Welcome

Hello, and welcome to the PebblePad ePortfolio System

Your first question might be “What is an ePortfolio?” There are different kinds of eportfolios but the PebblePad ePortfolio is, simply, an evidence-based web-publishing system. What this means is that you can publish things to other people across the internet. We often refer to the things you publish as ‘stories’ - they are stories of your learning. Some of these stories will be very formal because they are written for assessment. Some stories will be written to employers or recruiters. Other stories may be very personal and may relate to your hobbies or interests. The stories you publish will normally tell others something about your skills, abilities, experiences or ideas and these will always be more powerful when you add some evidence to back-up your claims. The evidence you use will normally be stored in your eportfolio and you will make links to it in the stories you write.

So, PebblePad allows you to record evidence which can be used on its own or linked together in more complex stories. Everything you record in your eportfolio is private and secure; no one else can see it. You can choose to share things in your eportfolio with other people and you can decide how long they can see it for and what they are able to do with what you share. The ePortfolio Code of Conduct explains what is acceptable material for publishing or sharing through the eportfolio and can be viewed from the links on the bottom of every asset you share – anything you store in your eportfolio is called an asset.

Once you have created items you can share them with others, you can link them together or print them. If your ideas change you can return to any of your assets to edit them. Alternatively, if you want to keep track of how your ideas have developed you can add reviews to assets.

I have written this WebFolio as an example of a particular kind of ‘story’ that can be created within this ePortfolio System; a concept that is worthy of further explanation. This ePortfolio System is a tool which allows, indeed encourages, users to plan for, reflect on and celebrate learning – however and wherever that learning takes place. Importantly the learner is at the centre of, and in control of their own eportfolio space. Increasingly, in the light of my work with learners in schools. Colleges, HE and CPD I am coming to think of PebblePad not as an ePortfolio System but as a Personal Learning Space.

The next page contains some example assets.