Holistic and Integral Education

A Folio of eFolios

We are using a number of digital folio technologies this year - and we may continue using most of them. Each seems to suit a different student and teacher needs...

MS SharePoint (2003)

We host and administer SharePoint on campus. Every student can create a personal space with:

• room to upload and share documents and digital media
• message space
• tasks list - with task management functionality
• links and other modules such as discussion forums and surveys
• access control - students can set who has what level of access
• presencing - the system indicates who is currently online - integrates with MS Office
  
  

It's also possible for users to add modules that display del.icio.us tags and flickr feeds from mobile phone uploads:




Moodle

We use an off-campus service with web administration. Several teachers are using Moodle for their classes with

• space to upload documents and digital media
• forums and blogs - with tagging
• news, calendar, messages
• student management and statistics
  

Teachers find that Moodle provides a more controlled on-line learning environment that is particularly suited to Open Learning classes - although a few other classes also use it.

ELGG - Social Networking

This is the first time we have tried a social networking learning environment. We are using a hosted Elgg service while we evaluate it. We are currently using it:

• for some classes and special interest groups (SIGs)
• to host learning journals
• as a digital folio for tagged multimedia
• to aggregate RSS feeds
• to connect students with similar interests and learning goals
  

Although we only have 80 users on this system at the moment the tags are beginning to build and link people and resources:

Some of our current questions are:

• How can year 12 students take their digital folios with them as they move on to work and further education?
• Should we attempt to provide one solution that attempts to fit all needs or should we offer several tools for students and teachers to choose from?
• How can students manage digital folios for assessment and potential employers and themselves?
• What is the relationship between our 'official' digital folios and other online spaces that students use to upload multimedia such as DeviantArt or YouTube or MySpace?
  

Labels: assessment, folio, ICT tools, personalisation

posted by Roger Stack @ 6:13 PM