adapted from Learning from Experience, "Developing Portraits of Practice"
At this point in the case study, you would have introduced your concerns with eportfolios into the discussion. To participate in the discussion, take one step back.
Your team supports the concept of eportfolios. They are not experts in all areas. At this point in the project they are concerned with the technological strain and implications. You need to invite your experts into the loop and gain support. With a diverse level of technological literacy among group members you run the risk of false assumptions, misunderstandings, and barriers to community building.
To create a sense of community you need to make efforts to be inclusive and also present appropriate expertise and information in a non-threatening way.
The suggested technological issues identified are:
hardware and software solutions need to be identified
storage space, access speed, and bandwidth must be addressed
"jjljm" - ll,k,, Sep 20 2009 12:48am "Well that is all a consideration but what about the learning process that will be enhanced if we use this system? I think it's a wonderful idea." - KP, Aug 7 2009 7:59pm "I also think the technology issues are important. " - , Jul 21 2009 1:02pm "I think they are issues, but perhaps we do ot need to store the e-portfolio on our system." - LO, Jul 7 2009 8:19am "i think we can overcome these issues if we work hard at it. we have to modernize and put the best of the college first. we can address problems as they come along. how will we know what were doing is right if we dont try?" - Quyelle B., Mar 24 2009 9:32am "Yes I do." - Alex, Mar 24 2009 4:58am "i think ePortfolios help students. You can look at your pass work and see how far you have come since you started" - , Mar 23 2009 5:04am "these are minor issues and can be solved with the right people, sufficient time and support from management." - , Oct 14 2008 5:23am " think we need to use standard files and zip file to use less bandwith" - , Sep 12 2008 3:26pm "I think these are things we need to discuss and since you are the IT person I would like you to outline the pro's and con's please." - Lisa, Jul 3 2008 8:42am "I think that both of you are correct. I think that we should all map out the ideas." - H, May 29 2008 4:11am "Teiara " - , May 28 2008 1:28pm "Storage space, let's see; I think it shouldn't be too much of a problem if the best things were the only things in the e-portfolio, which would save more space rather than entering everything done. As for privacy, I am sure people know which to say and which not to; most of us have been taught not to talk ourselves all out to strangers, still there are those who don't know what not to talk about, so a checklist of the necessary things should be made." - , May 27 2008 5:54pm "iI think that you need to contact your IT department to make sure that you have the needed support. make sure that you also have developed schedules that everyone agrees with." - Nicola, May 27 2008 8:13am "Thank you, Suzanne. Those are all very big issues and I will take them into consideration. I will try my best so each of you will get the equal amount of the things you want." - Cory, May 27 2008 3:45am "in terms of accessing issue, we probably can subscribe any eportfolio which offer the facitlites. But we have to find which provide integration with out e-learning system" - bib, May 11 2008 9:39pm "Are there web based structures that could support both the bandwidth, privacy and storage issues? These are good issues to disucuss, the first step should be a task analysis of what we want a system to do for us and then review the resources we think are needed to make it work the way we envision. An outcome may be a RFP for a current system that can be adapted for our needs." - , Mar 31 2008 2:32pm "I am glad you have all been talking and communicating about these issues. I understand that your most significant concerns are related to privacy and system capacity. I think a good approach would be to communicate with other similar sized schools that have implemented e-portfolios. We could find out how they have addressed similar problems and concerns. Suzanne, do you have a way to communicate with collegaues at other schools about this? I will get you a list of the schools that already implemented e-portfolios. " - , Mar 24 2008 10:05pm "I beleive that first we need to look at the issues each, storage - what do we have, what would we need. Same with bandwidth. Privacy - how can we deal these issues, what do we have to do? Interoperability - how much time, effort and money will need to be put in. How does it effect each department, is it worth it as a whole to go forward? Will it improve