Are we emphasizing content or technology? Which is correct?

Eliot, M., Kilgore, D., Mobrand, K., Sattler, B., and Turns, J. (2012). Preparedness Portfolios and Portfolio Studios. International Journal of ePortfolio, 2 (1), 1-13.

Preparedness Portfolios and Portfolio Studios

This article starts with the flexibility and innovation of electronic portfolios in education, but what really caught my attention was the fact that this work focuses on engineering students developing ePortfolios.  The authors even acknowledged that, as a discipline, engineering has not traditionally been connected to ePortfolios.  The paper also looks at the idea of portfolio studios.  What is a portfolio studio?  According to the authors, it is “a structure for supporting students in their efforts to construct their ePortfolios” (1).  More on this later…

The authors chose to emphasize ePortfolio content, not technology in this research project.  As an example of other projects, they mentioned the statewide exploration of a single ePortfolio system in Minnesota.  Due to its large-scale deployment, it was necessary to focus on technology.  The authors, however, state that the need to learn ePortfolio technology can interfere with other benefits of developing an ePortfolio.  For this reason, they chose to use simple website authoring tools (similar to the public tools provided by Google Sites) and focus on ePortfolio content in this project.

One thing that I really like about this article is the use of argumentation in regards to the content and function of ePortfolios.  They view ePortfolios as a tool for making claims and then providing evidence to support the claims.  In this project, a professional statement typically created the home page and annotated artifacts became additional pages.  I often ask students and jobseekers to think of how their cover letters address job postings.  Yes, I have that skill.  Yes, I meet the qualifications.  I want an ePortfolio to go beyond that and actually show me their abilities.  So you’re certified to operate that piece of equipment?  Give me a video demonstration to prove it.

Back to the portfolio studios…  The authors conducted three studies experimenting with the support provided to students.  The first study had two in-class brainstorming sessions and a grading rubric.  The second study had four sessions, which included peer review, and the third study had five sessions with the same features, but also included an opportunity for practice presentations.  They found the five-session portfolio studio as the most advantageous and offered a detailed description for the structure of each session.

Session 1:  Introduction to ePortfolio
Session 2:  Share experiences and brainstorm
Session 3:  Facilitator and peer review
Session 4:  Peer review
Session 5:  Presentations

I will admit that my training sessions dedicate a significant amount of time to learning the technology while the researchers in this project did not have to allocate much time for such issues.  While I try to emphasize content, my training sessions are very focused on technology.  Perhaps this research can help me find a similar balance.  In the conclusion, it is briefly mentioned that they now offer portfolio studios as one-credit seminars.  I hope to learn more about the implementation of such a concept.