EPEARL

EPEARL - Electronic Portfolio Encouraging Active Reflective Learning
Notes from ISTE10

Portfolios Need To:

• Be purposeful and meaningful - more than just a collection
• Show progress over time
• Allow for student reflection

Key Features:

• Student centered (managed by the student)
• One portfolio per student
• Follows student from year to year
• Aligned with the Core Curriculum
• Access from anywhere
• Everything in one place
• Easy to use (for students and teachers)

Added Value of a Digital Portfolio:

• Fims
• Sounds
• Images
• Documents
• Podcasts

Pedagogical Principles:

• Collection
• Selection - Teachers can have a checklist of required items, but students should also have a choice of which items they use to fill the requirements.
  
• Reflection - SRL Model - Planning -> Doing -> Reflecting -> Planning -> Doing... - This happens many times throughout the year so that the student doesn't get to the end of the year after their final evaluation and say, "Oh. That's what you wanted."
  
• Evaluation - Not just a final grade mark
  
• Celebration - Have students select one piece of their portfolio to share with classmates, teachers, parents, etc. Have treats!

EPEARL program itself is not open source, but it is free code. It is local server-based. They will give you the code to put on your server.

http://sakai.learnquebec.ca:8808/ltk/