Defining the E-Portfolio: What It Is and Why It Matters?
The e-portfolio can provide the necessary framework for learners to do so, if they have a clear understanding of the portfolio’s purpose and use. The e-portfolio contains features course instructors are unable to see or to use because course management was never its primary intended purpose. Since it was not built to imitate online what an instructor does in the classroom, it was not created as a learning platform. Finally, because e-portfolio elements were always meant to be selectively shared according to audience and purpose, the option of retaining the owner’s privacy was essential. So the virtue of the e-portfolio was not in creating a virtual identity, or per sona, for public viewing.
In short, the e-portfolio was created to be something bigger than the sum of these parts. But in attempting to achieve that “something bigger” with our students, we have learned that simply introducing students to the tool and identifying the principles guiding its development were not enough. We realized we needed a definition of the e-portfolio that, in the words of Emerson, captured its virtue in order to realize its potential.
