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ePortfolios and the Challenge of Reconnecting the Curriculum to a
Life of Practice
Randy Bass (Georgetown University)
AAEEBL Annual World Conference ePortfolios & the Emergent Learning
Ecology
July 20, 2010
Authentic
Experiential
Evidence-based
Authentic
Experiential
Evidence-based
"Clay lends itself to making mess upon mess until something
emerges. When people praise me for achievements, I think of the mistakes I'm willing to make--"
Joan Lederman,
Ceramics artistWoods Hole,
MA
Joan Lederman,
Ceramics artistWoods Hole,
MA
Joan Lederman,
Ceramics artistWoods Hole,
MA
Joan Lederman, Gaia’s Glazes: Mysteries of Sea Mud Revealed
“As the number of materials I use increases, my mental agility increases. I
bond with materials by concentrating and by memorizing their visual identities at
various stages--being present with them is a way I love them. If I maintain attention, I remember stored data well and can decide
things faster than my mind can track chains of logic.”
Joan Lederman, Gaia’s Glazes: Mysteries of Sea Mud Revealed
"The way I work forces me to develop habits of mind that are useful for managing chaos and complex thought with increasing effectiveness. I'd say my success rate has
improved from about 30% in 1997 to about 87% in 2009. I'm measuring success by
what people agree is beautiful.”
Joan Lederman, Gaia’s Glazes: Mysteries of Sea Mud Revealed
“I call it contingency thinking when I visualize what each glaze might do in a
range of temperatures and atmospheres, on concave or convex surfaces, and how calligraphic writing will survive when the
glazes flow. I think on multiple--sometimes parallel--tracks. If this, then that; if this,
then that. I project likelihoods as my livelihood.”
Authentic Experiential
Evidence-based
“…develop habits of mind that are useful for managing chaos and complex thought with
increasing effectiveness.” “I call it contingency
thinking”
AuthenticExperiential
Evidence-based
“…develop habits of mind that are useful for managing chaos and complex thought with
increasing effectiveness.” “I call it contingency
thinking”
Not an outcome but a way of working, a way of living
learning
What are the features of Authentic Learning
activities?
Herrington, J., Oliver, R. and Reeves, T. C. (2003). Patterns of engagement in authentic online learning
environments. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 19(1), 59-
71. Why today’s students value authentic learning. Carie Windham. EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative
Paper 9, 2007.
Authentic Learning activities
• have real-world relevance;
• are ill-defined; comprise complex tasks to be investigated by students over a sustained period of time;
• provide the opportunity for students to examine the task from different perspectives, using a variety of resources; allow competing solutions and a diversity of outcomes.
• provide the opportunity to collaborate;
• provide the opportunity to reflect;
• can be integrated and applied across different subject areas and lead beyond domain-specific outcomes;
• are seamlessly integrated with assessment;
• create polished products valuable in their own right rather than as preparation for something else;Herrington, J., Oliver, R. and Reeves, T. C. (2003). Patterns of engagement in
authentic online learning environments. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 19(1), 59-71.
Authentic ExperientialEvidence-based
“…develop habits of mind that are useful for managing chaos and complex thought with increasing effectiveness.”
“I call it contingency thinking”
ePortfolios and
authentic learning?
• Real-world relevance
• Ill-defined problems
• Diversity of outcomes; applied across different subjects
• Opportunity to reflect
• Seamlessly integrated with assessment
Where does authentic learning happen?
What does authentic learning have to do with the
curriculum?
“You know. It was taught as a Gen Ed course and I took it as
a Gen Ed course.”
Georgetown student, end of first year, focus group: reflecting on a particular course in
which, he claimed, he was not asked to engage with the material.
High Impact Practices (National Survey of Student Engagement--
NSSE)
• First-year seminars and experiences
• Learning communities
• Writing intensive courses
• Collaborative assignments
• Undergraduate research
• Global learning/ study abroad
• Internships
• Capstone courses and projects
High Impact Activities and Outcomes
High Impact Practices:
• First-year seminars and experiences
• Learning communities
• Writing intensive courses
• Collaborative assignments
• Undergraduate research
• Global learning/ study abroad
• Internships
• Capstone courses and projects
Outcomes associated with High impact practices
• Attend to underlying meaning
• Integrate and synthesize
• Discern patterns
• Apply knowledge in diverse situations
• View issues from multiple perspectives
• Gains in Skills, knowledge, practical competence , personal and social development
So, if high impact practices are largely in the extra-curriculum (or
co-curriculum), then where are the low-impact
practices?
Formal curriculum = low-impact practices?
Participatory Culture of the Web
• Features of participatory culture
• Low barriers to entry
• Strong support for sharing one’s contributions
• Informal mentorship, experienced to novice
• Members feel a sense of connection to each other
• Students feel a sense of ownership of what is being created
• Strong collective sense that something is at stake
How do we make classroom learning more like participatory culture?
Jenkins, et. al., Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture
Six Characteristics of high impact practices AND features of participatory
culture
Features of participatory culture
(on the Web)
Low barriers to entry
Strong support for sharing one’s contributions
Informal mentorship, experienced to novice
Members feel a sense of connection to each other
Students feel a sense of ownership of what is being created
Strong collective sense that something is at stake
High impact experiences
(co- curriculum)
Attend to underlying meaning
Integrate and synthesize
Discern patterns
Apply knowledge in diverse situations
View issues from multiple perspectives
Skills, knowledge, practical competence , personal
and social development
The Formal
Curriculum
InformalLearning
Participatory culture
High impact practices
Experiential Co-
curriculum
The Formal
Curriculum
InformalLearning
Participatory culture
High impact practices
Experiential Co-
curriculum
Can we continue to operate on the assumption that the formal
curriculum is the center of the undergraduate experience?
