Crossposted from http://www.mfeldstein.com/ 

Is this our modern course management system? 

Sitting at a desk, staring at a screen, and punching buttons in a Pavlovian manner works for educational technology nerds like myself.  It's an efficient way to transmit information, but it doesn't provide the rich education that liberal arts colleges promise.  A college diploma is more than a set of facts; it is a maturing of the entire person through a conversation with other people, theories, and disciplines.

Studio education is used in many design disciplines as a way to bring students into a discipline.  Making learning public, these disciplines give us a model for the next generation of educational technology.  Rather than worrying about peer learning "leading" to cheating, why don't we think about its power to engage and inspire?

Social software like blogs and wikis work. Claremont Graduate University has been using Elgg, a social software system, to support courses for the last two years. 

We've learned that: 

1. Students place a high value upon ownership of their content.
2. They benefit from peer learning.
3. Most are motivated by the public nature of their work.

Taking these principles, and building on educational theory, I have developed a design theory on how to build social portfolio software.  This design centers around three core principles. 

A social portfolio should:

1. Support student ownership
2. Enhance peer learning
3. Focus on ease of use

Below is a walkthrough of my eportfolio software.  It is currently in its 8th major version, and is used by a wide variety of organizations and schools around the world.  While still having a ways to go, it helps to demonstrate some of my beliefs about how a portfolio system should work.

link: http://www.vimeo.com/1258170

Elgg and my plug-in are both licensed under the GPL, meaning that anyone is free to download, use, and modify it as they please.  People interested in learning more are encouraged to visit my blog at http://conversation.cgu.edu/garrettn/weblog for updates, or to contact me through email at nathan.garrett@cgu.edu.

Flicker Credits:
•    Writeable Walls InQbate CETL in Creativity University of Sussex
•    1975: And the Changes To Come