Monday, May 08, 2006
Monday, May 8
Had a great day today with a bunch of people at the Waterloo University in Waterloo, Ontario. Tracy Light has been leading the introduction of a portfolio tool based on the Keep Toolkit, developed by the Carnegie Foundation. While I didn't see much of the web-based tools myself, the value in the day came from a short symposium that Tracy had organised to coincide with my visit. This involved presentations by five different portfolio users, with maybe 30 other staff members attending.
Many of the projects are still quite embryonic, with only two reporting on real student usage. However, it was great to see the range and diversity of application. There were presentations on the use in History, foundation Cell Biology, Public Health, Accounting and Financial Management, and what they call Residence-Life, which is for residential students. They are still very much grappling with the challenges of institutional acceptance and uptake, and also how best to use portfolios for assessment, ongoing student access, etc.
Waterloo as a campus uses the Angel LMS which has its own portfolio tool, but the support staff like Tracy found it too rudimentary (sounds familiar). Apparently Angel are about to release their 'new improved' portfolio function, so it seems like this is perceived as the flavour of the month feature.
After another very nice lunch treat (must get back to the gym on my return), it was back onto the highway. Bumbled my way around back-roads looking for the main highway (401) and eventually found it in the city of London, maybe 100km down the road. From then on it has been plain sailing (driving?). They even let me back into the US without too much of a grilling, which was just as well. With the huge American highways, and relatively little traffic in this part of the country, it was just a case of 'set the cruise control to 70mph' and make sure I stayed awake. Have stopped for the night in the town of Lansing, Michigan, which leaves me with only about 250 miles to go to Indianapolis tomorrow.
Had a great day today with a bunch of people at the Waterloo University in Waterloo, Ontario. Tracy Light has been leading the introduction of a portfolio tool based on the Keep Toolkit, developed by the Carnegie Foundation. While I didn't see much of the web-based tools myself, the value in the day came from a short symposium that Tracy had organised to coincide with my visit. This involved presentations by five different portfolio users, with maybe 30 other staff members attending.
Many of the projects are still quite embryonic, with only two reporting on real student usage. However, it was great to see the range and diversity of application. There were presentations on the use in History, foundation Cell Biology, Public Health, Accounting and Financial Management, and what they call Residence-Life, which is for residential students. They are still very much grappling with the challenges of institutional acceptance and uptake, and also how best to use portfolios for assessment, ongoing student access, etc.
Waterloo as a campus uses the Angel LMS which has its own portfolio tool, but the support staff like Tracy found it too rudimentary (sounds familiar). Apparently Angel are about to release their 'new improved' portfolio function, so it seems like this is perceived as the flavour of the month feature.
After another very nice lunch treat (must get back to the gym on my return), it was back onto the highway. Bumbled my way around back-roads looking for the main highway (401) and eventually found it in the city of London, maybe 100km down the road. From then on it has been plain sailing (driving?). They even let me back into the US without too much of a grilling, which was just as well. With the huge American highways, and relatively little traffic in this part of the country, it was just a case of 'set the cruise control to 70mph' and make sure I stayed awake. Have stopped for the night in the town of Lansing, Michigan, which leaves me with only about 250 miles to go to Indianapolis tomorrow.
// posted by Mark Northover @ 7:08 PM 
