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The Value of Public bPortfolios

David Hopkins used the time waiting for his iOS5 update more productively than I did (my nails are red). He read (and thankfully wrote) about an academic paper on public bPortfolios (blogging portfolios). Dubbed in the abstract as a “holistic alternative portfolio assessment system”, bPortfolios provide a way to reflect on academic (and professional) work in a socially interactive environment well beyond the walls of a college (or organization). So, yeah as I said, blogging. David goes on to talk about the efficient, inexpensive, scalable thing that WordPress is and wonders if bPortfolios will kick ePortfolios, which never really got much traction, to the curb or just  muck up the ongoing discussion about engagement. What I liked about the paper is the mention of metacognition (in this case critical reflection) applied to professional practice. While this is an academic study, the idea behind it applies just as much to corporate L&D – it’s important to document your learning not just what you learned. And (as they note) it’s better when the public can see it. The whole idea is to make the process of critical reflection as simple as possible.

Link: ‘ePortfolios are out, ‘bPortfolios’ are in (apparently), David Hopkins, 10/25/11

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Welcome!

Welcome to the New eLearn!

I’m thrilled to be coming on board as Editor in Chief.  We’ve worked hard to identify ways of keeping the best of the last 10 years while looking for new areas of focus and ideas for reaching a broader community of readers. eLearning has evolved so much since 2001, from “CBT” and the early days of “distance education,” through virtual classrooms and virtual worlds to, now, the brave new frontier of handheld devices and mLearning, in an age with so much being created, shared, and curated through the new channels provided by social media.

The eLearn reader we hope to reach is  interested in and willing to use new technologies and approaches in creating, delivering, and supporting instruction (both academic and organizational) and workplace performance improvement.  This reader sees him- or herself as an educator or workplace learning practitioner interested in professional development, improving practice, and learning more about learning regardless of the vehicle.  He regards professional development and lifelong learning as an obligation for any practitioner in any field.  She is not a schoolmarm with a ruler.

eLearn will continue to publish content for the higher ed audience but will expand material for  those involved in workplace training, instructional design, and performance support.   We’ve already begun this journey with Cammy Bean’s wonderful  “Avoiding the Trap of Clicky-Clicky-Bling-Bling”, Aaron Silvers’ review of Thomas and Brown’s New Culture of Learning, and Tracy Parish’s reportage from Learning Solutions 2011.

We welcome reader submissions:

-Case Studies, particularly the “how I overcame…” and “how I successfully used…”  variety.  We’d love to showcase positive deviants and those accomplishing objectives despite the usual organizational constraints.

-Research. We are very interested in pieces from academia that focus on technology implementation and integration, learning and teaching strategies, instructor roles, learner experiences, facilitating online communities and social networks, etc. We are open to graduate student work, including reviews of (especially) current literature; one of my own frustrations as a grad student was that so much supervised work was graded and just shelved.  We would love to hear more from faculty at universities, particularly those with technology education, HRD, and workforce development programs, and encourage them to submit their own work or encourage submission of student work.  As so much literature is inaccessible to the non-university-affiliated practitioner, reworking or summaries of previously published research pieces will be considered for publication.

-Reviews of books or other publications, including something like highlighting a particularly strong and prolific blogger. 

-Reviews of conferences and other events.

Have an idea for an article or review? Please review our Writer’s Guidelines.

We also welcome feedback about what you’d like to see in the future. Please leave a comment below.

We hope you share our eagerness to enter a successful second decade of eLearn.

Best,
Jane Bozarth

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Big Changes at eLearn Magazine

What’s new and different at eLearn Magazine? I am very excited to announce that we have a new site. Not only is it more modern and attractive, we believe, but it provides many new features including article tags, the ability to see which articles are most popular, a more robust search capability, and more video.

What hasn’t changed is our high-quality content. Actually, it has—it is even better because we have added regular editors in recent months, the newest of whom is Sue Landay. We hope you enjoy her columns as well as those of our other regular columnists, Michelle Everson, Bob Little, and Roger Schank, and our guest columnists.
Continue reading

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The Efficacy of Online Instruction

Kevin Kvalvik, a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, posted responses to a question seeking recent findings on the efficacy of online instruction from student and faculty points of view. There are seven sites mentioned, including articles from eLearn Magazine, and the post includes useful descriptions of the results.

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What Were eLearn Magazine Readers Reading in 2010?

It is always fascinating to see what our readers read and the end of year is a particularly good time to observe and reflect.

  1. Homepage
  2. Best Practices
  3. Stephen Downes’ ever-popular E-learning 2.0
  4. Research and Case Studies
  5. Tutorials (This category no longer exists as of 2011)
  6. Keri Bjorklund’s eLearning Tools for English Composition: 30 New Media Tools and Web Sites for Writing Teachers
  7. Michelle Everson’s 10 Things I’ve Learned About Teaching Online
  8. eLearn Magazine’s Full Achive
  9. Predictions for 2010

This list is only through December 27, and the rest of the year may bring surprises. Certainly the new year will bring surprises when we launch our redesigned site!