Keynote address at WCELfest2015, February 12, 2015.

1. Know Thyself:
ePortfolios and Reflective Stories
of Deep Learning
Dr. Helen Barrett
University of Alaska Anchorage (retired)
International Researcher & Consultant

2. Key Concepts
• Portfolios for Lifelong
Learning
• Identity Development &
Online Professional
Branding
• Metacognition & Reflection
• Digital Storytelling &
Reflection
• Technology Tools & Apps

3. Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle
3
motivation
process
product

4. WHAT?

5. Portfolio
One Word,
Many Meanings
Specialty Case Responsibilities
InvestmentsArt Work
Collection of Artifacts
Workspace
Showcase

6. DEFINITIONS
Who was the
first famous
“folio” keeper?

7. Leonardo da Vinci’s Folio

8. E-Portfolio Components
< Multiple Portfolios for
Multiple Purposes
-Celebrating Learning
-Personal Planning
-Transition/entry to courses
-Employment applications
-Accountability/Assessment
< Multiple Tools to Support
Processes
-Capturing & storing evidence
-Reflecting
-Giving & receiving feedback
-Planning & setting goals
-Collaborating
-Presenting to an audience
< Digital Repository
(Becta, 2007; JISC, 2008)

9. Convergence

10. Digital Storytelling Process
• Create a 2-to-4 minute digital video clip
– First person narrative
[begins with a written script ~ 400 words]
– Told in their own voice [record script]
– Illustrated (mostly) by still images
– Music track to add emotional tone

11. A Dozen Purposes for DS in EP
• Introduction of Self
– Voice & Personality
– Legacy
– Biography
– Memoir
• Artifacts
– Evidence of Collaboration
– Documentary
– Record of Experience
– Oral Language
• Reflection
– Transition
– Decision
– Benchmarking
Development
– Change
over Time

12. Good Morning Sunshines
A teacher’s reflection on professional growth
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1ObJ0iUdLR4

13. WHY?

14. Multiple Purposes
from Hidden Assumptions
What are yours?
• Showcase • Assessment • Learning
•
http://www.rsc-northwest.ac.uk/acl/eMagArchive/RSCeMag2008/choosing%20an%20eportfolio/cool-cartoon-
346082.png

15. Multiple Purposes of
E-Portfolios in Education
–Learning/ Process/ Planning
–Marketing/ Showcase/ Employment
–Assessment/ Accountability
"The Blind Men and the Elephant”
by John Godfrey Saxe

16. Purpose
• The overarching purpose of
portfolios is to create a sense of
personal ownership over one’s
accomplishments, because
ownership engenders feelings of
pride, responsibility, and
dedication. (p.10)
• Paris, S & Ayres, L. (1994) Becoming Reflective Students and Teachers.
American Psychological Association

17. Personal Learning Environment Supports
Self-Directed Learning

18. Lifelong Learner
Four key
pillars of
Lifelong
Learning
(Barbara
Stäuble, Curtin
University of
Technology,
Australia)

19. Knowing the learner
(Self-awareness)
• Understanding prior knowledge
• Motivation for and attitudes
toward learning
• Help learners understand
themselves
• See their growth over time

20. “Know Thyself”
Temple at Delphi

21. Managing Oneself
• “Success in the
knowledge economy
comes to those who
know themselves –
their strengths, their
values, and how best
they perform.”
• Purpose: Use
ePortfolios for
managing knowledge
workers' career
development
• What are my strengths?
• How do I perform?
• What are my values?
• Where do I belong?
• What should I
contribute?
• Responsibility for
Relationships
• The Second Half of your
Life
Peter Drucker, (2005) Harvard Business Review

22. Planning for learning
(Self management)
• Setting goals
• Develop a plan to
achieve these
goals

23. Evaluating learning
(Self monitoring)
• Systematic analysis of learners’
performance
• Responsibility to construct meaning
• Be reflective & think critically
• Learners construct meaning,
monitor learning, evaluate
own outcomes

