Students will learn to use basic features of an e-portfolio tool to post and share their speech writing. They will practice and receive feedback on their oral presentations by viewing recordings of themselves present. Finally, students will analyze, revise and improve their speeches based on self-evaluation and viewing their recorded presentations.

1. ICT and the Multicultural
Classroom
Engaging diverse learners
through e-portfolios
Action Research Assignment
J. Harrington EDEM627
Semester One 2012

4. Abstract
 This report investigates the use of e-portfolios as a tool
for engaging diverse learners. It focuses on a group of
eight Year Four and Five students, attending a low
decile, multicultural, inner city school in Christchurch,
New Zealand. An initial assessment showed that all of
the children involved in the research had access to both
a computer and the Internet outside school. This
supports the potential for engagement in learning
through the use of e-portfolios and other online tools in
both home and school environments. While students
enjoyed using the e-portfolio tool, some frustration was
expressed around the availability of computers in the
classroom due to electrical issues, variable access due to
connection problems at school, and the need to fit visits
to a computer suite into an already stretched timetable.

5. Abstract
 Over two weeks, the e-portfolio tool was introduced to
the group of students, for thirty minutes a day, two days
a week. At the end of the two weeks students were
interviewed about their experience using the e-portfolio
tool. All students said that they had enjoyed using the
e-portfolios and wished to continue their use
independently of the study in the future.
 Key Words: E-portfolios, Primary, Multicultural, Diverse
learners, ESL, Education.

6. Introduction
 Our classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse. This
creates both areas of strength and a range of challenges
related to factors such as ethnicity, culture, religion,
economic circumstances, gender or special needs or
abilities. (Bray, Brown & Green, 2004; Caruana-Dingli
2005; Chisholm, 1998) This increasing diversity means
that a more comprehensive range of strategies and
approaches to teaching and learning need to be
investigated, to cater for the widening spectrum of
students in our schools. Incorporating good quality
instructional practices and a range of technologies can
improve learning opportunities and lead towards higher
achievement for all students.

7. Introduction
 The New Zealand curriculum supports the investigation
of appropriate information and communication
technologies for students within our teaching and
learning spectrum in a range of ways.
 “Schools should explore not only how ICT can
supplement traditional ways of teaching but also how it
can open up new and different ways of learning” (New
Zealand Curriculum, 2007, p.38)

8. Introduction
 The curriculum framework for New Zealand schools also
states within the Key Competencies (Using Language,
Symbols and Texts) that students should “confidently
use ICT to access and provide information and to
communicate with others,” (New Zealand Curriculum,
2007, p.14).

9. Introduction
 With this in mind, the central aim for this action
research was to investigate ways that the information
about this experience might help to redesign future
approaches for teaching and learning for diverse
learners.
 This research attempts to engage a group of younger
diverse learners with an e-portfolio tool, with the view to
exploring how and if this involvement might improve
future learning outcomes for these students. The role of
the facilitator within the study is also investigated and
looks specifically at the elements of teaching in
providing more constructive experiences to improve
student achievement.

10. Introduction
 The inner city Christchurch school in which this research
takes place is decile two, with a distinctly multicultural,
highly transient roll. It has a significant number of
students requiring ESL support, many of whom are
eligible for Ministry of Education funding. There are also
a large number of multi-lingual and bi-lingual students
who are not eligible for this type of support, for a variety
of reasons.

11. Literature
 “New Zealand is one of the highest migrant
receiving countries in the world. The 2001 Census
revealed that 10% of the population is comprised of
ethnic minority people other than Mąori and Pacific
peoples. This figure is projected by Statistics New
Zealand to be 18% by 2021,” (Singham, 2006, p.33).
We are increasingly aware of the overt nature of what
we may classify as our „multicultural classrooms‟, yet
diverse learners are part of every classroom. This may
be related to cultural or religious beliefs, special needs
or abilities, language, gender or even socio-economic
circumstances. (Chisholm, 1998).

