Building A Community of Practice in Electronic Portfolios
Abstract: This paper addresses the need of including the concept of “community of practice” in the implementation of electronic portfolios in Teacher Education programs. Many models of electronic portfolios or commercial tools are selected for the purpose of assessment, and the implementation often resembles more of an online record keeping or grading systems than the traditional paper-based portfolio. In the past twenty years, the concept of community of practice which is defined as “set of relations among persons, activity, and world” (Lave & Wenger, 1991, p.98) has become a major theme of teacher education and professional development. However, the components of professional development, such as collaboration and communication are hardly found in the electronic portfolios. This paper is an attempt to delineate the relationship between electronic portfolios and community of practice. An example of electronic portfolio built in the community of practice will also be introduced.
Presider: Faith Maina-Gichane, Departmnet of Curriculum and Instruction