Audio Transcript - Initial Engagement

mp3 | Emma Purnell, University of Wolverhampton (1.21 mins)
Emma talks about how e-portfolios can encourage self-expression and reflection

It was refreshing from using the normal sort of academic traditions that I'd been used to - essays, presentations, so even though these things still fitted into the criteria of the portfolio you could tell your story, or your journey, of being a learner in this particular instance in the way that you wanted to. The joy of multimedia meant that you could make it sing and dance, you controlled who the audience was, you controlled what voice you used, it just allowed for multiple layers so it wasn't a linear piece of work. You know life's a lived experience, it sings, it dances, it goes off in lots of different directions and that's really difficult to articulate in some of the traditional assessment or educational methods that we use so e-portfolio just opened up a window shall we say for a different way to express yourself. My background which is IT and History at undergraduate level, things were very sort of black and white and reflection was a very difficult thing for me initially but by using the e-portfolio it allowed you to explore different ways of reflection so audio files, video diaries and ways that you could actually talk and bring your experiences to life rather than just trying to write it down which was just hard.