RAPPORT
WWW.RECORDINGACHIEVEMENT.AC.UK
Issue 1 (2017)
problem during the experience? How can I show
what my learning process is?
Students need training in how to do a research
study. An eportfolio can’t be a metacognitive
learning space if the evidence available in that
space is paltry or unrevealing. It can’t be a
metacognitive learning space if the assignment
Structure does not lead to good evidence-
collecting.
“Reflection” in good eportfolio assignments is
embedded in the assignment:
in order to
complete the assignment, students must reflect
(reflection is a thought process). “Reflection” is
not an add-on later, or only an add-on later (in
response to a prompt) – the notion of reflection
as primarily an essay in response to a prompt is
again making eportfolio into a small word.
The Cultural Importance of the Eportfolio
Idea
In a time when cultural consensus is dissipating,
and truth is in dispute, learning how to use
evidence to make an argument is an invaluable
corrective. Higher education cannot sit back and
allow the notion of “truth” to be lost. One kind of
truth vital to society is empirical truth. Students
must learn what “empirical” means and learn how
to conduct an empirical study of their own work.
We must graduate students who know the
difference between empirical truth and opinion.
Using eportfolio in the big-word manner is a core
way for students to learn this crucial distinction.
The political process often works against
empirical truth; advertising sometimes works
against empirical truth. Other forces and groups
in society champion their own versions of fact
and truth. The web offers a thousand variations
on the truth of core beliefs. Does the centre
hold?
Higher education must help students know how
to find truths and truth. Higher education must
sustain core knowledge and knowledge
processes in a society to keep society healthy.
Eportfolio as a big idea harnesses the power of
the new knowledge ecology in our global culture
and is a way to address the dissipation of
consensus.
References
http://edscoop.com/top-10-it-issues-facing-higher-
education-in-2017
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