/RPL is viewed as a key component of adult learning
• Identifying and openly sharing existing and emerging practices, strategies and resources
• Sharing principles of good practice in PLAR/RPL.

IPLAN is committed to building a strong virtual network of committed individuals to ensure that PLAR/RPL is viewed internationally as a key component of adult and lifelong learning by demonstrating its application to personal development, education, community health and well-being, and economic development related to employability.  Through IPLAN members’ individual commitment to this mission, there will be benefits for individuals and society related to PLAR/RPL and adult and lifelong learning in each country and worldwide. This will be accomplished through strong working relationships between individual members, partner organizations and countries.

IPLAN Exchanges

IPLAN has provided presentations, and exchange of expertise and resources through both in-person events at CAPLA conferences, and online webcasts.

At past CAPLA conferences in Canada there have been international panels broadcast in real time, allowing participation worldwide to view the presentations and ask questions. The next CAPLA conference is planned for October 21-23, 2012, in Halifax, Nova Scotia where possible international topics such as the soon-to-be-released UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning Guidelines on implementing RPL will be explored.

It is in the area of webcasts that IPLAN sees future emphasis and greatest potential for sharing. To date there have been successful webcast exchanges between Canadian and Australian RPL practitioners, and between Canadian and Scottish RPL practitioners.  We are hoping to have some international webinars in the months leading up to CAPLA’s international Recognizing Learning conference, to which all our international partners are invited.

Feedback from RPL practitioners around the world has noted the following topics as being of interest for future webcasts and discussions:

1. Online recognition possibilities, and strategies for remote assessment
2. Encouraging greater participation in RPL by higher education
3. Mentorship and assessor competency
4. RPL and related research of value to practitioners and policy makers
5. Cost of RPL to individuals/employers
6. Adapting methods of assessment of non-English speaking clients in English speaking countries
7. Group assessment/recognition, and connection to the workplace
8. Risks and legal liability for organizations and assessors related to RPL and regulated professions

To indicate your interest in joining IPLAN, or sharing resources and good practices, contact info@capla.ca

IPLAN en français

Des intervenants francophones planifient également la tenue d’un webinaire international sur les enjeux de la reconnaissance des acquis et des compétences. Faites-nous connaître votre intérêt à participer à son organisation, en communiquant avec nous à info@capla.ca

New Issue of the International Journal of ePortfolio (IJeP)

The second issue of the International Journal of ePortfolio (IJeP), a double-blind, peer-reviewed, open access journal, is now available.

http://www.theijep.com/current.cfm

The following articles comprise Volume 2, Number 1 of IJeP:

Instructional Articles

Preparedness Portfolios and Portfolio Studios
Jennifer Turns, University of Washington
Brook Sattler, University of Washington
Matt Eliot, Central Queensland University
Deborah Kilgore, University of Washington
Kate Mobrand, University of Washington

Electronic Portfolios for Distance Learning: A Case from a Nursing Clinical Course
Jayne Josephsen, Boise State University

Understanding Students’ Experiences of e-PDP and the Factors that Shape their Attitudes
Alfredo Gaitán, University of Bedfordshire

From the Reflective ePractitioner: A Pilot Model of Teacher Preparation Employing ePortfolio
Judith Cross, Randwick TAFE NSW Sydney Institute


Assessment Articles

Using the e-Portfolio to Document and Evaluate Growth in Reflective Practice: The Development and Application of a Conceptual Framework
Wesley Pitts, Lehman College, CUNY
Rachel Ruggirello, Washington University in St. Louis

Analysis of a Rubric for Assessing Depth of Classroom Reflections
Dev K. Dalal, Bowling Green State University
Milton D. Hakel, Bowling Green State University
Michael T. Sliter, Bowling Green State University
Sarah R. Kirkendall, Bowling Green State University

Technology, Policy, and Management Article

Implementing ePortfolios for the Assessment of General Education Competencies
Gail Ring, Clemson University
Barbara Ramirez, Clemson University

Self-Representation and Student Identity: A Case Study of International Student Users of Sakai
Evan Snider, Virginia Tech
Alex McCarthy, Virginia Tech

Professional Development Article

On the Right Track: Using ePortfolios as Tenure Files
Erica Swenson Danowitz, Delaware County Community College

Book Review

The Quest for Expertise: A Review of Documenting Learning with ePortfolios: A Guide for College Instructors
Joan Monahan Watson, Virginia Tech

Europortfolio: Call for a European Consortium

An initial summary of the proposal is accessible at http://tinyurl.com/7ddhs73. If you are interested to join as a partner or associated partner, you are invited to provide details using an online form accessible at: http://tinyurl.com/7hrxghs. Responses will be used to update the Summary and to invite partners to join as Partner or Associate Partner.

