e-Portfolios : supporting reflective, self-directed learning, for life

Hi all
I am presently completing a Master degree and the aim of my final research is to evaluate my practice as I implement the use of e- portfolios in my classroom, using blogs and other Web 2.0 tools, to develop and demonstrate student reflective practice. I am hoping to build on and develop my existing knowledge of practice in the use of web 2.0 tools to support, develop and demonstrate reflective, self directed learning.
This is a little tricky because e-portfolios are a means of supporting and demonstrating the learning process, and not an end in themselves. I want to developed my own professional practice in using tools that help students to be reflective, self directed learners and I am going to show this in the form of a reflective diary(establishing my own e-Portfolio. I want to develop my own knowledge of audio tools that can be used to support reflection in and of learning. I was thinking of things like Voicethread and podcasts- which I am not confident in using as yet.
If anyone has other ideas regarding e-tools that they think support reflective practice, I would really appreciate any advice or guidance. I would also like to chat to anyone who has been using open source software to develop e-Portfolios for this purpose.
I think that personal professional development in the area of IT and digital literacies, for all teachers, is critical. In my reading, the viewpoint was expressed that teachers would not be replaced by computers, but that those teacher who were not skilled in the area of IT , would be replaced by those that were. An interesting thought.

Tags: e-Portfolios, e-tools, life-longlearning, reflectivepractice, self-directedlearning

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Permalink Reply by Gail Mitchell on June 12, 2009 at 4:54am

Hi Tammy
Thanks for that. I will have a look at it and come back to you with my thought once I have had a bit of a play.
Regards
Gail

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Permalink Reply by Lee Alvin Beamon, Jr. on April 2, 2010 at 9:21am

I placed this comment in another discussion area but I figured that it might help here as well. I read recently that teachers are using voicethread.com to post pictures of a lesson that was conducted. The students then viewed the photos and commented on them, hence retelling their version of the lesson and what they learned. I will continue to search for more ways of reflective teaching and as I come across them, I'll post when I get a chance.

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Permalink Reply by Gail Mitchell on April 7, 2010 at 3:09pm

Thanks for this idea. I have used voicethread in other ways but this is another possibility. I have also been working with Solo Taxonomy - a great thinking tool for reflective practice which has been easy to link to e-portfolios.- however it is not an e-tool.