12. Literature
 “Multiculturalism is a complex issue with potential for
both disaster and opportunity.” (Singham, 2006, p. 33).
For educators, increasing diversity creates a range of
challenges in planning, assessment and the
implementation of meaningful classroom experiences
which will both engage and meet the learning needs of
their students. Having a wide range of learners can
however, provide a more robust level of understanding
for all involved, if the culture of the classroom is one
where students feel valued and safe enough to share
their varied perspectives (Bray, Brown & Green, 2004;
Chisholm, 1998).

13. Literature
 Chisholm (1998) identifies themes of cultural awareness,
authenticity and relevance, supportive environments,
instructional flexibility, integration and equitable access
as being essential components in the development of
educational success for diverse learners. It is therefore
important that as educators, we select “multiple learning
and teaching approaches that respond to their diversity.”
(Allison & Rehm, 2007, p. 1)
 While diversity in our classrooms may be linked to
culture or multiculturalism, it is unlikely that this is an
exclusive indicator of the composition of our students.

14. Literature
"Sitting in the same classroom,
reading the same textbook, listening
to the same teacher, boys and girls
receive very different educations.“
(Sadker, 1994, p.1)

15. Literature
 We have long been aware of gender-bias within
education. Boys and girls sitting with in the same
classroom, reading the same book, probably will receive
different educations, but is that necessarily all about the
teacher and the way they outwardly treat or sub-
consciously view their students? Perhaps it has
something to do with what students themselves bring to
their own education – their life experience, their social
views, their belief system, their values and their
approach to learning.

16. Literature
 Each student brings their own specific culture to their
education, and this might be something gender related
or it might not. Diversity may be part of ability or
disability. It may be language, accent, religion, dress,
economic, interest or even sub-culture related.
 This means that every classroom, whether overtly so or
not, contains layers of multiculturalism and diversity –
and this means that educators must think outside their
own comfort zone and area of knowledge to develop
meaningful learning for all their students – a daunting
task!

17. Literature
 Numerous studies support the implementation of well-
designed tasks and appropriate teaching strategies, to
develop high quality learning experiences for our
students. (Caruana-Dingli, 2005; Chisholm, 1998;
Mellar, Kambouri, Logan, Betts, Nance and Moriarty,
2007).
 The effectiveness of both teaching strategies and the
selection of appropriate digital technologies and skills for
diverse learners have been investigated in a number of
studies (Caruana-Dingli, 2005; Chisholm, 1998,
MCEETYA, 2005). Incorporating good quality
instructional practices and ICT can improve learning
opportunities and lead towards higher achievement for
students. (MCEETYA, 2005)

18. Literature
 Effective strategies should include the development of
clear learning intentions and success criteria, whether in
the face to face classroom or in an online learning
environment. Having clear success criteria allows
students to deliberately set specific goals for their own
achievement. Collaboration between students and
teachers in the development of success criteria enhances
the assessment process.
 The selection of appropriate technologies to support
teaching and learning must therefore support the
teaching strategies employed by the facilitator and be
appropriate to the specific needs of the learners. Allison
and Rehm (2007), identify the use of e-portfolios as
effective tools, especially in regard to "multicultural,
multilingual" classroom contexts (p.7).

19. Literature
 It is important to consider however, when introducing
new technologies such as e-portfolios that we must keep
in mind factors which may influence success in diverse
classrooms, such as cultural awareness, instructional
flexibility, integration, equitable access and relevance.
(Chisholm, 1998) Ultimately, whatever the choice, it
needs to be “about people, rather than technology.”
(JISC, 2007, p.10)
 “There will always be a spread of competencies amongst
any student cohort such that some students will need
more support and confidence building than others.”
(Mason, Pegler & Weller, 2004, p726). Therefore, the
concept of relevance and the challenges associated with
creating it for all students is a particularly important
one.

