Learning Technologies for Reflection

How do I do it?

There are three key technologies that can be used to promote reflection. Two of them are vUWS-based (learning journals and blogs) and the other tool is MyKnowledgeMap, which combines a platform for reflecting on experiences (MyShowcase) and a platform for receiving feedback from mentors (MyKnowledgeMap). There are at least three major theoretical models of reflective practice (Gibbs 1988, Kolb 1984 and Schon 1983) and there are numerous ways in which these models can be operationalised – see Edinburgh University’s excellent resource on concrete examples . The tools that can be used to promote reflective practice in your students are outlined below.

Learning journals

Learning journals can be used to promote student reflection. The tool provides opportunities for student reflection and ongoing feedback.

Blogs

Blogs can be set to either private or public mode in vUWS and their educational value is similar to learning journals when blogs are private. Consider using blogs and learning journals as a way of capturing student progress over time.

Google shared documents

Shared documents can be used by students to construct portfolios. It is important to consider the privacy options, however, if this technology is chosen as well as the how portfolios will be assessed and tracked.

E-portfolio

MyKnowledge map is an e-portfolio system that can be used as a showcase for student work and to provide students with opportunities to reflect on their progress. The MyProgress tool also includes a way to provide support and feedback for students in authentic contexts. E-portfolios are powerful assessment tools because they allow students to demonstrate a range of skills and knowledge and they provide a mechanism for teachers to design authentic assessment tasks.

Benefits for students

Promotes self-regulated learning practices through ongoing reflection
Can be used as a platform to demonstrate knowledge, skills and competencies for future employers
Helps students to bridge the connection between tacit knowledge and propositional knowledge through reflection (Schon)
Students are provided with ongoing feedback based on design of ongoing assessment
Promotes skills of judgement and justification i.e. which artefacts align best with learning outcomes or standards
Improves digital literacy skills and building narratives through digital artefacts
Can help promote critical thinking skills through reflection

See Edinburgh University’s ‘ Reflection Toolkit ‘ for more

Benefits for teachers

Allows practice-based assessment to be linked to graduate attributes
Encourages individual contextual parameters to be reflected in artefacts so students can meet the aims of assessments differently but still meet the required standards
Provides a way to map unit learning outcomes against graduate outcomes
Promotes critical thinking skills that can be used in a range of units and contexts

See Edinburgh University’s ‘ Reflection Toolkit ‘ for more

Challenges of using ePortfolios

Rubrics need to be designed in such a way so as to recognise different student contexts (i.e. range of artefacts) but to maintain assessment reliability. One of the key challenges faced by staff and students can often be technical and it is important to provide enough time for students (perhaps through a formative task) to become familiar with the technology. Staff will also require the appropriate training in the affordances of the different features of the technology as well as technical support in its use.

Implementation

Scaffold students . This needs to include providing students with the technical skills to use ePorfolios effectively as well as providing students with support related to what is required of them. Reflection does not just entail the demonstration of the ability to describe events and experiences – it requires students to record and describe their experiences but to interpret and construct meaning from their experiences. It is important, therefore, to start with small tasks that help to build these types of skills.

Tie ePortfolios to assessment. EPortfolios need to be tied to assessments if you want students to develop the critical judgement and analytical skills to interpret and construct meaning from experiences. Design of rubrics and marking guides is, therefore, an important component in the integration of ePortfolio assessment tasks in your set of assessments.

Portfolios as part of a social learning practice. Encourage students to share their portfolios (where appropriate) with their peers because this will create a culture within your class of using portfolios as a platform for discussion. The portfolio, in other words, does not always have to be an exercise in individual construction of meaning – they can be used to encourage discussion of different perspectives and viewpoints.

Examples

ePortfolio usage	Rationale
Assessment of a learning log or digital diary	Students can diarise and record their ongoing evidence, so that the ePortfolio becomes a reflective digital record of the learning journey of a student in a course or degree program.
Experiential learning and internships	With ePortfolios, students need to be resourceful and identify the key learning experiences in an internship or experiential learning activity. (See Assessing Experiential Learning through E-Portfolios .)
Assessment of annotated bibliographies and readings	Throughout a course, a student uses the ePortfolio to complete weekly reading entries and summaries. Students and staff can annotate the ePortfolio to solve problems related to the lectures, readings or topic materials as an assessment component.
Assessment of visual artefacts	Throughout a course, a student in the visual and performing arts uses an ePortfolio to select and collect artefacts that represent a theme, genre or medium, and to reflect on their practice. Students can virtually exhibit their work, displaying increasing refinement in their curatorial decisions. Assessment centres on exhibition, display and sustained reflection.
Assessment of reflective practice	Students critically reflect as they gather digital artefacts and evidence to demonstrate the development of their knowledge, skills and competencies. ePortfolios “are a useful vehicle for facilitating critical reflection on one’s learning and for compiling and demonstrating evidence of learning and skill development” (Krause, 2006, 1), as they hold, and preserve the arrangement of, evidence of learning. Students can construct their ePortfolios to constitute an official record of their work. ePortfolios “enable students to integrate their learning experiences”, including feedback, and “make a substantial contribution to their personal development” (Housego & Parker, 2009).
Assessment of work integrated learning (WIL), utilisation as a curriculum vitae	ePortfolios can contain a combination of text, graphics, video, audio and hyperlinks. Just like a blog, an ePortfolio can be used as a diary of the WIL for assessment purposes; later, the student can direct potential employers/ funding bodies/ investors/ collaborators to the site to see evidence in support of an application.
Assessment of evidence of achievement through feedback on self-assessment	Feedback is an integral component of formative assessment and is critical to student learning. When feedback is driven purely by the teacher, students are unlikely to engage fully with the process. When the feedback process is driven by the student’s own critical reflection, however, it has a far more powerful and lasting effect.

Table from https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/assessing-eportfolios

References

Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. London: Further Education Unit.

Housego, S. and Parker, N. (2009). Positioning ePortfolios in an integrated curriculum. Education and Training 51(5/6), 408–421.

Kolb, D.A. (1984). Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Krause, K. (2006). ePortfolios for graduate students: A discussion paper. Centre for the Study of Higher Education. University of Melbourne.

Schön, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner. How professionals think in action , London: Temple Smith

Strategy: Learning Technologies for Reflection