Programme Speakers

Helen Barrett, University of Alaska Anchorage, USA
Conference Programme Committee Chair

Dr Barrett is an internationally-renowned expert on Electronic Portfolio Development for learners of all ages. She is the author of numerous articles on the subject and has presented her work at workshops and conferences worldwide. Helen is on the faculty of the School of Education at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She has been researching electronic portfolios since 1991, publishing a website on Technology and Alternative Assessment since 1995, and is the Assessment Coordinator for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). She was a member of the writing team drafting teacher standards - National Educational Technological Standards for Teachers (NETS-T).

Helen is Vice-President of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) in charge of the Electronic Portfolio Special Interest Group. She is also a founder-member of E-PAC (Electronic Portfolio Action Committtee).

Werner Herrmann, CEDEFOP, EU

Werner P. Herrmann studied economics, business administration and educational sciences in Heidelberg, Mannheim and Berlin; he wrote his thesis about ‘Industrial production and financial investment theory’ in Stuttgart.

Professor for Economics in 1974; Dean of the Economics Faculty and Rector of the University of Applied Sciences in Heidelberg in Germany; Director of the Vocational Training Centers of the 'Rehabilitation Foundation' in Heidelberg – from apprenticeship to University level,; Director of a multidisciplinary Research Institute in close co-operation with the Universities Heidelberg, Mannheim and Karlsruhe.

He joined the European Commission in 1987 as official and worked in the two Directorates General: ‘Employment and Social Affairs' and 'Education and Culture'. Head of Division ‘Adaptation to Industrial Change’ with strong emphasis on Information Society issues, 'Co-ordination and Planning' as well as 'Vocational Training: Mobility-Employability' for Education, Training and Youth Policy dealing particularly with the future policy development “Towards a Europe of Knowledge” and Adviser for 'Political Co-operation in VET Policy’.

European Union Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas for the academic year 1998/1999 focusing on EU-US Transatlantic Relations, International Economic and Structural Policies. In 2000 he edited together with Ken Ducatel and Juliet Webster ‘The Information Society in Europe – Work and Life in an Age of Globalisation’ published in the U.S.A. by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Werner P. Herrmann is seconded as from September 1, 2000 from the European Commission as Senior Adviser to the Director of CEDEFOP for all development and policy issues. Principal activity areas are 'Information Society and Learning', the development of a ‘European Knowledge Management System on Education and Training in Europe’ and the involvement in a series of eLearning research activities.

Barbara L. Cambridge, Vice President for Fields of Inquiry and Action, American Association for Higher Education

Barbara L. Cambridge is vice president for fields of inquiry and action at AAHE, director of the Carnegie Academy Campus Program, and AAHE director of the Building Engagement and Access of Minority Students project. Within these projects she works closely with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the National Survey of Student Engagement as well as with many disciplinary and professional associations.

At her home campus, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, she is professor of English and associate dean of the faculties. Her areas of expertise include assessment of student learning, electronic portfolios, peer review of teaching, and fostering the scholarship of teaching and learning. Cambridge has extensive experience coordinating initiatives across individual campuses and among campuses, promoting faculty leadership, and representing higher education to external publics. Former president of the National Council of Writing Program Administrators, she currently serves as a commissioner for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Cambridge is an executive editor of Change magazine and editor of the Journal of Teaching Writing. Cambridge’s most recent publications include “Linking Change Initiatives: The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the Company of other National Projects” and Electronic Portfolios: Emerging Practices in Student, Faculty, and Institutional Learning.

Dr. Kathryn Chang Barker

Dr Barker has been engaged at all levels of Canada’s education and training system, and having started as a teacher and college administrator in Alberta, she has worked across Canada and internationally as a consultant and writer.  In 2002, Dr. Barker launched QualitE-Learning Assurance Inc. - a service to assess and certify the quality of on-line learning.  Based on the Canadian Recommended E-learning Guidelines, QualitE-Learning licenses the eQcheck certification mark to products and services that meet consumer-oriented standards of excellence. 

