2013 Eportfolio Forum Key Speakers

2013 Eportfolio Forum

Digital Identities, Footprints and Networks

3 October 2013

University of Canberra, Bruce Campus, Australian Capital Territory

together with Pre-Forum Workshops on 2 October

Home – Call for Proposals – Program – Registration – Workshops

Keynote Speaker:

Prof Phillip Long, University of Queensland:  ePortfolios in the New World of Learner Driven Pathways
Various data now justifies the predominance of digital learning as a primary rather than supplemental form of learning setting. This digitally mediated learning environment is generally dominated by the brontosaurus of learning platforms, the LMS. In this view the LMS is legacy technology; the ePortfolio is anticipatory technology (Batson, 2013). What does this mean and what are we anticipating?

Today the majority of tertiary education students engage in coursework using some combination of digital tools. The doors have been opened by the shift to a demand-driven system, funding students to study wherever they choose. Once choice has entered the equation, where does it stop?  The learner is now primed to become the owner of their own learning pathway. The learner now needs ways of managing their learning beyond the LMS.

The implications of learners as independent agents, sampling from different institutions and their offerings, and participating in lifelong learning, requires that they can keep track of this dispersed learning. Tracking this complexity is complicated by new developments in micro-certification (aka badging systems) and movements toward competency as opposed to seat-time as measures of learning. The new century learner must own their learning journey and leverage tools that facilitate and augment their own development.

But there are dangers ahead. When you say portfolio, I say “what”? Portfolios mean different things to different people, making portfolio projects fraught with confusion and frustration. Portfolios are both essential and elusive to the distributed digital learning future.

Opening Speaker:

Dr Alan McAlpine, Queensland University of Technology:  Career Development, Employers’ needs and ePortfolios…. is there a connection?
ePortfolios have been around for a number of years, with an early assumption that these would replace the resume in the recruitment world and be the tool of choice for job seekers to both store, for preparation, and present their qualities to the employer of choice in the future. A number of years on, has this actually, or is this likely to happen? What is happening in the recruitment and employment market and is there a need and use for ePortfolios? The presentation will outline the benefits of current ePortfolio use and the current attitudes of a number of employers as well as proposing the future of meeting of employer’s needs in a changing world.