There are literaly hundreds of different blogs out there that you can use for free, so why have one in the ePortfolio?
The 3 key reasons are:
1. Educational design/Structure
- aims to help raise awareness of transferable skills / employability; integration with 'My Skills' section of the portfolio
– built in support for Graduate Skills Framework, Researcher Development Framework and professional competencies
- builds up evidence efficiently with the ability to link a piece of evidence with multiple skills
- can include programme-specific pedagogic guidance
2. Primarily not a public blog
- choice to reflect in a private / non-threatening environment or share with communities
– students' control over every blog post; private, share with specific tutors/supervisors or specified groups.
- tutors can make comments shared or private to the student – personal feedback
- sharing integrated with University data sources – daily feed from SAP
3. Conceptual
– holistic programme long – not module specific
-export when you leave
Historically those programmes that have used the blog (e.g. PGCE, MBBS, Speech) have used it intensively
33,712 blog entries made by 2,808 students/staff over 4 years
For our early background rationale see:
Simon Cotterill, Paul Horner, Sue Gill, Tony McDonald, Paul Drummond, David Teasdale, Anne Whitworth, Geoff Hammond.
Beyond the Blog: getting the right level of structure in an ePortfolio to support learning. Proc. ePortfolios 2007.
Cotterill SJ, Horner P, McDonald AM, et al.
A Blog for learning: blogs and social networking with explicit support for skills and learning outcomes, within an integrated ePortfolio.
Proc ePortfolios, identity and personalised learning in healthcare education. 2008