Darren Cambridge, AAHE, USA

Darren Cambridge is Director of Web Projects at the AAHE, where he works with academics and technologists to envision, build and use online collaboration tools to support AAHE's grant funded programs, such as the Carnegie Academy Campus Program and Engaged Campus in a Diverse Democracy. He is also a National Learning Infrastructure Initiative 2003 Fellow, co-leading the training of the facilitators working within EDUCAUSE's virtual community initiative and co-facilitating EPAC: The Electronic Portfolios Community of Practice. On behalf of EDUCAUSE, he is also chairing a special interest group on ePortfolios for the IMS Global Learning Consortium that is developing interoperability specifications for electronic portfolios. Prior to coming to AAHE, he was Assistant Director of the Computer, Writing, and Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, where he edited the online edition of the Computers and Composition and lead the design of the award-winning Learning Record Online electronic portfolio assessment system <http://lro.cwrl.utexas.edu/>. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas in 2003. His research interests include rhetorical theory and online community design; virtual communities of practice for professional development; electronic portfolios and life-long learning; and technology, civic engagement, and transformation of the academy.

Linda Tomos, Director of the Wales Information Network

Linda Tomos is Director of the Wales Information Network, a research group based at the Department of Information Studies, University of Wales Aberystwyth. She is also Chair of the Library and Information Services Council for Wales (the statutory body which advises the Welsh Assembly Government on information issues) and Chair of the BBC Educational Council for Wales.

Linda also does some consultancy work for UFI (the University for Industry), and is a co-opted member of the UFI Wales Advisory Group. Linda is a member of the British Council Knowledge and Information Advisory Committee.

Dr. Christopher Tan, Hong Kong, China

Dr. Christopher Y. G. Tan is an international speaker on IT in Education. Being a visiting lecturer at the University of Hong Kong, his R&D areas include Knowledge Construction, KM, Knowledge Community, and IT Integration with Gifted Education. He is a consultant and advisor to several government ministries, institutions and corporations internationally.

Out of his research, Dr. Tan’s has developed a web-based collaborative learning system called “Knowledge Community” that with 2-level of scaffolding (Thinking Type and Scaffold) that provides a constructive environment for individual and community learning. KC is currently used by more than 5000 students, 200 teachers in more than 60 schools and a number of researchers (including 6 Universities) in Singapore, Hong Kong and China. ePortfolio of individuals participating in the collaborative project can be generated automatically.

On Teacher’s development, Dr. Tan has been developing the Teacher’s ePortfolio based on CPD through online Training Calendar System for Education Bureau of Hong Kong. Currently serving more than 40,000 teachers in Hong Kong.

Dr. Tan is also the author for "Educational Web-Publishing: Design, Creation and Management", "Teaching and Learning with Technology" and "Learning Community: Changing Learning Culture in Primary Schools".

Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, University of Melbourne, Australia

Research Fellow, Department of information systems, University of Melbourne, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young is the co-author with Maureen Morriss of Digital Professional Portfolios for Change.This book outlines the many purposes for portfolios, especially the benefits of multimedia portfolios for individuals and their organisations. Designed mainly for educators, it gives step by step instructions to developing a multimedia portfolio using readily-available technologies.

David Dawson-Pick, BBC, UK

David Dawson-Pick is Executive Producer for external e-learning at the BBC. He's responsible for the online learning package offered to the corporation's staff and freelance base.

Portfolio's are about to become a key issue for the BBC in ensuring continuity of information held about the creative people making the BBC's broad range of output.

David has produced many programmes for both radio and television over the last 15 years - from news to drama and light entertainment and he has won several awards for his programmes. Most recently he has been closely involved in the launch of the BBC's new digital channels, examining the new ways of working which evolve from using new technology.

Stuart Cable, Senior Lifelong Learning Fellow, Royal College of Nursing Institute, Scotland.

Stuart trained as a nurse and after a number of years in a senior post in emergency care moved into higher education. He has worked with nurses in a range of different fields and has also worked with medical and social work students to develop more integrated ways of working through creative learning and organisational redesign. He also has a PhD in clinical and interprofessional learning.

