Electronic portfolios are growing in use in a range of disciplines (Cambridge, 2001; Rice, 2001) and provide new ways to represent and respond to learning and teaching activities. In teacher education programs, portfolios are often cited as ways to encourage reflection on learning or teaching practices, opportunities to showcase technology skills, and as tools for seeking employment (Zeichner and Wray, 2001). A wide range of documents and artifacts can be brought together in an electronic portfolio -- text, images, scanned documents, video segments. If made available online, electronic portfolios offer possibilities for timely and ongoing feedback from peers and instructors. While there are some compelling reasons why electronic portfolios make sense, particularly for the evaluation of teaching credential candidates, their introduction and use in teaching credential programs can also present a number of challenges.

Brian Reilly UCR Graduate School of Education reilly@citrus.ucr.edu

Larry Cuban (2000) has pointed out a range of reasons why K-12 education has been slow to integrate computers and other technologies into classroom teaching practices. Among these reasons is the inadequate preparation to use technology many teachers have received during their pre-service education, and the slow adoption of new technologies for instructional use by university faculty. In the U.S., national and state programs have promoted and funded the use of technology in K-12 instruction, and have had some success, with 99% of full-time public school teachers reporting access to computers or the Internet somewhere in their schools, and 84% reporting at least one computer in their classrooms (NCES, 2000). Despite this, a national survey of K-12 teachers found that only 20% of all teachers feel prepared to use technology in instruction (NCES, 1999). So while more technology is available to teachers, a number of factors, including how technology is used or not used in teaching credential programs, have led to little change in classroom teaching practices.

At the UC Riverside Graduate School of Education, we are in the third year of using electronic teaching and learning portfolios in our teaching credential program. Technology training for teacher supervisors and students was provided as part of a Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to use Technology (PT3 ) grant, and the creation of electronic portfolios became the focus of our year-long credential technology course. Paper portfolios have been used in the program for several years, typical of most U.S. teacher education programs (Zeichner & Wray, 2000) and continue to exist along with the electronic versions. In fact, much of the content of the electronic portfolios is drawn from the paper version, supplemented with digital video clips and images. Enrollment in UCR's teaching credential program is approximately 150 students per year, with continued growth expected to increase the number of students to closer to 300 over the next five years.

Our use of electronic portfolios began with a trial run two years ago. We began with a small group of student volunteers, and a focus on web-based portfolios. We moved to the use of PDF (portable document format) files and Adobe Acrobat to address ease of use and access issues. Last year, all students in the program (132) developed PDF-based portfolios. Approximately 40% of the student portfolios included digital video. All were saved on CD-ROMs at the end of the school year. With all students working on electronic portfolios, and many involved in classroom videotaping and editing, available resources -- both equipment and personnel -- were stretched to the limit. Although every student in the program was able to complete an electronic portfolio, some requiring considerably more assistance than others, existing social practices in the credential program and in the local K-12 educational systems have presented a number of challenges to the use of the electronic portfolio.

A year-end anonymous survey was used to help assess the use of the electronic portfolio from the students' perspective. Informal interviews with other participants (instructors, technical support staff) and examination of the electronic portfolios were also included as part of a formative evaluation of the electronic portfolio efforts.

Implementing the electronic portfolio was a major shift in emphasis in our efforts to integrate technology into our credential program. It provided a focal point for the technology-related instruction we provided for both students and teacher supervisors, and influenced purchasing decisions we made with regard to software and hardware. For students, the electronic teaching and learning portfolio was presented as an opportunity to reflect on their own teaching and learning, to learn and apply technology skills, and to use in seeking employment. Responses to the year-end survey indicated that for more than half the students, creating an electronic portfolio did help them learn and apply new technology skills. Other potential benefits of the electronic portfolio were more difficult to achieve. First, because the paper portfolio was developed along with the electronic version, much of the content was the same. Some of this content, including teaching evaluations and other forms, was only available in paper form, so the process of making it available electronically added extra steps to the process. One element which was different -- student-produced teaching videos -- provided a new opportunity for reflection, and was cited by many students as the most valuable part of the electronic portfolio. For employment purposes, students found little interest in their electronic portfolios among local school districts. Most districts were not prepared to view the portfolios, but even in cases where students brought laptops to interviews, there was not sufficient time or interest in seeing the portfolio or teaching video. Demand for teachers in California, and particularly in the area served by the UCR credential program, has remained high and most students in the credential program secure employment before they have completed the electronic portfolio, but among those who have not, the portfolio did not enhance their job hunt.

This fall, California will move to a portfolio-based Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) model for granting teaching credentials. Electronic documents and video segments addressing classroom teaching practices may play a more significant role in the TPA than they do in existing methods of assessment. Based on our experiences with electronic portfolios and video in the program at UCR, considerable preparation and changes in existing practices in credential programs will be required if the TPA is to develop into a tool for authentic assessment, especially if it is to be a major departure from existing practices. Indeed, the entire process of putting together a portfolio, whether on paper, online, or otherwise, involves a set of social practices that will continue to evolve at each institution where portfolios are in use. Without careful consideration of how things are currently done, widespread adoption of electronic teaching portfolios will present a serious challenge in contexts where longstanding ways of assessing student teachers and documenting their teaching and learning have evolved to a comfortable state. The time, training, technology and support involved in one aspect of the TPA -- capturing and editing video segments for each student -- will be beyond the capacity of most institutions. Reviewing and assessing video will also be a time-intensive activity. The task of scanning paper-based documents for electronic delivery and assessment presents another challenge many institutions are not likely to handle smoothly. In short, while the technology to develop and use electronic portfolios may be available and ready to go, changing the existing practices in teaching credential programs with regard to how candidates document their work and how it is assessed is a necessary, and difficult first step. The use of electronic portfolios and video to assess future teachers is likely to parallel the use of computers in classroom teaching: significant change will take time, and the most important barriers to change may not be the new technologies, but the old practices.