20. Literature
 Ladson-Billings (1995b), states that “relevance refers to the
ability of the curriculum to make deep and meaningful
connections with the lives of the students” (p. 333). The
challenge of developing authentic and relevant learning
experiences is the normality of every classroom, but it may
be more evident in classrooms where the learning
population is especially diverse.
 If we are to employ digital tools to assist in the
development of meaningful and culturally relevant learning
experiences, we must select those which may do so in
meaningful and unobtrusive ways, so that they become part
of the normality of the learner by facilitating contextual and
relational learning. (Jarrott & Gambrel, 2011; JISC,
2007) Mediums such as blogs, wikis, digital timelines or
mind maps, forums and e-portfolios are just a small sample
of the plethora of Web 2.0 tools available to educators and
students.

21. Literature
 The adoption and implementation of e-portfolios in schools
is a current trend in New Zealand schools, and is supported
by the Ministry of Education. (Ministry of Education, 2011)
 E-portfolios are often viewed as purely assessment-based
technology. Recently there has been more of a drive
towards using both the technology and the assessment
more effectively. (Jarrott & Gambrel, 2011; Ring &
Ramirez, 2012) This may mean that assessment is carried
out in more authentic and perhaps collaborative contexts.
 There are the obvious advantages, such as the
opportunities they provide to use multi-media and to record
learning in the moment as it unfolds. Digital portfolios
allow those involved to retain an enduring, high quality,
searchable, “development focused” and secure record of
learning in context. (Ministry of Education, 2011, p.6)

22. Literature
 However, there are those who always find the adoption
and application of new technology, such as digital
portfolios, a challenge. (Jarrott & Gambrel, 2011; Ring
& Ramirez, 2012) Some barriers lie naturally within the
attitudes and motivation of educators, but here may also
be other factors which impact upon teacher adoption of
digital technologies, such as the needs of the class and
the facilitator at the time, individual confidence and skill
level in using ICT, previous experiences, study, age and
perceptions of the relevance of technologies and their
applications in classrooms (Knezek, & Christensen,
1999). It may simply be that have not been exposed to
current pedagogy in this area.

23. Literature
 It may be that in order for successful implementation,
small increments need to be made at a time, with plenty
of support for those involved. As with most aspects of
teaching and learning, the absence or presence of high
quality professional development can directly impact
upon the effectiveness of the educator in the classroom
(Mellar et. al, 2007).

24. Literature
 While there is a growing amount of literature around the
subject of e-portfolios, there is very little available
around their use with younger students. There is also
limited material available around multicultural and
diverse learners and this type of technology. The New
Zealand Ministry of Education has placed some
importance on this area through the development of its
own digital portfolios and by the production of a draft
document which includes some interesting and useful
case studies. This highlights the growing importance
and relevance of this type of current research in New
Zealand.

25. Research Design and
Methodology
 This study used a simplified action research process as
its base methodology. It required a five stage process of
planning, implementing, observing, reflecting and
sharing. The planning for this research involved
examining these components of the action research and
using these to plan what should occur in the timeframe,
with the participants in the study.
 Prior to planning and implementation, consents and
information were gathered from the participants.

26. Research Design and
Methodology
 Qualitative data was gathered for this report through
observations, interviews and questionnaires. A
triangulation of perspectives provided a range of
different and thought-provoking information (Davidson &
Tolich, 2003).
 Informal interviews were selected because the
participants were familiar and it was felt that they would
be more honest in their feedback. Mutch (2005, p.126)
suggests that this is an effective method for generating
rich discussion around a topic.

27. Research Design and
Methodology
 Observations, based on what the participants were doing
both online and in class as they worked through the
process of exploring the e-portfolio tool, were also
made. These were predominantly qualitative and in the
form of notes and screen shots.
 In order to achieve this, qualitative data was be
collected through a questionnaire, semi-structured
interviews with focus groups, observations and analysis
of work in progress after each cycle of engagement with
the e-portfolio tool.

28. Participants
 The participants in this study represent a small section of the
school population and because of the diverse range of learners
within the school, are not completely typical as a sample,
although New Zealand Maori are currently the largest group
within the school population.
Because of the gender
balance within Years 4,
5 and 6 in the school at
present, a larger
proportion of male
students were involved
in the research than
female.