Stuart has a wealth of experiences using portfolios for assessment/demonstration of competence, for professional accreditation and as a tool for reflection. Two years ago he moved to the Royal College of Nursing to develop, the RCN Learning Zone, an online learning service for its membership of 360,000 nurses. Fundamental to this developing service is an e-portfolio that can be used by nurses to record, reflect on and plan their learning.

Erik Driessen, University of Maastricht, Netherlands

Erik Driessen is Assistant Professor and Educational Psychologist at the department of Educational Development and Research, University of Maastricht, Netherlands. He works closely with the Faculty of Medicine, where he is the Co-ordinator of a portfolio project. He is an expert and consultant the areas of portfolio learning and portfolio assessment, assessment in problem-based learning and problem-based learning. He is also carrying out ongoing research in these areas.

Phil Cottam, Chief National Verifier with City & Guild, UK

Phil Cottam trained and qualified in electrical engineering but has been involved in education and training nearly all his working life both as a college lecturer and developer of training and assessment materials. During the 1990s Phil Cottam designed and developed the UK electrical industry trade tests and then went on to form CTD Quickstep.

Phil has been an assessor and external verifier of National Vocational Qualifications since their inception in the UK and is now a Chief National Verifier with City & Guilds.

During the last four years Phil and his team at CTD Quickstep have developed the ‘Quickstep’ series of on-line assessment systems. Used in competence based assessment within a wide variety of vocational settings, it was the first of its kind in the UK when introduced in 2001. Further development of ‘Quickstep’ has led to increased demand for the system across the UK in a large number of assessment organisations. Further development will explore its use with WEB cam technology and integration into MLE and VLE systems.

Dr Marja Kankaanranta, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Dr. Marja Kankaanranta is a Senior Researcher at the Agora Center and the Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her main research areas are early childhood education, use of ICT in education, e-learning, authentic assessment and digital portfolios. She is leading research groups both at the Agora Learning Laboratory and Agora Game Lab.

Marja has researchers and developed the use of portfolios especially in childhood education since 1993. She has gained wide experience in portfolio application in other educational levels, as well. She has been carrying out research into the use of the electronic portfolio in education since 1998 and has published extensively on the subject. The title of her doctoral dissertation was ‘Developing digital portfolios for childhood education’. In the action research digital school portfolios were used interactively as a means for teachers to collaboratively display and assess the pedagogical practices of kindergartens and primary schools.

Currently Marja leads a research and development project on the use of digital portfolios in different educational and organizational contexts. The aim of the project is to apply and analyse digital portfolios as a means for technology-supported documentation, evaluation and guidance of learning, know-how, and expert career development. (http://www.jyu.fi/agora-center/dpf/)

Jan van Tartwijk, Utrecht University, Netherlands

Jan van Tartwijk started working with portfolios in 1994 in the field of teacher education. Since then, he has been a consultant for many universities wanting to adopt electronic portfolios. He has been developing portfolios for coaching and assessment purposes in open and flexible programs, aimed at professional and academic development. Jan has published many articles and papers on the subject.

He is a researcher, consultant and teacher at IVLOS/Centre for ICT in Education of Utrecht University and at the Department for Educational Development and Research at the University of Maastricht.

Dr Julana Gilbert, University of Denver, USA

Julanna Gilbert, Associated Professor. - Chemistry & Biochemistry; is Director of the Center for Teaching & Learning, University of Denver, USA - portfolio.du.edu/jgilbert

Professor Gilbert is the Director of the Center for Teaching & Learning and a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Denver. She has developed a team approach to investigating and implementing effective uses of technology in the curriculum in areas as diverse as foreign languages, engineering, and art. Nearly 40% of the DU faculty have been involved in projects, resulting in broad-scale uses of technology to improve learning at DU. She oversaw the design, development, and implementation of the DU Portfolio Community (DUPC), ensuring that the process was centered on academic issues and reflected the faculty vision. DUPC can be considered a "third generation" eportfolio system since it requires no special knowledge of web-authoring tools and is integrated with other applications. Professor Gilbert has presented on the University of Denver Portfolio at several conferences in the US.

