April 10-12, 2008
LaGuardia Community College, an internationally recognized leader in the fast-growing field of Electronic Student Portfolios, is pleased to announce a national conference, Making Connections: ePortfolio, Integrative Learning, and Assessment. Held at LaGuardia’s bustling New York City campus on April 11-12, 2008, Making Connections will draw leaders in the field from across the country. LaGuardia students and faculty will showcase their groundbreaking innovations. The Making Connections conference provides a unique opportunity to examine the practice and promise of this transformative learning tool.
What is an ePortfolio?
Electronic Student Portfolios are gaining wide popularity in higher education as a way to document, assess and enhance learning and teaching. Hundreds of colleges and universities around the world have begun using ePortfolio to help students reflect and create digital portraits of their evolving identities as learners. And as the political debate over assessment heats up, educators have found new ways to use ePortfolio to analyze the impact of the learning/teaching process.
A Center for Innovation
LaGuardia has emerged an ePortfolio leader, with a large and successful ePortfolio initiative that helps students to engage more deeply with their learning. While many colleges are piloting ePortfolio, LaGuardia has achieved broad implementation. Working with thousands of poor, immigrant, and minority students, LaGuardia’s data shows improved learning outcomes, from writing and critical thinking to pass rates and retention.
A Unique Moment of Possibility
The Making Connections conference will provide opportunities to hear from the students and faculty who are pioneering this new educational media. Addressing issues of teaching, learning, and assessment, as well as ways to link ePortfolio to the new possibilities of Web 2.0, the conference will combine voices of the LaGuardia experience with presentations from international leaders in the field, such as Helen Barrett and Trent Batson. Presentations will spotlight ePortfolio projects from schools ranging from Portland State University, the University of Michigan, and Virginia Tech to the University of Westminster in London and Kapi’olani Community College in Honolulu. We invite you to join us for a unique gathering, an opportunity to learn about and help shape this exciting new field.
Kathleen Blake Yancey: Making Connections Conference Keynote Speaker
Kathleen Blake Yancey is Kellogg W. Hunt Professor of English at Florida State University, where she directs the graduate program in rhetoric and composition. She has authored or edited eight books and over fifty articles and book chapters; she consults widely on writing assessment, on print and electronic portfolios, and on writing across the curriculum. She co-founded and co-leads the Inter/National Coalition on Electronic Portfolio Research. With Darren Cambridge and Barbara Cambridge, she is co-editor of the eagerly awaited forthcoming book, Electronic Portfolios 2.0: Emergent Findings and Shared Questions, a collection of essays and research findings based on Coalition work. It will be published by Stylus Press this year. To learn more about Kathleen Blake Yancey, please click here.
Please read through the Session Highlights for an overview of the Conference as well as our Pre-Conference schedule.
Conference Coordinator: Susan Lambert
Email: slambert@lagcc.cuny.edu
Phone: (718) 482-5404