The Social Network ePortfolio - A two year pilot with Elgg ends

It looks like my school is moving on to Google Apps and Google Sites for our ePortfolio platform. But before I dive into the new and promising system, I would like to reflect on our experiences using Elgg(the classic code) as an ePortfolio.

Elgg and the ePortfolio project at Hawaii Tokai International College did not catch on very quickly. Just trying to get students to fill out their profiles and upload their avatars was a challenge especially since our department is ESL! To our surprise all young people do not know how to use computers. This is a myth and anyone planning to implement technology in the classroom should plan for training sessions. After a little bit a pushing most of our students eventually filled out their profiles, think facebook page, but never really made a work of art out of them.

Our next requirement was to have students upload writing artifacts for each level of the program. This was successful. Elgg provides a relatively simple way to do this. Elgg also provided three levels of access, private, logged in users, and public. Most just left the default logged in users for their files and blogs. Elgg has access controls to further customize access, but they were too difficult to use for our students and faculty and they never caught on. Elgg's search was particularly useful for finding students and then viewing their artifacts. Some instructors commented that they used this feature to find students old papers when writing letters of recommendation.

The most successful of all of Elggs features was using communities for blogging. We set up a Classroom without Walls blog so students could reflect on their class excursions. Here real learning was demonstrated. Elgg has a nice optional feature of showing the latest blog posts on the front page. So suddenly everyone was a web author. I think the exposure to each other made students put more genuine effort into what they were writing. The communities expanded to Service Learning, there was one for our faculty, and a handful for different courses. So here, the social aspect of Elgg was strong and our program started to look more united blogging for a common purpose. Faculty were leaving comments on students blogs and a formative element of learning was taking place.

Unfortunately, when it came to making a presentation of artifacts, blogs, and multimedia, Elggs presentation tool was not really up to par. It could pull from all the artifacs uploaded and blog entries, but then just made a list of them. You could include a textbox next to the linked artifact for reflection. This tool was too complicated and students felt labored by the technology. It probably would have been simpler to just use a personal website builder to get this job done. The tool may have gotten in the way of real reflection. I understand the new version of Elgg has Pages, which is a feature that may address some the classic code's shortcomings.

All in all, a social network as an ePortfolio was a fun and worthy experiment. It was really neat to see students blogging together and teachers commenting. It gave our department a sense of unity and everyone had a voice. But at the same time, it was more difficult to implement structure and requirements, and students also could not easily make their own creative design. Students did not entirely adopt to the social networking and most still preferred facebook to their schools not as flashy imitation. It leaves me to think maybe we would have gotten more out of students if they had their own private space to collect and reflect. Any institution thinking of going social network eportfolio should consider the social character of their school before going forward.

The most significant lessons learned were platform independent. Students need to know why they are making an eportfolio and they need to know what is expected of them. It is the faculty's job to help them understand and state the purpose of an ePortfolio and I think requirements in the form of artifacts connected to standards, competencies or outcomes is a good idea along with a rubric for assessment, a hard thing to design for a social network. Leaving students to completely decide what to include and reflect on could also leave them without direction. So a clear purpose and plan is important and should be balanced with creativity and experimentation. The faculty had a positive experience with Elgg and overcame a technology hurdle. Now that we have some experience with blogging and uploading and a chance to design a curriculum with an eportfolio, we will certainly have more insight into the process.

Google Sites Announcements as Blog for a Google Apps Eportfolio

I have been creating an eportfolio using the google apps suite and especially google sites for presentation of my learning artifacts.  Currently, I am trying the announcement page tool in Google Sites to see if it can be used as an acceptable blog for eportfolio formative development. It has good basic functionality but I would like it to incorporate an rss feed for porting to other sites.  We are currently using Elgg as our Eportfolio solution and for blogging it is superior.  It allows tags and make its possible to have community blogs which is nice for a getting a broader view of student learning and for more institutional wide summative assessments. It also is excellent for exporting different parts of the blog.

This Announcements tool is however very easy to use and students can get right into it and start keeping notes and collaborating with their teachers and perhaps peers. Placing something like this right on the home page of their Google Site would demonstrate their learning process. Having an outside blog, such as blogger, imported via rss with a google gadget is another solution but it may get too technical for students and instructors not familiar with rss and make viewers have to go all over the place to review artifacts that should be easily accessible on the student site without having to anywhere.  So in sum, not portable, does not have a broad social element where everyones post can be seen at once and grouped according to tag or community, but it has the basics and is ideal for collaboration.

Google Apps Eportfolio System

For a quick example of a Google Apps Eportfolio click here.

I was recently very excited by a rumor suggesting Google Apps was coming to our school. We are currently using Elgg software, a similar code to Mahara, as our eportfolio system and it has been successful in terms of blogging and establishing learning communities, but has not entirely caught on as a platform for demonstrating and assessing learning through the curriculum. The Presentation Tool in Elgg Classic, which supposed to tie blogs, files, and other learning artifacts together makes a simple not too appealing list without user friendly navigation. The new version of Elgg has Pages which may be better for presenting artifacts and reflections but still does not tie everything together in an ideal fashion. While I will be sorry to lose the community blogging feature of Elgg (thinking of moving to Blogger but it only allows 100 authors, Google really needs to integrate a blog in the Apps suite) I can't help but be excited about the possibility of using Google Apps as our eportfolio platform. The great thing about Google Apps is there is less need to deal with the technical side of servers and updates and backups, and more time to be productive with easy to use integrated tools and all in the same place with a single sign on.