The Formal
Curriculum
InformalLearning
Participatory culture
High impact practices
Experiential Co-
curriculum
Authentic Learning and ePortfolios?
Where do you put your interest in ePortfolios, with regards to the relationship between the formal
curriculum, the co-curriculum and beyond?
The Post-Course Era
The Post-Course Era
End of the era of the self-contained course as the center of the curriculum
“The fragmentation of the curriculum into a collection of independently ‘owned’
courses is itself an impediment to student accomplishment, because the different
courses students take, even on the same campus, are not expected to engage or build on one another.” (AAC&U, 2004)
If the formal curriculum is not where the high impact
experiences are then what are the options?
(1) Make courses higher impact
Authentic Learning “in” the Classroom
courses designed as
inquiry-based & participatory
Community-based Course ConnectionsVirtual Labs
Authentic Learning: “approximations” of the
authentic Leveraging “the crowd” as a way
of teaching
Using social tools at scale
Michael Wesch (Kansas St U) world hunger simulation
If the formal curriculum is not where the high impact
experiences are then what are the options?
(1) Make courses higher impact
(2) Create better connections between courses and the high impact experiences outside the formal curriculum
(3) Accept that there is a ‘low impact’ formal curriculum that constitutes an essential base for the high impact co-curriculum. (…i.e. make this a premise for curricular design)
All of the above…
Whether we turn to improving the quality of courses, or try harder to connect courses to experiences, “courses” will no longer be the
bounded experiences they have been.
the post-course era
The Formal
Curriculum
InformalLearning
Participatory culture
High impact practices
Experiential Co-
curriculum
Less likely that the formal curriculum (center) will become defined by the edge, then that it
might get pulled towards it.
From Push to Pull
• Forecasting needs; designing most efficient systems to meet those needs
• Knowledge stocks
• Carefully scripted and standardized processes
• Knowledge primarily held centrally
Push
“The Big Shift”
• Forecasting needs; designing most efficient systems to meet those needs
• Knowledge stocks
• Carefully scripted and standardized processes
• Knowledge primarily held centrally
• Find and access people and resources when we need them
• Knowledge flows
• Emergent, often function by serendipity
• Knowledge exists primarily at the edge, often across institutions, boundaries, distances
Push Pull“The Big
Shift”
John Seely Brown: Practice to Content
content
practice
“Minds on Fire”
• Forecasting needs; designing most efficient systems to meet those needs
• Knowledge stocks
• Carefully scripted and standardized processes
• Knowledge primarily held centrally
• Find and access people and resources when we need them
• Knowledge flows
• Emergent, often function by serendipity
• Knowledge exists primarily at the edge, often across institutions, boundaries, distances
Push Pull“The Big
Shift”
From Push to Pull
What does this have to do with authentic learning and ePortfolios?
From Push to Pull
•“We are literally pushed into educational systems designed to anticipate our needs over twelve or more years of schooling and our key needs for skills over the rest of our lives.” (Power of Pull)
Formal education is based on the “push” model
From Push to Pull
The formal curriculum is designed on push…[center]
The co-curriculum (the experiential curriculum) has always functioned by pull…
[edge]
From Push to Pull
The formal curriculum is designed on push…[center]
The co-curriculum (the informal curriculum) has always functioned by
pull… [edge]
Are ePortfolios the essential bridge between the push and pull dimensions
of HE?
The Formal
Curriculum
InformalLearning
Participatory culture
High impact practices
Experiential Co-
curriculumCollege-based ePortfolios are a space for creating an identity between the experiences the institution largely
chooses for you and the experiences you largely choose for yourself.
The Formal
Curriculum
InformalLearning
Participatory culture
High impact practices
Experiential Co-
curriculumCollege-based ePortfolios are a space for creating an identity between the experiences the institution largely
chooses for you and the experiences you largely choose for yourself.
Experiential…
Evidence based…
Authentic?
“Shaping a Life of the Mind for Practice ” (Sullivan & Rosin)
•A practice-focused curriculum
•Teaching for practical reasoning (beyond critical thinking)
•Reflective judgment in conditions of uncertainty
“Shaping the Life of the Mind for Practice ” (Sullivan & Rosin)
• “Teaching for practical reason means providing students with educational experiences that model what it means to put skill and knowledge to work through judgment and action.”
“Shaping the Life of the Mind for Practice ” (Sullivan & Rosin)
• “Teaching for practical reason means providing students with educational experiences that model what it means to put skill and knowledge to work through judgment and action.”
“…develop habits of mind that are useful for managing chaos and complex thought with
increasing effectiveness.”
“I call it contingency thinking”
The challenges of designing a curriculum focused on practical reason and reflective judgment
• Rethink the formal curriculum as being in service to high impact experiential learning
• Design for habits of mind curriculum (contingency thinking), creating more opportunities for appreciating (and reflecting on) failure and uncertainty
• Reimagine the distribution of resources on principles of most / least?
Challenges for the implementation of ePortfolios in an environment designed for practical reason and reflective judgment:
Design ePortfolio initiatives according to the principles of pull, not push (i.e. knowledge flows, collaboration, serendipity)
Design the use of ePortfolios as critical tools of a most/least strategy (e.g. discipilnary-based reflection)
Design the use of ePortfolios as a means for helping students slow down to think
No Time to Think
Challenges for the implementation of ePortfolios in an environment designed for practical reason and reflective judgment:
Design ePortfolio initiatives according to the principles of pull, not push (i.e. knowledge flows, collaboration, serendipity)
Design the use of ePortfolios as critical tools of a most/least strategy (e.g. discipilnary-based reflection)
Design the use of ePortfolios as a means for helping students slow down to think
