Three different words, but don't they mean the same thing? One of the features of a packaged and paid for VLE seems to be that the pupils have their own "personal space", or their "ePortfolio", or "online storage". In my bid to create our own VLE, I've been pondering just how to set up these areas for our pupils. Afterall, without them I'll never get the VLE finished. The pupils already have their own space when they join our school - its their area on the server when they log into the school network. It stores their own files that they create during their time with us. The only problem with it is that it's only accessible to them whilst they are in school, connected to our network; no good for 24/7 learning.
I did enquire with the LA whether we could open up access to their spaces from home - using their usernames plus adding a password so that only they could access their files, but that was a no go straight away. It's impossible it seems (although I still think that technically it must possible to achieve).
That then led me to think just what would be using this space for - this "ePortfolio"? I see it as a record of progression of their work during the four years they spend with us. Four years of creating digital files (whether they be text / image / audio or video). Four years of writing their thoughts on their learning. And that's when it hit me. The pupils need a blog. It's perfect for them. With their own blog they can easily;
- Upload a digital file (text / image / video / audio)
- Allow them to enter their thoughts on a topic / reflect on a lesson
- List links to websites / articles they have been using for research purposes
Plus, with the school using Vimeo to host videos, the pupils can easily go to a video, copy the embed code and place it into their own blog. With a small piece of code dropped into the blog template, all their word and powerpoint files can be viewed on screen in a nice pop up window thanks to the neat embeditin sitewide code I mentioned in my last post.
I've set up a test blog to see just how easily it would work. You can see it here. What I've also done is disable comments throughout the blog (commenting is left to the "main" school website), and set up the sidebar to show a calendar of recent posts / archived areas and categories. To me, this is an ideal solution. Each child has their own unique blog that only they can log into (of course I can also get into them as the overall blog owner), and if you visit the example blog you'll notice that there is no mention of the childs name on the blog.
So to me, an ePortfolio is a "record of their digital creations and thoughts". And giving each child a blog allows them to create their own record quickly and easily, that parents can also view at home.
Oh, and the question you're wondering is who would provide us with enough blogs? Typepad will. I've asked them, and as we use their pro account, we can have unlimited blogs. When I asked if 150+ was abusing the terms of service, they quickly replied saying no - infact they have corporate accounts with many more blogs than we'll set up.
I love it when a plan starts to come together.