29. Teaching and Learning:
Curriculum Area
English – Speaking, Writing and Presenting
Achievement Objectives: Speaking, Writing and Presenting
Level Two
Purposes and Audiences
 Show some understanding of how to shape texts for different purposes and
audiences.
INDICATORS
 Constructs texts that demonstrate a growing awareness of audience and purpose
through appropriate choice of content, language, text and form;
 Expects the texts they create to be understood, responded to and appreciated by
others;
 Develops and conveys personal voice where appropriate

30. Learning Outcomes
 This work sits inside an English Unit on Speeches which
is currently being conducted within the classroom.
 Establishing prior knowledge: In an introductory
session, students will be asked to engage with the e-
portfolio tool with little guidance. This will give some
data around the general skill level and computer
knowledge of the group.

31. Learning Outcomes
After completion of four to six sessions of online learning, students should be able to:
 Knowledge: Successfully engage with the e-portfolio tool – use and
explore the basic features.
 Comprehension: Use the e-portfolio tool as a medium to post their
speech writing, so that it may be:
 Practised/ learned
 Shared at home with parents
 Application: Post oral presentations within an e-portfolio so that
students may:
 see themselves present
 share their oral presentation with their parents/families

32. Learning Outcomes
 Analysis: identify key aspects of their written and oral
presentations which should be kept or changed.
 Synthesis:
 revise and re-work their speeches after looking at their
own presentations
 Evaluation:
 make judgements about their own performance and justify
changes they have made to their work
 improve their achievement in this area through knowledge
of their own presentation

33. Reflective Focus
Parts of the project that will help me to focus on reflection
 What?
 Communication through the medium of e-portfolio
 Fair and equitable access to the online learning environment
 Typing and computer skills of students

34. Reflective Focus
 Why?
 Most of my students are ESOL or high learning needs and
use a range of different ways to communicate. This will
challenge them.
 It is quite important that I find out exactly who can access
the Internet at home before introducing the e-portfolio tool
to a wider group
 These students are Year 4 and 5. From what I have seen
prior to this pilot, the typing skills are very slow. I wonder
whether they will be able to successfully participate because
of this.

35. Reflective Focus
 How?
 Observation of student participation e.g. classroom
observations when using the e-portfolio tool, e-portfolio
entries, attempts to complete or submit work
 What next?
 Use the knowledge gleaned from this reflection to develop
further learning, for a longer period of time with either a
similar group of students or a different group of students,
depending on the needs and abilities of those involved.

36. Teaching and Learning
Activities
Activity One: Establishing Prior Knowledge
 Questionnaire -
 Students were given a questionnaire to complete around
their computer use. This included their access to
computers (or lack of it), how often they use computers,
whether or not they have access to the Internet and what
they use it for. These had to be read and explained to some
students.

37. Teaching and Learning Activities
Activity Two: Knowledge
Introducing the e-portfolio to the students -
This was done with the aid of a projector, so problems with
the steps involved in finding and logging into the site would
be minimised.
 Students were then given the opportunity to explore the
site independently and discuss it with their peers.
 Students were shown a short demonstration of some of
the main features of the e-portfolio, such as themes and the
insertion of text and headings.
 They then had the opportunity to explore the e-portfolio
features independently.

38. Teaching and Learning Activities
Activity Three: Comprehension
 Making the link between home and school –
 Students were asked to attempt to log in to their e-portfolio
from home. Some needed parental support. They were
asked to make a small (or large!) change to their e-portfolio
page to demonstrate how this works.
 Students who had managed to insert at least some of their
speech writing into their e-portfolio were asked to share
their work with their parents and record their feedback and
feed forward.

39. Teaching and Learning Activities
Activity Four: Application
Multi-media Presentations
 Students were asked to film and post their oral speech
presentations within an e-portfolio so that they might
 see themselves present
 share their oral presentation with their parents/families

40. Teaching and Learning Activities
Activity Five: Analysis
Looking through the e-portfolio window -
 Students were asked to identify key aspects of their written
and oral presentations which should be kept or changed,
based on the feedback from their parents and their own
judgements.

