Keynote speech at Northeast Association for Language Learning Technology 2009, April 4, 2009, Easton, PA

1. Eportfolios for Communication Skills
and Intercultural Competence
Darren Cambridge
Northeast Association for
Language Learning Technology
Easton, PA, April 4, 2009

2. European Language Portfolio
• Funded by the European Union
• A variety of frameworks for different national
contexts and languages
• Three components
– Passport – Europass
– Dossier
– Biography

3. Passport
Self-assessment of multiple dimensions of language ability according to
common standards

5. ELP Biography

6. Key elements of an eportfolio
Evidence of learning Dossier
• Authentic
• Diverse
Reflection on evidence and identity Biography
• Interprets change over time
• Examines performance across contexts
• Articulates commitments and future
aspirations
Assessment usingcommon conceptual Passport
framework
• Connects evidence and reflections to
shared standards
• Facilitates conversation

7. Overview
• Efforts to establish conceptual frameworks
and assessment methodologies
• Ways of supporting reflective learning
• Broadening our understanding of evidence
• (A bit about eportolios and social software if
there’s time)

8. Assessment

10. ACE Assessing International Initiatives
• An initiative of the American Council
on Education funded by the Fund for
the Improvement of Post-secondary
Education
• Six participating institutions
• Assessment using a combination of an
eportfolio and a survey
• Website with resources for
assessment:
http://tinyurl.com/aceinternational

11. Knowledge Skills Attitudes
Outcomes
•Understands his culture within •Uses knowledge, diverse •Appreciates the language, art,
a global and comparative cultural frames of reference, religion, philosophy, and
context (that is, the student and alternate perspectives to material culture of different
recognizes that his culture is think critically and solve cultures.
one of many diverse cultures problems.
•Accepts cultural differences
and that alternate perceptions
•Communicates and connects
and behaviors may be based in and tolerates cultural ambiguity.
cultural differences). with people in other language
•Demonstrates an ongoing
communities in a range of
•Demonstrates knowledge of settings for a variety of willingness to seek out
global issues, processes, trends, purposes, developing skills in international or intercultural
and systems (that is, economic each of the four modalities: opportunities.
and political interdependency speaking (productive), listening
among nations, environmental- (receptive), reading (receptive),
cultural interaction, global and writing (productive).
governance bodies, and
•Uses foreign language skills
nongovernmental
organizations). and/or knowledge of other
cultures to extend his access to
•Demonstrates knowledge of information, experiences, and
other cultures (including beliefs, understanding.
values, perspectives, practices,
and products).

12. Rubrics

13. Liberal Education for
America’s Promise (LEAP)
• Knowledge of Human Cultures • Personal and Social
and the Physical and Natural Responsibility
World – Civic knowledge and
engagement—local and global
– Through study in the sciences
– Intercultural knowledge and
and mathematics, social
sciences, humanities, histories, competence
languages, and the arts – Ethical reasoning and action
• Intellectual and Practical Skills – Foundations and skills for
– Inquiry and analysis lifelong learning
• Integrative Learning
– Critical and creative thinking
– Written and oral – Synthesis and advanced
communication accomplishment across
general and specialized studies
– Quantitative literacy
– Information literacy
– Teamwork and problem
solving

14. VALUE Intercultural Rubric

15. Reflection

16. Theories of Reflection
• John Dewey - Critical Thinking
– Tacit knowledge
– Rigorous analytical thinking
• Donald Schön - Reflective Practitioner
– Key to effective professional practice and human thought
– Reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action
• David Kolb - Stages of Reflection
– Description, analysis, judgment, planning
• David Boud - Linking cognitive and affective
– Examining emotions in professional performance
• Pablo Friere, Stephen Brookfield, et. al - Critical Reflection
– Questioning assumptions
– Understanding and challenging domination

17. Reflection with Eportfolios
• Enabling multimedia and hypertextual evidence and
reflection
– LSU
– Stanford
– LaGuardia
• Scaffolding the learning process
– Concordia
– Kapiolani
• Providing support and feedback
– LRO
– Skilled Immigrant ePortfolio

18. Enabling multimedia and hypertextual
evidence and reflection
• Communication Across the Curriculum at LSU
• Stanford Learning Careers Project
• LaGuardia Community College Eportfolio

19. Communication
Across the
Curriculum at LSU

22. • Recent
immigrants and
first-generation
college students
• Bridging home
and disciplinary
culture
• Impact on
retention, student
engagement,
grades
• Visual design and
iteration

23. Scaffolding the Reflection Process
• Concordia University (Montreal) ePEARL
• Kapi’olani Community College Nā Wa̒a

24. Scaffolding Self-
Regulated Learning
ePEARL Project Phases of Self-Regulation
• Software for primary and • Forethought
second school students – Goal Setting
– Self-efficacy
• In use in schools across
• Performance
Quebec and elsewhere in
Canada – Self-recording
• Research on use in French • Self-reflection
immersion school for grades – Self-judgment
5-6 shows gains in self- – Self-reaction
regulated learning attitudes
and behaviors

