I was skimming around the other evening for the latest and greatest on e-portfolios. ICT is such a royal pain sometimes for becoming the focus of the debate.

We all know the ‘mines got more buttons than yours’ argument that often prevails when those in the debate don’t acutally know what they’re going to use the thing for.

I know, I’m the first to hold my hand up (usually), that folks in education are sometimes perceived as a bit waffly and ’soft focused’ but to me that’s fine because it’s round those edges that new learning happens. Keeping those softer edges is also quite an achievement in the UK target driven climate. Anyway - I’m waffling now.

As we get nearer to having a joined up learning platform solution in Bolton (our tender has just closed) it’s vital to remember just what we’re trying to do here ie. engage learners, teachers & families by enabling greater personalisation of their journey in the name of helping everyone enjoy & achieve more.

An e-portfolio is part of a learning platform and certainly a significant one. So instead of going down the functional/techie spec line I thought I’d focus upon another more powerful tool. Metaphor.

I like the ’story’ metaphor.

Stories are a natural way to help portfolio-makers think about their thinking. The neurologist Oliver Sacks (1987) believes a sense of narrative is ‘absolutely primal.’

(Paulson, Paulson, & Meyer, 1992).

I suggest you read this collection of portfolio metaphors if you’re getting bogged down with people who are leading the debate on button pushing.

[Update 7/10] Back in 2004/5 it seems I was playing the same record (remember those?)- here’s the presentation from within the TLC website.[Update Ends]

[JB]