Open Portfolios: Collaboratively Capturing Rich Learning Through Making

• In Event: 34.028 - From Making to Agentic Participation: Perspectives on and Approaches to Fostering Epistemic Engagement in Making

Abstract

Purpose: A constructionist learning perspective through capturing and sharing hands-on making problematizes interest-driven portfolios as solely unified narratives by individuals. By observing portfolio practices in two interest-driven youth educational environments and tracking youth maker portfolios, we recognized that documenting making in shared and distributed ways showed collective possibilities and contributed to building communities. Youth became responsible agents who shaped the practices of their communities. This broadened notion of portfolios can give youth a larger repertoire of evidence to experiences when showcasing their learning beyond the makerspace.

Theoretical Perspective: We consider makerspaces as constructionist and interest-driven learning communities, where youth create projects that they share with their learning communities (Halverson & Sheridan, 2014b; Peppler, Halverson, & Kafai, 2016). Production centered and interest-driven projects can help form personal relationships with knowledge and ways of knowing (Turkle & Papert, 1990). Documenting and sharing these experiences can make personal learning processes visible to oneself and others (Bers, 2007). Portfolios that seek to showcase individual achievements of pre-defined goals (Niguidula, 1993) contrast to the recursive sharing of knowing and doing that can shape community practices in makerspaces, calling for special interest-driven learning portfolios.

Methods: In one school and one out-of-school makerspace in the Eastern US with space-wide portfolio practices, we observed 37 youth portfolios and maker practices of 15 of these portfolio owners. Recursive analysis of portfolios and observations identifies practices to characterize portfolios on two intersecting axes: (1) making of individually or collaboratively owned projects, and (2) documenting in individually or collaboratively owned spaces.

Findings/Conclusions: While all portfolios made youth learning visible, some painted richer pictures of learning. Most portfolio entries (78%) documented individual projects in individually owned spaces. All but two entries omitted shared practices although we consistently observed collaborations as youth shared materials or crafted together. By contrast, all individual documentations of collaboratively owned projects (12.5%), such as creating a Rube Goldberg Machine, referenced shared engagement. Apart from youth owning portfolios, the out-of-school makerspace curated individual portfolios into one shared space, displaying the latest posts of every youth with links to their portfolios. Showing recent makerspace activities, this shared space gave insight into the community. Three focal youth documented collaborative work in shared spaces, including Fred who shared academic, personal, and commissioned work on diverse online platforms. In addition to referencing collaboration through reciprocal documentation of community engagement in individual projects, Fred was part of a music-collaborative capturing basement-productions on a shared account with over 15.000 followers. The scrapbook portfolio was a way to build community and to spin-off narratives for specific opportunities, including college applications, questioning portfolios as unified narrative.

Significance: As portfolios gain traction in learning environments and makerspaces, especially with colleges and job applications asking for maker portfolios as part of their admissions process, we argue that collaborative documentation can provide richer pictures of learning in interest-driven environments. A broadened notion of portfolios as shared and distributed documentations of learning can expand opportunities for youth to show, build, and draw from the collective potential of their communities.

Authors

• Anna Keune, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Kylie A. Peppler, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Stephanie Chang, Maker Education Initiative