E-portfolio excitement

I’ve been in my post for a few months now and it’s continuing to amaze me: a) how much understanding there is of the point of portfolios within my School. Education courses have been using them for years, of course, for trainee teachers out on placement, but there are just so many reflective writing, evidence-gathering and professional development activities going on here. You just scratch the surface and it all comes flooding out, under many different names, but essentially exactly what I want my project to support and enhance. b) how quick people here are to appreciate the potential of doing portfolios electronically. Few have heard the word ‘e-portfolio’ before, and so I’m asked all the time what one is, but as soon as I start to talk about reflecting on learning, selecting evidence, making connections… they’re there. It’s making some aspects of my job really easy. I haven’t had to sell the idea of e-portfolios at all, or do much in the way of explaining the thinking behind them. Colleagues are jumping right into questions about support, implementation, portability… the hard questions, in some respects, since the e-portfolio infrastructure within the University is new and still evolving. Maybe this isn’t surprising to others doing work in this area. But it’s freeing me up to make connections with other resources in the University – careers, transferable skills, continuing professional development. There’s a lot of good work already being done for postgraduate students and researchers in these areas here, and I’m trying to think more broadly about how it might all hang together. Exciting stuff for a Monday!