Essay on Harnessing Learning With E-Portfolios: A Practical Tool for Student Growth

Introduction

E-Portfolio is considered as a way of generating and documenting learning. From the depicted videos, e-portfolios generate learning as they provide a virtual space and opportunity for students to assess and analyze their academic tasks, reflect on them, and make different links in various assignments, courses, and other activities such as volunteering opportunities, extracurricular pursuits, work experience, et cetera (Lin et al., 2013). Additionally, e-portfolios are practical tools of learning as they support the knowledge construction of a student, make invisible learning process aspects of being visible, and place agency in students' hands that fosters the motivation of learning.

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Constructing Knowledge

E-Portfolios fall in the social constructivism learning theory, which depicts that learning mostly takes place when students create knowledge systems for themselves instead of having presented information. From the depicted videos, students can always construct knowledge through interacting with others or through dialogues (Shehata, 2017). Moreover, with e-Portfolios, the reflection process comes from an individual activity but is made social through a loop of feedback as the student's family members, mentors, peers, or instructor provide commentary on or respond to the depicted reflections (Hui, 2017).

Making Learning Visible

When using e-Portfolios, a student can easily and exclusively concentrate on the final product as well as overlook the learning stages while doing what preceded the product. Therefore, when they reflect on the invisible stages, they can learn more and deeper, as well as how to improve the next time (Yastibas & Yastibas, 2015). The other invisible learning aspect is learning that surpasses one's cognitive ability, including identity, personal, and affective issues. From the video, the learning process does not only involve the rational mind; rather, it involves a sense of self, personality, and feelings (Yeung, 2017). Thus, by reflecting on the self-identity, personal, and affective factors, students can always create and develop metacognitive skills to enhance their learning.

Fostering Student Agency

Because e-Portfolios are activities that focus mainly on students - where the students can freely select what artifacts to be included and freely reflect on their learning process, they foster motivation and engagement (Chen et al., 2015). From the videos, student engagement with learning implies that when they perceive that they have learning choices, they are always more motivated and engaged to go beyond the acquisition of simple information to gain more understanding of the subject (Cooper, 2017). Thus, e-Portfolio promotes and supports deep learning, as students can make links between their learning in different contexts.

Generative Learning Model

The generative learning model is based on the fact that learners or students can actively incorporate and integrate new ideas into their memory to improve their educational experience. Thus, the theory involves connecting new ideas with old ones to better understand the instructed concepts (Fiorella & Mayer, 2016). I will ensure that mature and irregular learners get the best out of a course I have redesigned with technology incorporated by enhancing recall through technology-based tools. In most cases, recall often takes place when the adult learner accesses stored information in their long-term memory. The main aim of the concept is to motivate and encourage the learners to learn factual content by utilizing the information they have acquired. For instance, the technology-based tools might have the learner repeat information or review the information until the concept has been fully grasped (Farouk & Elfateh, 2016).

Also, I will ensure that there is full integration, which involves the learner incorporating new data with already collected and stored knowledge. The primary purpose is to change the generated information into a form that the adult learner can access and remember easily in the future. For example, encouraging the learner to paraphrase the involved content or create various analogies to explain a specific concept (Rosdianto, 2018). Additionally, I will ensure that the tools used in acquiring knowledge organize the information. Organization involves the learners connecting collected knowledge to new concepts in an effective and organized way (Rosdianto, 2018). For example, the learners might be instructed to create lists or analyze the primary points of a particular concept.

Moreover, the acquired information from the technology-based tools will enhance elaboration, which involves encouraging the learner to link and add new concepts to collected data by analyzing the ideas. For example, through creative writing, mental images visual representation, and expanding on a specific thought or sentence (Ulusoy & Onen, 2014). Therefore, the generative learning model motivates adult learners to be fully immersed in learning so that they can create and develop new strategies on handling challenges or solving problems and scenarios. Additionally, the model allows instructors not always to fill the learning gaps when instructing the learners. For instance, if a lesson involves a popular topic to the learner, they can only be provided with new information instead of the content background. The action, thus, saves time and makes the process of learning more effective, particularly when handling large classes (Wittrock, 2013).

References

Chen, Z. S., Yang, S. J., & Huang, J. J. (2015). Constructing an e-portfolio-based integrated learning environment supported by library resources. The Electronic Library. DOI: 10.1108/EL-07-2013-0118/full/Html

Cooper, A. (2017). Importance of e-portfolio. UBC Clas. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5FSdpNdWvY&feature=youtu.be

Farouk, A., & Elfateh, A. (2016). EFFECTIVENESS USE GENERATIVE LEARNING MODEL ON STRATEGIC THINKING SKILLS AND LEARNING LEVEL OF BASICS OFFENSIVE FENCING. Ovidius University Annals, Series Physical Education & Sport/Science, Movement & Health, 16(1). Retrieved from http://analefefs.ro/anale-fefs/2016/i1/pe-autori/5.pdf

Fiorella, L., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). Eight ways to promote generative learning. Educational Psychology Review, 28(4), 717-741. DOI: 10.1007/s10648-015-9348-9

Hui, Y. K. (2017, June). The role of e-portfolio for smart life long learning. In International Conference on Smart Education and Smart E-Learning (pp. 327-356). Springer, Cham. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-59454-5_11

Lin, C. H., Yang, S. C., & Lai, C. C. (2013). Support as a Mediator of the Impact of Cognitive Load on Students' E-Portfolio Learning Outcomes. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 41(1), 17-30. DOI: 10.2224/sbp.2013.41.1.17

Rosdianto, H. (2018). StudentsConceptual Understanding Through Generative Learning Model in Topic" light." DOI: 10.31227/osf.io/ed4gmShehata, M. (2017). Importance of e-portfolio. UBC Clas. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ0LufXKmXE&feature=youtu.be

Ulusoy, F. M., & Onen, A. S. (2014). Research on the Generative Learning Model Supported by Context-Based Learning. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 10(6). Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2607/32b5504987b492286ebf3bfec2114ca73d4b.pdf

Wittrock, M. C. (2013). Generative science teaching. The content of science: A constructivist approach to its teaching and learning (pp. 41-50). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781315831558-8

Yastibas, A. E., & Yastibas, G. C. (2015). The use of e-portfolio-based assessment to develop students' self-regulated learning in English language teaching. Procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 176, 3-13. DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.437

Yeung, C. (2017). Importance of e-portfolio. UBC Clas. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXVLVP6Y5bc&feature=youtu.be