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Partner News & Events

CAPLA, October 21-23, 2012 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Please join the Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment (CAPLA) at the Westin Nova Scotian Hotel for the international Recognizing Learning conference on October 21-23, 2012 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

AAEEBL, 16 – 19 July 2012, Boston

The AAEEBL annual Conference, ePortfolios as a Catalyst for Connections: Celebrating the Curious, Creative and Capable Learner

For the third year, AAEEBL members and eportfolio practitioners from around the world will gather at the Seaport World Trade Center on stunning Boston Harbor for the AAEEBL Annual Conference. Once again, AAEEBL is co-locating with Campus Technology, and attendees will be welcome to attend either AAEEBL or CT sessions.

Registration is now live!

ePortfolios Australia Conference 2012 (EAC2012) 27-28 September

The ePortfolios Australia Conference 2012 Organising Committee are pleased to announce that ePortfolios Australia Conference 2012 (EAC2012) will be held at Australian Catholic University in North Sydney on 27-28, September.

ePIC 2012 Newsflash

December 2011

ePIC 2012
London 9-10-11 July 2012

Editorial

ePIC 2012

Editorial

ePortfolios, Products of an Individuation Process?

One recurring question relating to ePortfolios is: is it a product or a process? To that question, Helen Barrett responds (link): "My working portfolio, that documents the PROCESS of my learning/growth over time, is my digital footprint through my website, my blog, my Facebook account (mostly "friending" my family members), my Twitter posts (@eportfolios), etc.: my personal learning environment (PLE) that I contribute to and learn from on a regular basis." For JISC (link), "There is an emerging consensus that the term encompasses both product and process" and provides the following definition: "An e-portfolio is a purposeful aggregation of digital items - ideas, evidence, reflections, feedback etc. which 'presents' a selected audience with evidence of a person's learning and/or ability." This definition sounds more like the definition of a product than a process, unless the process is the aggregation of documents. If so, why not simply write that an ePortfolio is a product which is the result of documenting a learning process? Building an ePortfolio involves two processes: the (reflective) learning process and the (ancillary) process of documenting  learning.

While there is widespread agreement that 'true' ePortfolios should be the result of reflective learning, there is certainly no need to produce an ePortfolio in order to be a reflective learner! It would be ludicrous to state that someone is not a reflective learner, or practitioner, on the grounds that she does not keep / produce an ePortfolio. A well constructed essay is often a much better piece of evidence of reflective learning than some collections of fragmented 'reflections' generated by well-meaning but ill-structured ePortfolio platforms — e.g. providing a field, 'reflection', to be filled-in when uploading a piece of evidence in the ePortfolio... Why should a truly reflective learner be forced to produce a portfolio in order to demonstrate reflective learning?

One of the reasons advanced to explain the reluctance of some learners to build an ePortfolio (or keep it when leaving the education system) is that they are built under extrinsic motivation (e.g. mandatory to pass an exam etc.), while if they were built on intrinsic motivation they ought to love them. The problem with that explanation is that there are very few examples of individuals so intrinsically motivated that they cannot help themselves but produce enthralling ePortfolios! People write CVs to reach employers, similarly they produce ePortfolios when asked by a teacher, an institution, a professional body or authority. Call it audience or institution (which is as legitimate an audience as any other), it is generally an external factor which is at the origin of the production of ePortfolios — hence different types of ePortfolios documenting different episodes / aspects of the learning process.

So, if we accept the idea that an ePortfolio is a document that is the result of documenting the learning process (for an audience, including oneself), why should we continue to mention the ePortfolio as a process? Is there another process beyond documenting learning that would be worth the use of a specific concept? That concept might be individuation.

Individuation (Latin: principium individuationis) is the name given to processes whereby the undifferentiated tends to become individual, or to those processes through which differentiated components become integrated into stable wholes (link). Developped by a number of authors including Arthur Schopenhauer and Carl Jung, the understanding of the concept of individuation developed by Bernard Stiegler after the work of Gilbert Simondon*, both French philosophers, seems very rich ground on which to explore ePortfolio issues more deeply - once passed the hurdle of specialised philosophical language.

Although there is always a risk of trivialising complex ideas, or of using them metaphorically, here is a statement about ePortfolios that is made possible by the introduction of individuation: ePortfolios are the results of the process of individuation; individuation of people in the process of learning and individuation of technology in the process of dis-aggregation of information silos and their re-aggregation around individuals.

In the above statement ePortfolios are at the cross-roads of two individuation processes: individuals and technologies. The ePortfolio is not in itself a process, it is one of the possible outcomes of the individuation process of people and technologies. ePortfolios are not the mere result of a conscious activity (documenting learning) but the concomitant, ever changing, outcome of the individuation process of individuals (identity construction) and technologies (dis- re-aggregation).

