June 30, 2005
ePortfolios and the “Bring Data” mandate
In the June 2005 edition of Campus Technology’s DigitalTweed column, Kenneth C. Green discusses the “Bring Data!” Mandate being pushed by Secretary of Education Margaret Spelling and the Bush Administration and specifically relates the mandate in context of IT.
While I enjoyed reading the column, especially the little dig about the “Bushies” having a problem with reliable research, the following statement on pg. 14 made me cringe a little:
“The business intelligence and data mining tools that allowed Wall-Mart to discover a surprising run on beer in its Florida stores ahead of last fall’s tropical storms are the same tools that colleges and universities will have to deploy to respond to the mandates (some new and some ignored for years but now enforced) from accrediting associations, government agencies, and other sponsors who demand hard data documenting impacts and want real evidence about institutional outcomes.”
I am currently on a committee charged with investigating the role of ePortfolios in Associate in Arts in Teaching (AAT) degree programs in Illinois and I am getting ready to implement an ePortfolio for ION’s Master Online Teacher certificate. After reading many articles, attending conference presentations, and talking with vendors, I’m pretty excited about the potential of ePortfolios as a tool to encourage learning and reflection.
However, after reading Green’s statement about the “Bring Data!” Mandate, I began to wonder about the possible dark side of ePortfolios. Will ePortfolios be employed by institutions to “bring data” for assessment initiatives and outcome measures?
After spending some time scanning the blogs and online articles today, I realize that I am not alone in my fears.
For example, Helen Barrett, the ePortfolio guru, writes that “Many Teacher Education institutions are adopting electronic portfolios from a perception that the accreditation organizations are requiring them” In another article, she observes “Many of these systems promise support for student portfolios AND aggregated assessment data to meet reporting requirements.” http://electronicportfolios.com/systems/paradigms.html
I sincerely hope that the driving force behind the implementation of ePortfolios will be improved student learning and not institution accountability.
Posted by ionadmin at 04:53 PM | Comments (0)