Research Diary: Blogs and Eportfolios in Higher Education

MySpace Mobilizes Immigrant Protests

March 30, 2006.  Jose Covarrubias, 16, Melissa Lopez, 16, and her brother Gustavo Lopez, 18, participated in the recent walkout at Garden Grove High School.  The enormously popular website MySpace was instrumental in spreading the word.(photo: Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)

"Don't Fear the Digital"

I n the same Time Magazine feature I posted on previously, Digital Guru Steven Johnson weighs in with his well-known pro-technology perspective.  This in itself lends a more positive balance to Time's coverage of the issues.  Here the lead reads, "It's dumbing down our kids?  Hardly.  Why plugging in is good for you."  I've been impressed with Johnson's arguments before -- I think he captures something essential with his comparisons.

"Now ask yourself this question:  In the offices of the future, which skill set will today's kids draw upon in their day-to-day tasks?  Mastering interfaces, searching virutal social networks and multitasking? Or doing algebra?  I think the answer is obvious."

I'd agree -- especially since Johnson emphasizes a "balanced media diet: surfing and gaming alongside old-fashioned reading (not to mention going outdoors to toss a football around).  Hard to argue about that in my book...er, I mean, in MySpace.

FolioSnap: Self-Managed Portfolio Websites for Creative People (tm) - Online Portfolios

Here's a portfolio tool for professional photographers and graphics artist which might be adaptable to use for ePortfolios in general.  Thanks again to my favorite student "research assistant," Avinash Nayak for putting me wise to this one.  Seems more appropriate (at first) for photographers than students, but it's so deeply visually appealing that I'd still love to see someone try to use it for an eportfolio.  Link: FolioSnap: Self-Managed Portfolio Websites for Creative People (tm) - Online Portfolios.

Go Blog Urself!

Rosie O'Donnel is on Jay Leno tonight -- hey, I'm at a hotel in Utah, so what can I do? -- and she's talking all about her blog at Rosie.com.  She's even giving the whole Tonight Show audience tee-shirts that say "Go Blog Urself"!  And there's a blogger on the tonight show staff she'd made friends with online already.  Small world (and getting smaller all the time).  Great stuff:  kids art; rosie's rants; and even poetry!

PebblePAD ePortfolio System

Honors Student extraordinaire Avinash Nayak found us another new ePortfolio platform -- this one designed in England.  After a quick tour (they have movies and samples and essays available) my first impressions are that it has a "deep learning" orientation I love.  But there seems to be a bit too much techie-talk at times.  Kind of like my old Triumph Spitfire, I suppose:  beautiful design, fun to drive, but breaks down a lot and you need a different set of "tools" to fix it?  Link: PebblePAD.

ANGEL ePortfolio Platform

My favorite Honors Student "Research Angel" Avinash Nayak's avalanche of new ePortfolio tools includes an impressive product called "Angel."  Loved their splashy, thoughtful, polished marketing presentation -- although I worry about how much of this is "real" (and how much is "vaporware").  Interesting how much emphasis this product places on ePortfolios as an Accreditation tool for administrators.  Guess they know who has all the money!  And you'll need some.  If you get hooked on this system, the software license is far from free!  That said, their clients include everyone from Harvard School of Public Health to Niagra Community College.  Link: ANGEL ePortfolio.

KEEP Toolkit for ePortfolios?

Another of my Honors research angels, Cassie Dara-Abrams, recommends the KEEP toolkit for making easy-to-use student ePortfolios.  Exploring their site I can sure see why: they seem to have plenty of teachers (and students) involved in designing their system.  Some people are using it for advanced research projects too.  Worth further research, that's for sure!  Plus we'll get to see how Cassie's own KEEP ePortfolio comes out.  "Keep It Deep" is all I ask.  Link: KEEP Toolkit.

Type Your Next Essay on Your Phone?

I recently purchased a bluetooth keyboard for my SmartPhone -- which comes with Pocket Word software for wordprocessing.  So does this mean my students will soon be composing their English 1A essays on their phones?  Perhaps--although the teeny-tiny screen size is certainly a limiting factor.  Read up on this and other "computer" uses of cellphones at Link: eSchool News online - Youths use cell phones as mini-PCs.

Los Angeles Times Questions Depth of Blogging "Revolution"

Today's LA Times covered a new report which questions the ability of the blogging-revolution to replace the rapidly-dwindling resources of tradional news-gathering organizations such as newpapers.  Fortunately, the thesis isn 't anything as simple-minded as "blogs are bad."  Instead, the larger worry is that lone-bloggers can't send independent teams of reporters to difficult-to-reach regions, or marshal the resources for long-running in-depth investigative reports.

"In the future, we may well rely more on citizens to be sentinels for one another," the report says. "No doubt that will expand the public forum and enrich the range of voices."

Examples of such sources include radio interviews of Iraqi citizens produced by Swarthmore College students and a similar initiative to deliver municipal radio news in Minnesota.

"The worry is not the wondrous addition of citizen media," the report says, "but the decline of full-time professional monitoring of powerful institutions."

Link: More News Outlets, Fewer Stories: New Media 'Paradox' - Los Angeles Times.

Do Digital Students Read Differently?

Fascinating article in today's Denver Post about how technology is changing reading habits. Do students who use the net as their primary source of information have a whole different relationship to texts in general?  The best thing the article says: we honestly don't know (yet).  Yes, there does seem to be a greater reliance on "snipets" among webophiles in general -- hey, that's one big reason I try so hard to keep my own postings on this blog so short.  But in other dimensions I'm not certain (nor is anyone else) what all this really means for the Future of Reading.  For example: the article says (as usual) "today's students refuse to read long books."  But hey, isn't this also the Harry Potter generation?  Nor am I convinced that 95% of my adult friends read anymore than teenagers do!  Link: DenverPost.com - LIFESTYLES.