The academic program assessment and individual portfolio functions of the DUPC were initiated by faculty within the School of Communication. With the facilitation by the Center for Teaching and Learning, this effort quickly spread to include faculty from the departments of English and Political Science. Now the Daniels College of Business, the College of Education, the School of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate School of Social Work, the French language section, and the Psychology Department are using DUPC for student and program assessment.

A committtee of faculty members, convened by Professor Gilbert, meets
regularly to discuss, evaluate, and provide academic direction to DUPC.

Paul Ross, Center for Teaching & Learning, University of Denver, USA

Mr. Ross is the manager of the Faculty Technology Resource Center which is housed in the University of Denver’s Center for Teaching & Learning. His primary role is to manage the technical development of academically based initiatives across the University, including the DU Portfolio Community (DUPC). Paul plays a significant role in technology planning and implementation in the Center for Teaching and Learning addressing issues of interoperability, standards, security, administration and deployment.

DUPC, launched in September 2002, supports a wide range of academic uses within the university, including student, faculty, staff, course, and community portfolios, rubric-based academic student/program assessment, and community access and interaction. DUPC represents the collaborative effort of a variety of institutional partners, along with a private software consulting company. There are currently more than 2300 registered users with nearly 10,000 digital artifacts. DUPC supports “Portfolios for Life” for its alumni, maintaining the DU connection to its graduates and providing lifelong learning opportunities.

Prior to coming to DU, Mr. Ross was the IT manager at the University of Southern Queensland Wide Bay Campus, Hervey Bay, Queensland (Australia).

Maureen Layte, EIfEL

 Maureen Layte has had many years of experience in the design and delivery of open and flexible programmes of learning and development for professional bodies, government departments and industry. She is Director of Development at EIfEL and joint Co-ordinator of the European Consortium for the e-Portfolio.

As a consultant and qualified Assessor and Verifier for competence based assessment, she has a particular interest in the use of the e-portfolio for continuing professional development. She is co-author of Technology Based Training (Kogan Page 1997) and Valider les compétences avec les NVQs (Demos, 1998) as well as numerous open learning modules.

Margaret Christopoulos, Ufi/learndirect, UK

Margaret Christopoulos is a work-based learning development specialist from the Research and Development facility of Ufi/learndirect. Margaret has led the development of the learner toolkit for learndirect learners which has focused on the needs of disadvantaged adult learners many of whom have basic literacy and numeracy learning needs.

Margaret has designed and implemented other on-line support facilities for adult learners, including undergraduates, University teachers and women managers in small businesses. 

Patrick Chevalier, E4L, EIfEL

Patrick CHEVALIER, CEO of E4L, is an expert in e-learning, and before in distance education, first at CNAM, a French university, then at ORAVEP, an organisation responsible for research into learning technologies established by the French Ministry of Employment.

Since 1985 he has been involved in a variety of activities in the field of ICT applied to learning: design and development of educational resources, training of project managers, audit of distance learning systems, market research, identification and exploitation of best practice in learning technology. He is the author of numerous publications concerning the pedagogy and economy of ICT in learning.

Patrick Chevalier also works as e-learning policy and strategy adviser with regional authorities.

Serge Ravet, EIfEL

Serge Ravet is Chief Executive of the European Institute for e-Learning, a cross-sectoral professional body created in February 2001 with the aim of becoming the reference point for e-learning practitioners in Europe. He is joint co-ordinator of the European consortium to promote the development of the electronic portfolio. With a background in information technology and learning technologies, Serge combines both technological and pedagogical expertise.

He is a consultant in e-learning and the development of competence-based learning and assessment. He is retained as an expert in the assessment of innovative projects for a French government department and has participated in numerous European projects. Publications include ‘Technology-based Training’ (Kogan Page, 1997) and ‘Valider les Compétences avec les NVQs’ (DEMOS, 1999); a Guide to e-learning Solutions (2001) and numerous articles.