Placing ePortfolios in the perspective of individuation (of people, communities and technologies) might help us to move the frontiers of ePortfolios. For example, the idea launched in 2003 in Poitiers, during the first ePortfolio conference ("In 2010 every citizen will have an ePortfolio") might be rephrased by: in the near future everybody will have the ability to exist as an autonomous subject on the Internet. Individuation of technologies will go far beyond ePortfolios and Personal Learning Environments(PLEs) which might appear as distant to the next generation of individuated technologies, as pre-hominids are from homo sapiens. Let's just hope that we will not have to wait 8 million years to observe some visible change!

It is still early days in the exploration of individuation in the field of ePortfolio. Here are some of the routes one might want to take in exploring the connections between ePortfolios / Personal Learning Environments and individuation:

• ePortfolios as one of the outcomes of the individuation process of technologies — social networks are another one
• The relationships between individual / collective ePortfolio and individual / collective individuation — co-individuation, trans-individuation
• ePortfolios and individualisation / personalisation / individuation / identity construction

All your contributions on this theme, and criticisms of the above developments, are welcome and this newsletter will gladly echo them in preparation for the 10th anniversary of the international ePortfolio and Identity conference.

In the meantime, the ePIC 2012 team and Conference Committee join me in wishing you all a great Christmas.

Serge Ravet

London, 9-10-11
July 2012

ePIC 2012 Call for contributions

On the 9-10-11 of July we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the international ePortfolio & Identity Conference and welcome the second ePortfolio World Summit. Since 2003 we have established a solid track record as a leading forum for connecting practitioners, researchers, technologists and policy makers in exploring ePortfolio and Identity practices and technologies. The conference is appreciated for its ability to explore current issues while leading the path towards possible futures.

Authors are invited to address issues in relation to:

• development of lifelong learner / professional / citizen identity;
• healthcare education of professionals and citizens (professional- health- folio);
• integrative learning and holistic development;
• individual / community /organisational ePortfolios and identities development;

• continuing professional development and sustainable employability;
• assessment, recognition and accreditation of learning (formal, informal, lifelong and life-wide).

Key conference questions may include, (but are not limited to):

Conference Tracks

Calendar

For a complete view of the call: http://www.epforum.eu/epic2012/conference/call

Open Badges: Open Data for Open ePortfolios

We have the pleasure to announce the participation of the Open Badges initiative at ePIC 2012 leading a track on the theme: Open Badges: Open Data for Open ePortfolios. Open Badges was launched in September 2011 by the Mozilla Foundation as a response to the difficulties in getting recognition for skills and achievements that are gained outside of school. The objective is to make it easy for anyone to issue, earn and display badges across the web, through a shared infrastructure that is free and open to all.

Next issues of the Newsflash will explore in more detail the benefits the ePortfolio community might expect from an encounter with the Open Badges community. Here are some of the interesting points of the current reflection of the initiators of Open Badges:

• Open infrastructure
• Distributed ePortfolios

The ideas of open infrastructure and distributed ePortfolio challenge the ePortfolio state of the art: ePortfolios have not yet been able to generate an infrastructure: while useful, existing ePortfolio standards such as Leap2A or IMS Global do not create an infrastructure but a series of juxtaposed silos. Open Infrastructure also raises questions about Open ePortfolios: what is an Open ePortfolio platform? Is Open Source sufficient to be Open? Is it possible to have Open ePortfolio platforms with proprietary software, and if yes, under what conditions? How do open source ePortfolios deal with 'open data'? Could Open Badges transform ePortfolio silos into an ecosystem of distributed open personal data?

These questions will be addressed over the next issues of this newsflash. In the meantime, have a look at Open Badges, reflect and share your thoughts with us.

Europortfolio: Call for a European Consortium

In order to address those issues, we are working on building a consortium to submit a proposal to the European Commission. Posible funding (link) is 150.000€ per year, with a maximum of 3 years. Deadline for the submission of proposals is 1 March 2012.

An initial summary of the proposal is accessible at http://tinyurl.com/7ddhs73. If you are interested to join as a partner or associated partner, you are invited to provide details using an online form accessible at: http://tinyurl.com/7hrxghs. Responses will be used to update the Summary and to invite partners to join as Partner or Associate Partner.

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Partner events

AAEEBL, Boston 16 – 19 July 2012

The AAEEBL annual Conference, ePortfolios as a Catalyst for Connections: Celebrating the Curious, Creative and Capable Learner

The AAEEBL2012 Program Committee invites you to submit a proposal for a session on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, July 17-19, 2012 in Boston, MA.  All session and poster presenters must register for the full AAEEBL conference.

All proposals must be submitted by midnight US (Eastern time) on February 3, 2012.  Accepted speakers will be invited by email to present by March 16, 2012.

Link to the online submission form.

ePortfolios Australia Conference 2012 (EAC2012) 17-18 October, Perth

A lot of great resources were generated as a part of the ePortfolios Australia Conference 2011 (EAC2011) in Perth in October 2011:

Conference proceedings