RAPPORT
Volume 3 Issue 1 (2018)
direct to the Padlet page provided by
DCU;
3. A seminar reception to facilitate more
informal conversations.
On Day 2 the focus upon parallel sessions
was accompanied by the explicit aim noted
above of capturing participant learning/
reflections as a stimulus for Day 3. To
highlight this, we built in time after each
session to comment by ‘post-it’ or to write
into Padlet.
For Day 3 we retained the whole group
focus but included some ‘texture’ in the
programme via an initial parallel session.
We also sought to acknowledge the more
limited energy levels anticipated at this
point by:
1. making good use of the reflections of
colleagues as a stimulus for
conversation and further thinking and
planning beyond the Seminar;
2. including a strong plenary input that no-
one would want to miss;
3. finishing at lunchtime (with a good
lunch!) providing a final opportunity for
exchange and emphasising the
collegiality we hoped the event would
foster.
And some of the learning (from the
Editor’s perspective)
What follows in this joint Special Edition of
RAPPORT is a range of accounts from
those seminar participants who have
written up versions of their Dublin
contributions in ways that enable these to
be shared with fellow attendees and the
wider community. The majority focus
upon practice – upon pilot work and wider
implementations that were (reasonably)
successful. Initially however we provide
two more broadly-based contributions.
The first of these, from Kathi Yancey, re-
presents data on ePortfolio purposes
highlighted by seminar participants within
the event. It is, in essence, a snapshot of
our beliefs and perceptions, suggesting as
it does a clear affinity in purpose with the
wider ePortfolio community. But it also
raises issues: about limited links to social
media and other forms of self-
representation; and maintaining an
emphasis upon ePortfolios ‘inhabiting a
defined context’ at a time of greater
interest in recognising and celebrating a
diverse range of contexts for learning.
Following this, Miko Nino offers us a key
think-piece on the uses made of
ePortfolios – another key aspect of our
thinking in planning Dublin. Specifically he
proposes repurposing the ‘format, content,
and structure’ of ePortfolios for
assessment of students to become
ePortfolios for use by students. In his
thinking the ePortfolio then becomes a
customisable resource developed
throughout the student life-cycle where
students pay attention to audience,
embrace co-curricular learning, avail
themselves of a repository for relevant
artefacts, and more. Issues of the
relationship of ePortfolios to social media
and staff support for student development
are raised in this piece as elsewhere in the
seminar.
Stepping directly into practice, Maria Luisa
Perez Cavana and Sue Lowe pull us into
the context of the highly distinctive Open
University here in the UK, linking
ePortfolios with the pedagogic model of
6