41. Teaching and Learning Activities
 Activity Six: Synthesis
Re-modelling or re-creating
 Students were asked to revise and re-work their
speeches after looking at their own presentations

42. Teaching and Learning Activities
Activity Seven: Evaluation
 Judgements about Learning:
 Students were asked to make judgements about their own
performance and justify changes they have made to their
work
 improve their achievement in this area through knowledge
of their own presentation
 Judgements about the E-Portfolio Tool
 Students were asked to share their ideas about their
experiences using e-portfolios in an informal interview.

43. Ethical Approaches
 Consent to proceed with this research was first gained
from the Principal and Board of Trustees of the school
the participants attended. Ethical consent permission
forms and information, using guidelines provided by the
University of Canterbury were then distributed to
participating students and their parents. Parents were
invited to come and view the e-portfolio tool and ask
questions about any part of the research and potential
risks or issues arising from their child‟s involvement. To
help ensure safety cultural related to English language
comprehension, speakers of all languages were able to
be accessed to clarify information if necessary.

44. Ethical Approaches
 As the researcher was also the facilitator in this
research, there was a risk that data collection could
potentially be compromised. This risk was minimized by
involving only a small group of participants and also by
having teacher aides available in class to work with
students who needed assistance. Being well prepared in
advance and checking equipment functionality, electricity
and Internet connections in advance, also contributed to
smooth running of the teaching and learning sessions.
 Having permission to video-tape teaching and learning
made observations of what had occurred somewhat
easier to analyse at the end of each session.

45. Findings
 The first step in the data collection for this research was to gather
information from the eight participants through the use of a
questionnaire. (Appendix 2)
 The purpose of this was to clarify the number of students who have
computers and Internet access at home. The secondary purpose
was to gauge the number of families who have access to the
Internet, in order to investigate the possible sustainability of the use
of e-portfolios in the future, as this has been seen as a potential
barrier to their use by staff and the management team in the past.
 All participants completed the questionnaires. The information from
them showed that 7 out of the 8 students had a computer, with an
Internet connection at home. The student who did not have a
computer at home had access to one outside the home environment
on a regular basis. All students were also able to access computers
at the homes of other family members or friends, school, and the
public library. One student used an Internet café to access the
Internet.

46. Findings
 With regard to usage, one student responded that he used the
computer on a daily basis. Two students said they accessed a
computer three to five times a week; two said they used a
computer one to two times a week, and three said they used it
less than once a week.
Table 2: Participant Computer Use and Access

47. Findings
 All participants used the Internet for a variety of purposes. To research
or complete school work was cited as common to all students. Only one
out of the eight participants was familiar with and used email
regularly. Three out of the eight students responded that they used the
Internet to locate images of various people and things.
Table 3: Participant Use of the Internet

48. Findings
 The questionnaire showed that at this stage, the school
does not have a good grasp on the potential of parents
in the community for accessing the learning of their
students through e-portfolios and other Web 2.0 tools.

49. Observations
 Skilful observation is a critical instructional skill.
Teachers who are more skilled observers have a greater
ability to select and sequence a progression of tasks,
taking students from one level of performance to the
next. (Williams & Rink, 2003, p. 568)
 The initial reactions of the students to the „Student
Jotter‟ e-portfolio tool were very positive. They were
excited about joining the site and learning how to use
it.

50. Observations
 Access to the site was first demonstrated and then
students were given the opportunity to explore the tool
independently. After a few minutes, it was noted that
students had real difficult typing and spelling accurately
to access the e-portfolio website. They also found it
difficult to correctly type their user names and
passwords, even though these had been set up for them
in the easiest possible format. The user names and
passwords were also in front of them on a piece of
paper. It was decided not to intervene quickly, as the
participants would have to be able to do this
independently in future sessions. Students were
encouraged to persist in trying to access the site, which
they all managed to do within fifteen minutes.

