Kimberlee Gillis-Bridges
Senior Lecturer/Director, Computer Integrated Courses
English Department, University of Washington
Adventures in E-Portfolios: Eduspaces
Basic Features
URL: http://eduspaces.net
My Test Site: http://eduspaces.net/kgb
Cost: Free
Storage Space: 10 MB
Bugs
Several problems arose during my test session. At one point, the link to my blog disappeared from my sidebar, even though I had not opted to hide the blog. When I first attempted to access my presentations page via the page URL, I received a “not found” error. The page later displayed properly.
Commenting
Viewers can comment on all site pages and in each section of a presentation.
Customization
The Account Settings page features a limited number of ePortfolio themes. However, users familiar with CSS can create their own custom themes. Text formatting options allow users to manipulate font alignment and weight. Authors can select the "HTML" option to add HTML codes to blog entries and presentations text.
Security
Can set access restrictions for each blog entry, presentation, and profile section.
Notable Features
Eduspaces contains keyword boxes that allow users to tag all entries: files, folders, blog postings, and presentations. Not only do the tags make it easy for viewers to search the site, but they are also compiled into a tag cloud, linked from the profile page, that visually displays the users’ interests. Eduspaces also makes file organization easy, cuing users to create folders before they upload files.
Discussion
Eduspaces presents itself as a social networking site for educators and their students. The user's main page—or “learning landscape”—contains space for a profile. A sidebar displays the user’s Twitter feed, recent activity, “shouts” (praise for people/things/events), a friends roster and a list of the user’s community memberships. Users can also add RSS feeds of interest which viewers link to from the sidebar. If a user doesn’t want to include a particular sidebar feature, she may remove it by changing her account settings. The account settings page also features options to upload a user avatar and change the site color and font theme.
Image 1: Edupaces profile page. Click on image to see test Eduspaces site.
Eduspaces offers two ways to display and reflect upon learning artifacts: a blog and a presentations feature. To demonstrate each feature, I’ve included visuals that display the same content entered as a blog and as a presentation. The blog, accessible from the main Eduspace page, lets users embed an external video or other file into a posting. Embedding video requires users to copy and paste embedding code generated by the site they’ve used to store the video, for example YouTube or Viddler. Adding a file is simple; users can browse for files on their hard drive with the “Add File” function, or they may select a file uploaded previously. Multiple files may be added to a single blog entry. Users can type a description of the file(s) and reflective commentary into a text box that includes basic text formatting functions and options to insert images or hyperlinks. The resulting entry looks like a text produced on Blogger or other blogging platforms. While learning artifact and reflective text appear together, users cannot organize blog entries into categories that reflect personal learning goals or course outcomes. Even if the blogger uses titles to define categories, his only option for visually distinguishing topics within the category is using underlined or bold subtitles.
Image 2: Blog entries reflecting upon poster presentation and PowerPoint slides used in class. Click on thumbnail to go to test Eduspace page.
Image 3: Blog entry reflecting on embedded annotated video produced with Viddler. Click on image to go to Eduspace blog page.
The presentations option allows users to organize their work into categories, for example types of work produced, course learning outcomes, or personal learning goals (for my test presentations, I chose conference presentations, courses and teaching with technology). Users create presentations by entering a title and keywords, then editing the presentation to add content. Presentations may contain multiple sections which users can rearrange. Users add content as by entering text, importing blog posts, or copying and commenting upon a previously uploaded file. The text entry boxes feature basic formatting, image insertion, and hyperlink options. By using the option to copy and comment upon a file, users can place learning artifact next to reflective commentary. Unfortunately, the presentations interface does not allow copying of multiple files into a single section. Consequently, a writer describing how the revisions she made to three drafts demonstrate her mastery of a learning outcome could not include all three drafts in the same section as her commentary. She would have to choose a single draft or copy each draft to a separate section of her presentation page.
Image 4: Presentation reflecting on poster presentation. Click on thumbnail to go to test Eduspace presentation page.
Image 5: Presentation reflecting on annotated video produced with Viddler. Note that reflection does not contain embedded video, as "presentations" mode doesn't support video embedding. I inserted a screen shot of my video and linked it to my Viddler site. Click on thumbnail to go to test Eduspace presentation page.
While the presentations function visually distinguishes both categories
and topics within those categories, it has two drawbacks. A user’s main
Eduspaces page does not include a link to his presentations. Thus, to access
the presentations, viewers have to type a URL into their web browser. Moreover, this URL must end with a slash to be visible ("presentations/" vs. "presentations"), a feature that almost ensures problems. Also,
unlike the blog, which allows users to upload files as they add content,
the presentations feature requires users to upload all files before including
a file in any presentation. If users attempt to upload files while adding
content to a presentation, they will lose any descriptive text they’ve entered
when they are automatically taken to the file upload interface.
13.46.