A discussion: ePortfolios - how are they supporting 21st Century learners?

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"A discussion: ePortfolios - how are they supporting 21st Century learners?" is the recording of a conversation that occurred at the eFest meets Teaching and Learning Conference (http://efest-teach-learn.ning.com/). The discussion covered a range of themes, issues and potentials, with particular reference to the tertiary education and vocational education and training sector.

The discussion was facilitated by Justin Sampson from Ako Aotearoa, who plays a key part in the ePortfolio Community of Practice hosted by Ako (http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/communities/eportfolios-new-zealand).

The combined conference eFest meets Teaching and Learning Conference was run from Wednesday 30 September to Friday 2 October 2009 and was hosted by UCOL in Palmerston North, NZ.

Enhancing online discussions - some ideas from the blogosphere...

Good afternoon. I thought you may be interested in this blog post about encouraging learners to 'talk' in online discussion forums. It is entitled "Say what? Promoting discussion in online courses", and has some interesting tips and wrinkles.

The introduction from the blog post is as follows: "How can we get learners to talk in online discussions, and how can we get the chatty students to shut up? The results have been pretty disappointing so far. Most instructors set up a discussion forum, and ask students to post an original post and to comment on two other posts. But instructors complain that students are doing the minimum and the discussions aren’t exciting. But what are they assessing? They’re just counting how many posts each student gives. The discussions, hence, are seen as tedious busywork."