51. Observations
 A great deal of discussion and experimentation with the
themes of the site followed. Students left their computers
and went to look at the portfolios of others. One student
was able to advise two others how to change the look and
feel of their portfolio. She also quickly discovered features
such as a drawing tool and a map, which she shared with
the group. Screen shots of the student portfolios were
recorded at this point.
 During the next session the participants were introduced to
the text tool. It was envisaged that, at some point they
would be able to upload the speeches they were doing in
class to their e-portfolio. This was demonstrated for them,
using a simple “copy and paste” technique. Observations
revealed that none of the eight students have ever used this
technique before. They spent some time practising it.

52. Observations
 Two subsequent sessions were spent typing speeches
into the e-portfolios. Typing skills improved over this
very short time and the confidence level of the
participants appeared to grow. It was at this stage that
students began to access their e-portfolios at home,
without being asked to. They experimented with
inserting maps, using emoticons and using the paint and
drawing tool. Parents became involved.
 Only two students were able to upload their oral
presentations to their e-portfolios. This had to do with
their work completion and typing skills.

53. Informal Interviews
Students were asked to discuss their experiences using the
e-portfolio website. All students felt very positive about it
and wished to continue with it after the action research was
completed. Features they particularly enjoyed were:
 The bright, colourful themes and the ability to change these
whenever they wished
 The ability to make links to websites they used a lot
 The fact that the page was their own and no one else could
make changes to it
 The fact that they could share their work between home and
school
 Multi-media functions
 The ability to make their page private

54. Informal Interviews
Issues and problems identified by the students include:
 Frustration with their own typing and spelling skills
 The fact that they could not comment on others pages,
when they would have liked to give some feedback
(although this was also seen as a positive thing)
 The lack of time they are allowed to access a computer,
both at home and at school
 Frustration with technical hitches and availability of
functional cameras which would have enhanced student
experience by allowing them to use the multi-media
functions of the e-portfolio website more.
All eight participants felt that this was a worthwhile experience
and all would continue with it further.

55. Participant Reseacher
 Teaching may be regarded as a means of improving
schooling, by focusing on generalised issues of the
management of curriculum or class, or it may be seen as
a means of engaging in a critical process of action
reflection which is in itself education.” (McNiff, p. xiii)
 Reflecting on action can be a worthwhile tool for
teachers, if the reflection is relevant and can ultimately
be used to make meaningful differences in our
classrooms. Dewey (1933) is considered one of the first
modern educators to develop the concept of reflection,
using it as a problem solving tool.

56. Participant Researcher
 As a participant researcher, I was also frustrated by the
limited computer and English spelling skills of my
participants. I had expected to get further with the use
of the tool than we did and I believe that if I had not
had assistance from a teacher aide during the study, this
could have been worse. I believe that persevering and
not intervening in the initial stages was wise, as it forced
the students to look carefully at what they were doing,
therefore increasing their accessibility to their e-
portfolios in subsequent sessions.

57. Participant Researcher
 I am also in agreement with the participants over the
lack of ability to provide feedback to a student, unless
you can log in as them. Having this facility may have
the potential to be problematic, especially with some
students or age groups, however it also has the potential
to lift achievement and invite collaboration between
students. Perhaps this is something which may be
explored down the track.

58. Findings and Conclusions
 This action research project has revealed some
advantages in using e-portfolios as a tool for teaching
and learning, even at this early stage of their
development. Within the spectrum of diverse learners
and multicultural classrooms, they allow for the
expression of individuality. Students may apply aspects
if their culture (or cultures), individuality and viewpoints
to their e-portfolios, without fear of change or criticism,
as they own their page entirely.

59. Findings and Conclusions
 As a tool for ESL or students who struggle with aspects
of language, there are many advantages to e-portfolios.
They have the potential for real tracking of a student‟s
progress and development over time. Because of the
short time span of this study, we were only able to track
limited progress with both learning and the engagement
with the e-portfolio tool.
 It might be noted however, that the Year 5 students who
did engage with the tool and uploaded their multimedia
presentations, achieved excellent results in our school
speech competitions.

