We’ve added a new logo on the right hand side of the CORE website -titled CORE’s Ten Trends for 2007

Clicking on this logo will take you to a list of ten trends that we’ve identified as being particularly important in 2007. The aim is to create some dialogue around some of the things that are happening in the NZ context regarding the use of ICT in education. The emphasis is on looking at the bigger picture, rather than the things absorb our time every day at the “coal face”.

I will be using these ten trends as the focus of my Spotlight at the Learning@School conference this week, and would love to see plenty of contributions being made in the comments section at the end of each “Trend”.

Each month or so the CORE staff are going to expand one of the themes with further links and references to prompt a deeper level of participation and discussion. We’re sure to have missed some that people think are important, or included some that others think aren’t - all of which should make the discussion fuller and richer!

The latest edition of ‘innovate’ has just been released, and this edition focuses on online assessment and effective course design, the value of e-portfolios as dynamic records of academic and professional development, and the creative use of synchronous communication tools for online tutorials.

This issue is very timely, with the upcoming EiFEL e-portfolio conference happening in Wellington at the end of March where we’ll get an update on Mahara, an open source e-portfolio product that has been developed here in NZ with money from the eLearning Collaborative Development Fund (eCDF). (See details in a previous entry)

I enjoyed the article by Cara Lane titled The Power of “E”: Using e-Portfolios to Build Online Presentation Skills. Cara uses research from the University of Wisconsin on how students approach e-portfolios to illustrate how students understand e-portfolios in relation to social Web spaces, how e-portfolios allow students to increase their understanding of Web conventions, and how e-portfolios serve as a means of fostering multimedia literacy. The student-centred approach highlights different issues than those commonly discussed in the academic literature; instead of discussing reflection or standards for example, students emphasize design and audience.

I also liked Judith Boettcher’s article titled Ten Core Principles for Designing Effective Learning Environments: Insights from Brain Research and Pedagogical Theory in which she summarizes ten principles based on recent research integrated with traditional principles of pedagogy and instructional design. It’s always useful to read someone’s attempt to ‘organise’ the thinking that is emerging from a number of perspectives. For me this article provides a useful framework to inform some of the discussion around ‘formal’ vs. ‘informal’ learning, as what Judith is focusing on here relates to what she calls “structured learning experiences”.

Helen Barrett recently posted a number of new articles about e-portfolios on her blog, one of which is Becta’s View: E-assessment and e-portfolios (pdf).

It’s an interesting read, with relevance to many of the educational issues that we’re confronted with here in NZ, including personalising learning and life-long learning.

The paper intro reads:

Within a few years,e-assessment and e-portfolios will be integral parts of modern learning and teaching.They are vital elements for personalising learning,with benefits for both learner and practitioner.E-assessment provides the flexibility for learners to strengthen their understanding of key concepts,and to formally demonstrate that understanding at a time that is right for them. E-portfolios allow learner and practitioner to track progress,carry evidence of their work across transition points (for example, from school to college),reflect on their learning and build a skills profile across a lifetime.
This document provides a short introduction to e-assessment and e-portfolios,how they might develop,and why Becta strongly believes that they will support engagement and achievement in learning. “

One of the things that caught my eye is the list of “Essential Functionality” that appears on page 5. The paper states that whatever e-assessment and e-portfolios may be used for in a local context, Becta believes that both should:

• allow 24/7 access

• be based on open standards
• support nationally agreed interoperability standards
• be based on functional specifications
• be convergent with national approaches to MIS architectures in all sectors
• be transferable across phases of learning
• be usable over mobile and wireless technologies
• be able to incorporate many different types of learning and evidence of learning, including multimedia files
• allow the learner to maintain access to their learning and evidence of learning across a lifetime.
• be built with accessibility for all learners in mind.

I really like the cross-sector emphasis here, and the reference to mobile learning. It’s a future-focused, ‘embrasive’ position that I’d like to see inform what we’re doing here in NZ.

ETS, the nonprofit group that created the SAT in the US and a number of other standardized tests, has worked with educators, information technology experts, and other institutions to develop a new test designed to measure what it means to be literate in the digital age.

Beta testing for the new ETS exam, called the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Literacy Assessment, began on Jan. 31 and ends March 31. A full “high stakes” version of the test is expected to be available early in 2006.

There’s an demo of the test available that ran well on my computer - needs Flash to play.

The test is built around the five critical components of ICT literacy that are defined on the ETS site::
?? Access - knowing about and knowing how to collect and/or retrieve information.
?? Manage - applying an existing organizational or classification scheme.
?? Integrate - interpreting and representing information, which involves summarizing, comparing and contrasting.
?? Evaluate - making judgments about the quality, relevance, usefulness or efficiency of information.
?? Create - generating information by adapting, applying, designing, inventing or authoring information.

A backgrounder on this initiative can be found on the eSchool News site.