Google Sites, basically a wiki, provides a great tool for presentation of artifacts and reflection and can be adopted for formative assessment. The great thing about Google Apps is that it allows for collaboration. You have the option to share any of your docs, spreadsheets, calenders, presentations, and sites. Google Sites in particular has a convenient place at the end of every page to leave a comment or attachment. I can easily foresee a teacher student dialogue guided by a rubric resulting in successful formative assessment all within a students eportfolio site. Previously I stated that Google Apps does not have a blogging tool, but within Google Sites, which is part of the suite, there is an announcement page that could easily be used as a journal of sorts.

After reading Dr. Helen Barrett's posts about Google Apps as an eportfolio and reviewing her creation, I gave it go. I already use a lot of Google's products so it was easy for me to integrate them into a Google Site. Please check out my work in progress.

Elgg Presentation Tool Video Tutorial

This video tutorial demonstrates how to use the Elgg presentation tool to tie student files, blogs, pictures, videos, and anything else they have collected into one coherent, structured, and logically ordered presentation. This tool is ideal for self-assessment of eportfolios because students can reflect on their work in a timeline-like fashion to demonstrate progress. It also will create a link to their collective work they can show prospective colleges and employers. Follow the link below to view video.

http://surfingdream.com/video-tutorials/elgg-presentation-tool/elgg-presentation-tool.html

Moodle vs. Elgg - Can't we all get along

First of all what is one and what is the other. Well Moodle is a class management system, think class websites. You can give grades in Moodle, and for the most part only the instructor can see student work. Structured and organized by topics or weeks, Moodle allows instructors to guide students through the learning process and evaluate their performance. When the class ends, the user data is customarily wiped out, and everyone gets a sense of closure. It's basically a conventional class minus the paper.

Now Elgg on the other hand, is a much more social, equal, democratic, student-centered (or person centered) system. Everyone has a voice, and your files, and presentations live beyond the classes they originate from. This is a place to evaluate your own performance, allow others to comment, and be part of a dynamic community. The creators of Elgg call it a "learning landscape", a free exchange of ideas tailored to the individual. (It's also great for file storage and backup.)

So which one is better? Anyone who tries to argue one or the other should prpbably take a step back and look at the big picture. Co-existence is the key here, we need structure, and (by "we" I mean the students) and Moodle provides that by breaking the class into topics or weeks, plugging in resources and assignments, and ultimately giving grades. Elgg is for the students to shine, publish their work, express themselves, and over time reflect on what they've learned. Used together, with each being tied to the different approaches tolearning they are designed for, our students get a sense of freedom and individulaism rooted in a structured foundation.

How to podcast - a practical introduction in 2 steps

Step 1. Record your audio or video. There are many ways to do this. Most windows machines come with an audio recorder that saves files in .wav format. I recommend downloading Audacity plus the Lame MP3 encoder to record audio. There also many ways to record video. Most formats can be uploaded to Youtube and accessed that way.

Step 2 - Find a way to broadcast your audio or video. You can use Moodle or Elgg to post videos as well as your own website. Basically all you must do is put your recorded files somewhere people can see it and there you go. You have a podcast. Fancy word, simple concept.

How to display random members and recent blog posts in Elgg

Hey all of you new to Elgg-this is an awesome tool and the ultimate e-portfolio solution for schools. Follow this link for documentation on how to spice up the front page.

http://elgg.org/mod/mediawiki/wiki/index.php/Theme_keywords

You can add random user's icons and most recent blog posts, and much much more. If you want any of these options you can do the editing or just ask your system admin.

How to post a Youtube video on Elgg

Posting a YouTube or Google Video is a snap on Elgg.

1. Go to your personal blog and add a new post.

2. Click on external video and paste the embed html form YouTube. Save.

That's it. Elgg is awesome.

How to podcast with Audacity and Elgg

Have your students keep oral journals. Post your lectures online. Hate writing, like talking, then tell them. In just 5 minutes you can be set up to podcast with Audacity and Elgg.

1. Download Audacity and install the open source audio editor.

2. Download the Lame library necessary for exporting Audacity files as MP3s. (Ask your system admin for help with steps 1 and 2.)

3. Record your lecture, music, or whatever by pressing the record button in Audacity.

4. Go to File and export as MP3.

5. Add your mp3 file to "your files in Elgg.

6. Add a new post to a blog and add the MP3 file and there you have it.

By making the post public you will also be able to create an RSS feed so that the public can subscribe to your podcasts!

Unbelievable how easy and fast this is!!!

Elgg and the Eportfolio

Elgg is the open source(free) social networking system you can host. It is ideal for eportfolios and has many advantages over other such systems. Number 1 it's free and fully customizable. You can choose themes, design themes, and give it your own branding. It is also extremely easy to use. Have students start by filling out their profile. Then they can add files, pictures, videos, audio, or whatever. They can also keep a personal blog, add friends, start and join communities, and even keep and view their own RSS feeds. It's pretty much MySpace for education.

A lot of work is being done presently to have full integration with Moodle so that students can send their Moodle activities over to their portfolio with one click. Together Elgg and the more traditional LMS (Learning Management System) will provide students with structured and guided activities as well as the freedom to experiment and create in their own virtual space. Now we will no longer have to choose betwenn traditional evaluation and assessment and the more holistic kind. We can have both working together, supplementing each other, and in harmony.