This paper was a Innovation Showcase presented by myself with Jenny Munday and Carole Hunter from Charles Sturt Univeristy. The paper was presented at the 2009 Australian Teacher Education Association annual conference held in Albury Wodonga. The power of ePorfolios in teacher education as a reflection and development tool has not been fully realised. The move to the National Professional Standards for Teachers gives great opportunity to explore how these might be used more broadly. I was first introduced to PebblePad in late 2008. This paper tells some of the beginnings of that story both for my work at UTAS, but also for Jenny and Carole’s work at CSU.
Preparing for the Profession: Embedding Course-based ePortfolios in Teacher Education
Jennifer Munday, Charles Sturt University; Karin Oerlemans, University of Tasmania ; Carole Hunter, Charles Sturt University
Abstract:
There is great potential for the development of professional ePortfolios for pre-service teachers by embedding the process(es) into degree programs. Stefani (2007) has identified four types of ePortfolios: Assessment portfolios, that focus on learners collecting evidence to illustrate competence in subject areas; Showcase portfolios, that allow the learner to display their work in the form of an electronic curriculum vitae; Development portfolios, that support the tracking and planning of student learning; and, Reflective portfolios, that focus on self-assessment. The advent of flexible and stable ePortfolio environments means that students can be shown a practical way to approach the collection of artefacts and supporting documentation in order to provide evidence of their learning and development, and encourage them to life-long learning beyond their degree study.