In a couple of previous posts (Part 1 here and Part 2 here) I looked at the rationales for blogging with students and what sorts of platforms I was considering.
In the end what I've decided to go with is Mahara, which includes a basic blogging platform but incorporates it into a range of features to build a full, highly logical and engaging e-Portfolio tool.
I think Mahara has enormous potential and given we have automatic access to it at our institute via our Moodle set up, I'm ready to give it a red hot go with our Year 12 cohort. As part of my preparations for the new school year I've gone into Mahara and made my own portfolio to really test it out, see what's possible and what could be potentially complicated or easy for my students.
The following screencasts have been put together to help get my students started with this e-Portfolio tool. Although they are obviously course and context-specific, if you're wondering what Mahara is and how it can be set up then these peeks might help to give you a better idea...
GTEC Mahara Set Up Tutorial 1
How to access the tool, set up a basic profile and get some file folders in order...
GTEC Mahara Set Up Tutorial 2
How to get a specific portfolio (or 'View' using the Mahara vernacular) set up...
GTEC Mahara Set Up Tutorial 3
How to select, store and apply images for some basic decoration...
GTEC Mahara Set Up Tutorial 4
How to 'show' the e-Portfolio by connecting with other users (teachers and classmates, etc.)...
GTEC Mahara Application 1
How to upload written work into a Mahara e-Portfolio in a way that captures final drafts as blog posts but also attaches a full file of all drafting work...
This is all for one subject (VCAL Senior Literacy) and Mahara allows for different Views/Portfolios for things like multiple subjects. It will be intriguing to see whether students and teachers go for it and add other portfolios for other subjects, and from there I will be interested to see how an e-Portfolio of this nature could be useful for things like job applications.
To be continued...
;-D
