I recently returned from an electronic portfolio conference at Stanford University <more on that later> where we explored how eportfolios could support integrative learning, learning outcomes, and make the learning process more visible. The whole discussion of eportfolios is very exciting for a number of reasons. In some respects educational technology has not gained traction in higher education. Sure there has been adoption of tools that have made communication easier and administrative tasks more efficient. But the adoption of technology to really transform learning (in the true constructivist sense) lags. Why is that? Effort has been made towards developing faculty acuity with technology but the potential is still not even close to what it could be. In part it has to do with the unbalanced effort being put towards faculty development and not enough attention being paid to student use of technology. If the efforts were shifted to better support creative use of technology by students eportfolios and other academic technology initiatives would flourish. Momentum would build because students would be driving the effort for academic use of technology. This seems to be happening with regular frequency in the k-12 environment - why not in higher ed? The adoption of student centered eportfolios could be a good beginning.

JENNY