30. Matrix Thinking at Kapi’olani
• First-year courses
• Six native Hawaiian values
and four stages of the
journey of a canoe
• Research documents
impact on student
engagement (CCSSE) and
learning strategies (LASSI)

31. Providing Support and Feedback
• Learning Record Online
• Skilled Immigrant ePortfolios

32. Learning Record Online
• Five dimensions of learning and course goals
• Observations and samples of work throughout semester
• Rapid and iterative feedback through web interface
• Interpretation and grade recommendations at middle and end
• Midterm moderations

33. Skilled Immigrant ePortfolio
• Successful and harmonious integration of immigrants
• Integrating and improving access to rich and diverse
resources and services that are hidden, dispersed or
fragmented
• Regional initiative in Quebec
• Modular personal portal links services to self-
representation
Samantha Slade
sam@percolab.com

34. A modular widget-based environment

35. Integrating Language and Culture
Phase 1, Early 2009 Phase 2, Mid 2009 Phase 3, Late 2009
The Basics Workplace Integration Daily Life
Language proficiency Finding employment Health
Family
Personal profile Health and safety
Housing
Experiences Performing at interviews
Leisure activities
Competence Local work culture
Banking
Conflicts in the workplace
Citizenship
Business networks
Starting a business
Team work
Volunteering

36. Complicating Evidence
• Link between evidence and reflection distinguishes
eportfolios and other digital means for
– Supporting reflective learning
– Managing information about knowledge, skills, abilities and
experiences
• “Evidence” is the documents included in a portfolio on which
the author reflects
• Use of evidence in practice is more complex than the
eportfolio literature often acknowledges

37. Academics as Test of Self
• We intended for
curricular content to be
an central source of
evidence and ideas and
strategies, but it didn’t
show up this way
• Class work functioned as
– A demonstration of
character virtues
– An experience
– A goal putting aspiration
towards those virtues in
action

38. Characteristics of Agency
• Self-authored
item used as
• Collaboratively authored (portfolio author and associates)
evidence
• Other-authored
Media
•Media and modality of evidence (e.g., text, audio, image,
streaming video, multimedia, etc.)
Purpose of Rhetorical Function
• Intended (or deduced) function of the evidence (e.g.,
incorporating
demonstrates or symbolizes)
evidence
Object
• Evidence reflects author’s knowledge, skills, character traits,
beliefs, goals, or identifications
Characteristics of Sponsorship
• Institutionally sponsored (curricular, co-curricular, community
associated
organizations, etc.)
learning activity
• Self-sponsored
• Unsponsored
Participation
• Individual participation
• Group activity
• Larger community/associational activity

39. Matches and Mismatches
• Reflective description of evidence
• Content of evidence
• Local – site of specific evidence use
• Global – the whole portfolio
• Matches and mismatches yield more
sophisticated understanding and resources for
supporting portfolio authors

43. Being popular matters because
• It suggests intrinsic motivation, which we’d
like to understand and tap.
• There are social practices related to use
beyond academic settings we need to take
into account.

44. Fits into the open spaces of daily life
• Short
– Average blog post is 210.4 words
– Mean length of “About Me” is 157 characters; median is 36
• Frequent
– Time between last and penultimate post mean in 5 days;
mode is 1 day
– 60% of adults access SNS at least several times a week ;
37% access every day
– Average college student logs in at least once a day
• Brief
– 59% of blog writers spend 1-2 hrs/wk
– Average college students spends 20 minutes/day on SNS

45. Database Lowers Transaction Costs
• Data collection
– Unstructured
– “firstly, a dataset, a list of things” (Jarrett 2004)
• Interface
– Provides structure; guide’s the reader’s experience
– Emphasis of search in blogs and SNS
• Dynamic selection and arrangement vs.
• Interface as a composition with an intentionally meaningful
selection and arrangement
• Number of fields completed predicts number of friends
but amount of information in them does not

46. • Used by 80,000 residents
• Most active users demographically representative
• Use across roles suggests intrinsic motivation and
lifelong learning
• Integration of different life roles in single
representation with user control over contents and
visual design key success factor

47. I think it'd be difficult to separate completely, you
know, who I am and what my immediate family loves are
versus just me as a professional educator and nurse. … I am
not someone who's isolated to the world of professional
nursing education. I also have conflicting, or competing
maybe, obligations within my life that I need to balance, just
as students do and other professionals do, and I think that
that's a good thing, to show … people that are reading my
sites, I have other obligations in my life, and I manage to
hopefully balance them all and be able to perform to the
best of my ability in all those domains.

48. Network Self
Creating intentional connections
Symphonic Self
Achieving integrity of the whole