About In-Folio

In-Folio is an easy to use, uniquely accessible e-portfolio application developed especially for use by and with learners with learning difficulties and disabilities. In-Folio is open-source and freely available for specialist colleges and selected organisations who are piloting it. In-Folio has been created and developed by the Rix Centre for JISC TechDis with the UK's leading specialist colleges.

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In-Folio Roadshow Evaluation (Portland College)

On July 15th the In-Folio Roadshow came to Portland along with colleagues from a number of other Independent Specialist Colleges.

The day consisted of presentations by various members of the Rix team, and also one from myself when, as mentioned in my earlier blog, I went on about omelettes and somehow managed to link them to e-portfolios and learner achievement.

As is the case when you bring colleagues in and introduce new technology into the equation, we had a few technical hitches, but such is life!  I still think that we managed to cover everything and do In-Folio (and all the supporting technologies) justice.

The delegates I spoke to certainly seemed inspired by the presentations on creative uses of multimedia.  The hands-on sessions were also very well received with people glad of the oppportunity to try out the Flip cameras, Audacity etc.

From a personal point of view it was good to get feedback that we seem to have the correct intentions in how to use In-Folio.  Also, and as daft as it sounds, the technical hitches were also a blessing in disguise.  You have to learn from these experiences, and I now deal with new technology differently when bringing it into the college.

For those who weren’t present, the laptop we were using for presentations didn’t support my multimedia files, and so all videos became audio-only files, losing a lot of their impact in the process.  It turns out that the machine didn’t have the codecs from the camera I’d used, and so couldn’t play the videos.  Having subsequently ordered 25 Flip video cameras to ensure that staff and learners have the means to populate eFolios though, it was a lesson well learnt as we can now address this before the cameras are distributed.  As a result, staff will not face an unnecessary problem in viewing evidence and so will not lose motivation.  If that’s not a silver lining to draw from a cloud, I don’t know what is!

Since the roadshow, I’ve been flat out creating 124 learner accounts and also a large number of ’student’ accounts for staff to play with.  The feedback and interest in In-Folio has been incredible:  staff are using Review and Transition sessions to get In-Folio going.  Many are also quite proactive, and so are already asking for further developments and functionality.

Staff are meeting next week to discuss the idea of having a generic template for the initial batch of folios, and whilst I want learners to design their own, I can also see the value inthis early on, especially when staff are only just getting to grips with it.  Once we have agreed on a template or two I’ll post some screen shots and/or descriptions on here for general comment.

Matt

By Matt, on September 18th, 2009 | Category: Misc, Portland College, Rollout Events | 82 comments

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