24. Understanding how to learn
(Meta-learning)
• Awareness of learners to
different approaches to
learning
• Deep vs. Surface Learning,
Rote vs. Meaningful Learning
• Different Learning Styles
• Help learners recognize success
• Accommodate approaches that are not
successful

25. Deep Learning
• involves reflection,
• is developmental,
• is integrative,
• is self-directive, and
• is lifelong
Cambridge (2004)

26. “The portfolio
is a laboratory
where
students
construct
meaning
from their
accumulated
experience."
(Paulson & Paulson,
1991, p.5)

27. Portfolio Learning
Figure 2 A model of e-portfolio-based learning, adapted
from Kolb (1984)
JISC, 2008, Effective Practice with e-Portfolios, p. 9
Experience
Understanding
FeelingReviewing
Reflecting
Publishing &
Receiving Feedback
Sharing &
Collaborating
Dialogue
Selecting
Synthesizing
Recording
Organizing
Planning
Conceptualizing
& Constructing
Meaning

28. QUOTE
 The e-portfolio is the central
and common point for the student
learning experience… It is a reflection
of the student as a person undergoing
continuous personal development,
not just a store of evidence.
-Geoff Rebbeck, e-Learning Coordinator, Thanet College, quoted in
JISC, 2008, Effective Practice with e-Portfolios

29. PORTFOLIOS HELP LEARNERS
FIND THEIR VOICE…
and explore their Purpose and
Passions through Choice!

30. Lifelong Context for E-Portfolios

31. Lifelong Life-Wide Scenario
• Lifelong, life-wide approach to:
- Lifetime personal web space
- Electronic portfolios
- Online Videos
- Digital Stories
Scenario

32. Families are the Centerpiece
Scenario

33. Informal Learning
Scenario
Social Networking

34. Early Childhood Portfolios
Scenario

35. Digital Birth:
Welcome to the Online World
• Mothers with children aged under two (N=2200) that have
uploaded images of their child (2010)
• Overall – 81%
– USA – 92%
– Canada - 84%
– (EU5 - 73%)
UK - 81% France - 74% Italy - 68% Germany - 71% Spain –
71%
– Australia – 84%
– New Zealand – 91%
– Japan - 43%
The research was conducted by Research Now among 2200 mothers with young (under two) children during the week of 27 September.
Mothers in the EU5 (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain), Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Japan were polled.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101
006006722/en/Digital-Birth-Online-World
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sailbit/3329477282/

37. Formal Education:
Assessment Portfolio Systems
• Two approaches
Formative (Learning)
Summative (Evaluation)
Scenario

38. Children enter school
Scenario

39. High School Graduation

40. Digital Identity
• Creating a positive digital footprint

41. Post-Secondary - Benchmarks
Scenario

42. Portfolios in the Work Place
• Less well-defined
• Some professions
produce digital products
– Music
– Art
– Website design
• Accreditation of
prior learning
• Personnel
Evaluation?
Scenario
for Professional Development
Scenario

43. Digital Stories - Legacies
Scenario

44. “Memex” – Memory Extender
• Cognitive Prosthesis
• Memory
Enhancement
Research
• Autobiographies
(Family Legacy)
Scenario

45. Coming Full Circle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaL9PV04dlk

46. REFLECTION FOR
LEARNING
https://sites.google.com/
site/reflection4learning/
Resource on
Reflection

47. The Learning Cycle
David Kolb from Dewey, Piaget, Lewin, adapted by Zull

48. Experiential Learning Model
Lewin/Kolb with adaptations by Moon and Zull
Try out what you have
learned
Learn from the experience
Reflect on the experience
Have an experience
Practice
Metacognition

49. Portfolio as Story
"A portfolio tells a story.
It is the story of knowing. Knowing
about things... Knowing oneself...
Knowing an audience... Portfolios are
students' own stories of what they
know, why they believe they know it,
and why others should be of the same
opinion.”
(Paulson & Paulson, 1991, p.2)

50. Reflection =
Storytelling
The “Heart and Soul” of a Portfolio
Reflection in portfolios helps learners
construct meaning.
“What?” “So What?” “Now What?”

