The document discusses continuing work on personal e-portfolio tools and platforms. It outlines 6 work packages to further develop and trial the Open Source Portfolio (OSP) and PHP-based CV builder tools, including convergence with the Open Source Portfolio Interchange standard, application hosting, additional case studies, and interoperability testing. It also discusses dissemination activities and concerns with the Sakai platform for e-portfolios. Key findings are that e-portfolios are about reflection and learning processes rather than just tools or products, and a learner-centered focus on reflection had more value than institutionally-driven systems.

1. myWORLD & Petal: Continuation wider opportunities for reflection, learning and development personal e-portfolios for teaching and lifelong learning Reflection 28 March 2007

2. Background and rationale Migrate Petal tools to Sakai/OSPv.2.1 To implement the updated OSPv2.1 software Repeat a cycle of trials To implement the PHP-based CV builder To test interoperability To continue development and dissemination activities

3. Outline of Work Packages WP 1 OSPI convergence, localisation for 4 case studies and data manipulation for interoperability WP 1a Application Hosting WP 2 Trial OSP in 3 continuing case studies WP 3 Trial CV Builder, Integrate into Moodle CV Course WP 4 Trial OSP in cpd case study WP 5 Interoperability trials WP 6 Dissemination participation in UK OSP development group participation in CETIS e-Portfolio SIG participation in JISC/SURF e-Portfolio working group presentations at conferences continuing the myWORLD blog and wiki

4. Outline of Work Packages WP 1 OSPI convergence, localisation for 4 case studies and data manipulation for interoperability WP 1a Application Hosting WP 2 Trial OSP in 3 continuing case studies WP 3 Trial CV Builder, Integrate into Moodle CV Course WP 4 Trial OSP in cpd case study WP 5 Interoperability trials WP 6 Dissemination participation in UK OSP development group participation in CETIS e-Portfolio SIG participation in JISC/SURF e-Portfolio working group presentations at conferences continuing the myWORLD blog and wiki

6. Major concerns with Sakai For the FE and Community Education sectors, and individual any departments wishing to implement e-portfolios outside a centrally supported VLE the technical infrastructure required for SAKAI is heavy and requires significant developer support best suited to a large, integrated university-wide MLE implementation

7. Far from being a thin layer SAKAI installation means implementing the full environment and then disabling tools that aren’t required. Issues discovered once the systems had begun initial roll-out included load and locking problems on the database (MySQL) show stopping issues concerning fragments of data being left in the system after a user requested a delete. For the UI and user experience the scale of work to be done on Sakai and OSP is significant

8. Unexpected outcomes ePortfolios are about process, not a tool or a product or a packet of information to be exchanged between systems. Understanding of e-portfolio processes was surprisingly well articulated End users clearly distinguished between the potential of e-portfolio processes and the sometimes buggy software the "CV plus" is qualitatively different from a paper CV "e-portfolio literacy" issues exist for assessors as well as compilers and presenters

9. ePortfolio Processes collect, reflect, select, and present, most significant across the studies was reflection. The process involves people in communication with one another and with discourses that articulate their life experiences: community, education, employment, family not just a reflection of the state of the art with respect to either the tools or the practice a fundamental shift afforded by internet technologies that makes an e-portfolio different from the updating of a CV or the maintenance of a physical portfolio.

10. Fundamental shift any product of the process is transitory CV for the moment created for a particular rhetorical purpose reflection is where the value is

11. Focus on learner and reflection When institutional concerns were removed from the equation and the focus placed on the learner and their reflection Processes might be disaggregated with different tools serving different processes Life mashups VLE + Flickr + youTube + …

12. Two very different learning designs e-portfolio processes in personal development planning: Foundation degree module incorporating Web2.0 social software tools "out there" with a VLE-based walled garden for private discussion and group reflection Moodle "activity": CV builder.

15. Recommendations Continue development of learner-centred services, not monolithic institutional systems. Use web services effctively Continue service-oriented architecture development Encourage of uptake of Web2.0 applications Continue PLE developments. Most of all focus on the learning needs of end users, not institutions in development projects.