10
variety of learning options offered by high technology may allow teachers to engage more students. For example, podcasting classes could prove invaluable to students who need to listen to a class twice. Or the student who never contributes in class may turn out to be an unstoppable conversationalist at 2 a.m. online. Riley also finds that “when people talk online, they start talking more in class.”
What’s still to come?
ing system for the work which students produce. It accepts different media and hosts Internet links, and continues to evolve. It is also a place where students can comment on their work and on what they’re experiencing. In an era of Facebook and MySpace, it may feel very familiar to young people increasingly comfortable with jotting down their thoughts and self-examination. “Sometimes you realize what college was about 15 years later,” Carrera says. “We want students to be thinking about it from Day One.” Eportfolios might have a number of interfaces giving different access to several types of users. Students could use their eportfolios to track progress and Magali Carrera to create portfolios for job interviews. For the university, they would serve as tools to help gauge what students are learning. An eportfolio pilot program has been underway on campus for 18 months. A full-blown eportfolio program is at least several years away. Each campus of the University of Massachusetts system is
Students are out
there on Facebook and
using their MP3 players. When they’re coming from that rich envi-
ronment, we have to
rethink what we do in
Immersion, Green says, whether it’s using virtual reality media to plunk students inside an atom, alongside ocean currents, or walking through an art museum in Europe. —Professor Looking ahead, Riley sees virtual language labs and “learning object repositories.” The latter are online storage facilities, which she predicts will inspire community and the sharing of resources. Perhaps the development generating the most excitement is the electronic portfolio, or “eportfolio,” software that acts as a fil-
the classroom.
UMass
|
D a r t m o u t h