Well, I can now officially add e.portfolio to my ICT toolkit, as earlier this week, I began work on my own professional e.portfolio in Mahara.
Mahara operates on open source software, and although the software is free to obtain, my account needed to be hosted on a web server (in this case NetSpot) for a small fee. After creating an account, logging into Mahara and viewing the tutorial videos our course co-ordinated had provided, I explored how the site works, and experimented with the various features available.
To begin, I completed profile information for my profile page (contact information/ goals/ skills/ resume), uploaded a profile icon, added an RSS feed from my blog and requested ‘friendships’ with my peers. I then browsed some of the groups available to me in the Mahara community, joined the ‘GDLT Primary Students’ Group and also posted a message on the group’s forum. From here, I investigated in detail how “‘My Portfolio” works and how to create a “View.” Included below is the first view I created - “Karlee’s Professional Profile,” which is designed an introductory view on my e.portfolio. As you can see, I experimented with the ‘view’ functionality by adding; photos, an RSS feed from my Professional Blog and also a text box with a ‘welcome’ message.
From my initial interactions with the Mahara e.portfolio tool, I feel as though (in an education context) this software is best suited to pre-service teachers, teachers and secondary school students, and less applicable for primary students. I only say this because, in comparison to blogs, wikis and the other ICTs I have used and researched, Mahara appears to be a far more complex piece of software with rather professional applications that younger students may not so easily grasp or find meaningful. Perhaps as I continue to familiarise myself with Mahara, the potential for e.portfolios in primary learning will be more apparent.
Nonetheless, it is also clear that there are numerous learning opportunities an e.portfolio tool like Mahara can offer. Secondary students (particularly those in their senior years), would benefit from using Marhara and developing an e.portfolio of their high school work for presentation to potential employers or those involved in tertiary education admissions and scholarship panels.
For instance, secondary school art students could use the software to create ‘views’ of work which detail the creative process and present their artwork at various stages of completion (be it through photos, video or text etc.). Given that entry into tertiary fine arts programs frequently requires individuals to present a portfolio of work, an e.portfolio view would be a highly professional way for art students to present their best art pieces. In much the same way, an aspiring journalist could create views of their written work with supporting documentation and photographs, which could be then made available to potential employers (for example, HR officers at magazines, television stations or newspapers). Student use of Mahara could also form part of their assessment. For example, in an art class, ‘views’ could replace (or complement) visual art diaries as an assessment item. From these examples, it is evident that, e.portfolios lend themselves to learning experiences with an authentic ‘real world’ nature and in this way would be fantastic teaching tool for developing positive attitudes and perceptions about classroom tasks as suggested by Marzano et al. (2009), engaging students in task that they perceive as meaningful (Kearsley &Shneiderman, 1998).
I can also see that the teaching e.portfolio I develop in this course will be an invaluable resource as I seek employment in my chosen field as views of my work can be made available to potential employers/ principals. In addition, my teaching e.portfolio will be great way to share lessons plans and learning experiences that I have designed with my teaching colleagues in the future.
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