60. Findings and Conclusions
 Issues around security often affect parent consent for
involvement in learning online. The e-portfolio used in
this research is aimed at younger students, therefore the
security aspects of the site are high – only students,
parents and the class teacher are able to access the
child‟s work and there is no option for public sharing.
 This was both an advantage and disadvantage, as
students in the face to face classroom are used to
offering feedback and feed forward to each other and
they missed that element of collaboration with this tool.
One student asked “How can I invite my friends to my
page?” and was disappointed when she knew that it was
not able to be shared.

61. Findings and Conclusions
 Opportunities for parents to become more involved in
their child‟s learning have presented themselves because
of this research. Parents who might normally feel
threatened by the school environment, due to the
quality of their own experiences of school and education,
accessed their child‟s learning at school through the e-
portfolios – some for the first time this year.
 Students who had parents who engaged with their
child‟s learning through the e-portfolio tool, achieved
better results with their speeches.

62. Findings and Conclusions
 Limitations associated with these e-portfolios are
connected with the general literacy and computer skills
of the student participants as a group. All involved,
including the researcher, found this a significant source
of frustration, but it has provided a starting point for the
development of skills.

63. Findings and Conclusions
A range of external factors also influenced the results of
this study. These included:
 a stretched timetable (even though this study was designed
to fit within the spectrum of an English unit)
 the availability of computers
 electricity problems (post earthquake – things still need to
be repaired!)
 issues around sharing limited resources and equipment,
such as cameras and video recorders
 a lack of available experts for troubleshooting hardware
problems

64. Findings and Conclusions
 Despite a range of disadvantages, overall the
participants interviewed considered e-portfolios to be a
valuable tool for learning. In particular, they lend
themselves to building skills in English literacy and
Inquiry, although the potential to enhance learning in all
areas is definitely present. This is especially evident in
the multimedia facilities they provide to those who use
them.

65. Limitations and
Recommendations
 The use of computers as educational tools has become the
norm over recent years. As a tool e-portfolios are becoming
an area of increased scrutiny because of the many
possibilities they present to those who use them. However,
as with the introduction of any new learning system, it is
important to identify areas of strength and weakness for
students and teachers, so that these can be investigated
before they are adopted throughout a learning institution.
 This research has shown that e-portfolios such as the ones
used in this study can engage younger students and
encourage sustained involvement in their literacy however
students at this age also need to develop general English
literacy, spelling and keyboard skills in order to create
meaningful texts in e-portfolios. To do this, schools need
better access to reliable computer hardware and the
infrastructure to support this.

66. Limitations and
Recommendations
 This study has limitations because of the restrictions
placed upon it by issues with timetabling, electricity,
connectivity, and student ability. These are not
unresolvable in the big scheme of e-portfolios, however
they have had an impact on this research and because
of that, a true picture of the potential of this tool may
not be represented in the findings.
 More study needs to be done with younger students over
a longer period of time in order to establish a bigger
picture of the merits and drawbacks of e-portfolio
platforms such as the one used in this study.

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71. Appendix 1 – Initial Planning Overview

72. Appendix 1 (cont.)– Initial Planning Overview

73. Appendix 1 (cont.)– Initial Planning Overview

74. Appendix 1 (cont.)– Initial Planning Overview

75. Appendix 2 - Questionnaire

76. After one session,
this student had
managed to
Appendix 3 – Children‟s Work: Initial Stages successfully access
the site and log in.
She found the map
application and
tried it out.
Students
successfully added a
short piece of text
and applied a
theme.

77. Appendix 3 – Children‟s Work
Student has
successfully added
text and applied an
emoticon.
Student managed to
type her speech
text into the e-
portfolio.

78. Appendix 3 – Children‟s Work
Student managed to
type her speech
text into the e-
portfolio.
Student has
uploaded photos
and multimedia.