our marketability for the students? Each input, from each group, come back, try to view everything as a whole and plan our next course of action" - , Mar 24 2008 12:25pm "They are very relevant though it is possible to address them and the benefit of an efolio would outweigh them" - JJ, Jan 17 2008 12:36pm "This is my test answer" - Chris S, Dec 4 2007 10:01am "I think these are valid concerns and we will work through these areas of concern as we continue with this project." - , Nov 25 2007 8:20am "I think these are good questions that need to be taken into consideration." - Suzanne, Oct 9 2007 2:07pm "I think these are issues that we need to look at and analyze and see if we can address them before we roll out this project. What I'd like to do is get each of you involved in a different area and then ask you to come together and advise what your findings are and then we can determine the best course of action" - Doreen, Oct 3 2007 10:49am "Good points mentioned. Lets set up a task force to investigate the effectiveness of e portfolios" - , Aug 1 2007 10:38pm "klj;lksjd;lfksjdfja" - , Jul 6 2007 10:40am "Not Sure" - , Apr 20 2007 4:41am "Trust the process. Solutions will emerge. I don't have all the answers but will appreciate the 'work in progress'." - greg, Apr 6 2007 1:10pm "I think technology should not be our first priority. It is better to first look at what we want with the portfolio and then invite people from the IT department to work further on this with us. Maybe there are less problems than we think." - Marie-Jose, Nov 8 2006 2:16am "Suzanne, you have raised excellent points about technological limitations to our proposed implementation of eportfolios. Can you tell us specifically what our current limitations are and what it would take to expand our technology capacity to meet the needs of eportfolios?" - Karen, Sep 5 2006 11:39am "I think these are all reasonable issues and we should discuss them as part of the project. Hopefully we will flush out more issues as a group that we need to deal with as part of the project." - Mike, May 19 2006 2:50pm "I think these are important issues, but I believe what is more central is whether or not we believe an e-portfolio system is worth our while in terms of value to students and to the organization. If it is, then we should find ways to mke the technology work" - Sue, Apr 5 2006 12:46pm "This is boring" - Bored Bonnie, Jan 10 2006 4:16pm "This is my response." - Michael, Jan 5 2006 7:43am "You raise some legitimate concerns but our accreditation visit and ensuing research have made a call for the eportfolio solution. How can we address these concerns as we move ahead with our eportfolio solution?" - BillGates, Nov 8 2005 9:10am "I think these issues should be addressed while we continue to move forward with the project." - lynn, Oct 17 2005 7:13pm "fas" - fsd, Aug 28 2005 8:10pm "Privacy doesn't matter to me. What I am concerned with is how to design and implement a portfolio, and if it is really helpful." - Pilar SG, Aug 23 2005 4:58am "Let's list them and determine what our next steps should be. OK?" - Patti, Feb 9 2005 9:46am "these are legitimate concerns and require some additional exploration before the insitution commits to anything. Once the research has been completed some of the concerns may be resolved or require development of strategies for dealing with them." - Mary, Feb 1 2005 6:13pm "these are legitimate concerns and require some additional exploration before the insitution commits to anything. Once the research has been completed some of the concerns may be resolved or require development of strategies for dealing with them." - Mary, Feb 1 2005 6:08pm "Concerned about the presentation and the marketability of it." - Jesus, Feb 1 2005 1:05pm "all students are required to have broadband; we will have to invest in a new server to dedicate to portfolios - but this is a positive long-term investment; we do need to discuss issues of privacy...there are many ethical and legal issues that have not be fully answered with respect to portfolios. My goal is to reolsolve interoperability issues by selecting the right eportfolio software." - Diane, Jan 25 2005 3:27am "candomor" - pol, Dec 25 2004 11:17am "Privacy and interoperability... yeah we need those!" - John, Dec 20 2004 9:50am "Can we guarantee each student a perfectly private storage facility where their portfolio will not be accessed illegitimately?" - Bill Boss, Dec 20 2004 9:18am "If we have students prepare a truly reflective portfolio, then we need to examine the ethical question of exposing their views to a greater audience. Are they emotionally prepared for this kind of scrutiny?" - Shanta Do-RIght, Nov 22 2004 7:03am