51. “metacognition lies at the root of
all learning”
“…self-knowledge, awareness of how and why
we think as we do, and the ability to adapt and
learn, are critical to our survival as
individuals…”
- James Zull (2011) From Brain to Mind: Using Neuroscience to
Guide Change in Education

52. What is Reflection?
• Major theoretical roots:
– Dewey
– Habermas
– Kolb
– Schön
• Dewey: “We do not learn from
experience…we learn from reflecting on
experience.”

53. Storytelling as Reflection (Schön, 1988)
“…for storytelling is the mode of description
best suited to transformation in new
situations of action.”
“Stories are products of reflection, but we do
not usually hold onto them long enough to make
them objects of reflection in their own right.”

54. Roger Schank, Tell Me a Story
“Telling stories and listening to other
people's stories shape the memories
we have of our experiences.”
Stories help us organize our experience and
define our sense of ourselves.

55. Storytelling
as a Theory of Learning
• Two educators from
New Zealand -
staff developer and
health educator
• Relates storytelling to
literature on learning
and reflection
• Provides stages of
storytelling related to
reflection

57. Deana’s Story

58. HOW?

59. Digital Tools
for Reflection
Reflective Journal
(Blog)
Digital Storytelling
and Engagement

60. Is the Future
of ePortfolio
Development
in your Pocket?
• “Capture the Moment” – Reflection in the Present
Tense
• What am I learning at this moment?
• Using the tools in our pockets!

61. INTEGRATE INTO EVERYDAY
ACTIVITIES
Photos: Flickr by Kim Cofino

62. APPS
Software to support ePortfolio &
Digital Storytelling Development

63. More Effective Use of Mobiles =
+
Mobile Devices
Accounts in
the Cloud
Apps 

64. Self-Regulated Learning
Abrami, P., et. al. (2008), Encouraging self-regulated learning through electronic
portfolios. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, V34(3) Fall 2008.
http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/viewArticle/507/238

65. Learning/Reflection Cycle
blog
websiteSo What?
Why?
(double-loop learning)
Now
What?
What?

67. Planning & Setting Goals
Giving & Receiving Feedback
Reflective Journal
Planning
Doing
Reflecting

68. CAPTURE THE MOMENT
With Mobile
Devices
Text
Images
Audio
Video
Doing

69. Storage
Capturing & Storing Evidence
Mobile Apps + Website
Google Docs
Capture
Images &
Video
Capture VoiceStore Online
DropBoxGoogle Drive
now

70. Other apps
Others?
Interactive Whiteboard
CamScanner Free (& + & Pro) Notability
only
only
3-Ring
Explain Everything
$2.99
$2.99
screencasting

71. MaharaDroid

72. Web 2.0 Sites
Presenting to an Audience
Create Presentations Create Videos
Share Online
Online Video Editing
Reflecting

73. 73
Reflection & Relationships
… the “Heart and Soul” of an
e-portfolio…
NOT the Technology!
A Reminder…

74. What’s Your Story?

75. My Portfolio & Choices
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHMUwdUCXiM

76. 76
My Final Wish…
E-portfolios become
dynamic celebrations &
stories of deep learning
across the lifespan.
Thank You!

77. DR. HELEN BARRETT
Researcher & Consultant
Electronic Portfolios & Digital Storytelling for Lifelong and Life Wide Learning
Founding Faculty, REAL* ePortfolio Academy for K-12 Teachers
*Reflection, Engagement, Assessment for Learning
eportfolios@gmail.com
http://electronicportfolios.org/
Twitter: @eportfolios
http://slideshare.net/eportfolios