Canadian e-Learning Organization Launches ePortfolio Initiative
“Major Milestone on the Road to ‘An ePortfolio for Every Citizen by 2010’ ”
Vancouver, BC (PRWEB) March 23, 2005 -- LIfIA (Learning Innovations Forum
d’Innovations d’Apprentissage), a leading Canadian e-learning organization, has
launched an initiative to provide electronic portfolios (ePortfolios or efolios)
to all its members.
LIfIA is a Canadian non-profit corporation dedicated
to research and promotion of learning innovations for learners, organizations
and communities. Electronic portfolios are considered the fastest growing
technology tool in the field of education, training and human capital
management. LIfIA has partnered with Avenet LLC, a worldwide leader in web-based
portfolio systems, to utilize the company’s Avenet efolioTM as the online
technology platform for its members.
“LIfIA is pleased to provide access
to an ePortfolio for all of its members,” said Dr. Kathryn Barker, Chairperson
of LIfIA. “It is our mission to promote ePortfolio’s for every Canadian citizen
by the year 2010. LIfIA, together with our international partners, is firmly
committed to ensure that this means having one ePortfolio for life.”
The
Avenet efolioTM is a multimedia web site designed to empower individuals to
advance their educational and career objectives by managing and attractively
displaying resumes, academic and career documentation, career goals and
qualifications, achievements and other meaningful information. Unlike a
one-dimensional paper document, an efolio can "come alive" and provide a "rich"
display, including documents, images, audio, video, links, and detailed examples
of accomplishments and achievements.
This new initiative of LIfIA is the
result of a series of key factors:
- the accelerated growth of ePortfolio
initiatives, North America-wide and world-wide, addressing public policy goals
for educational accountability, labour mobility, and the promotion of lifelong
learning;
- the level of maturity of ePortfolio and eLearning platforms that
now offer robust and flexible solutions to learning management challenges in the
global Knowledge Economy;
- new and better ways to foster and assess learning
for all levels of students – beyond standardized teaching and testing;
- the
necessity to better assess and use the broad range of skills and knowledge that
individuals learn through both formal and informal education, workplace
training, community and family involvement over a lifetime.
“’One
ePortfolio for life’ means being able to start your digital folio in school,
utilize it through your training and education, and then continue to use it
regardless of the work or business site to which you migrate”, said Barker.
“This concept is now possible because of advances in the portability and
interoperability of ePortfolio tools and solutions.”
“We share LIfIA’s
vision and goal to provide portable, flexible, lifelong efolios that empower
students, faculty, workers and career seekers to meet their educational and
career objectives,” said Eric Johnson, CEO of Avenet. “By collaborating with
LIfIA, we can help make that vision a reality in Canada and throughout North
America.”
“The agreement between LIfIA and Avenet is a strong signal to
the North American market that the eLearning revolution has entered into a new
phase: the development of tools and services that, beyond the provision of
flexible and innovative learning solutions, offer the means to fully value and
empower the individual, the lifelong and life-wide learning citizen,” said
Barker. “The ePortfolio will soon become vital to the management of human
capital and social assets.”
LIfIA plans to spearhead the proliferation
of ePortfolios across Canada and throughout the Americas. LIfIA is sponsoring
the upcoming PanAmerican ePortfolio Working Forum in Vancouver, BC April 18-19,
2005.
LIfIA and Avenet have also pledged to remain active in consortia
dedicated to the interoperability and standardisation of ePortfolio platforms,
and to documenting the Return on Investment in ePortfolios.
“The effort
to create an ePortfolio should be rewarded in terms of utility for those who
create and those who receive and process ePortfolios in learning management and
human capitol management”, said Barker.
About LIfIA
LIfIA, based in
Vancouver, British Columbia is a North American not-for-profit association
dedicated to learning innovation and quality. LIfIA members are individual
learning professionals, organisations, educational institutions, training
organizations, consultants and regions. Its main goal is to lead the creation of
a learning culture in North America: learning individuals, learning
organizations and learning communities and regions. The ePortfolio will continue
be central to support LIfIA’s members’ continuing professional development, and
the assurance of competence in all aspects of education, training, learning and
human resource development. LIfIA is formally affiliated with EIfEL (“European
Institute for E-Learning”), a European professional association dedicated to
learning quality and innovation and the organiser of major national and
international conferences: ePortfolio 2003, ePortfolio London 2004, ePortfolio
2004 in La Rochelle, France. For more information, visit www.lif-fia.org.
LIfIA is
also the organiser of major national and international conferences: ePortfolio
Canada, Vancouver; ePortfolio Canada Montreal (with CSLP of Concordia
University); and, with EIfEL, ePortfolio PanAmerica 2005 to be held April 18-20,
2005, in Vancouver, Canada. Other major events and initiatives will soon be
announced.
About Avenet
Avenet LLC, based in St. Paul Minnesota,
provides industry-leading web solutions to vertical markets, including
education, government, nonprofit, advocacy and campaigns. Avenet developed the
groundbreaking online ePortfolio system for the Minnesota State Colleges and
Universities system (MnSCU) which has been lauded as a national model (see www.efoliominnesota.com ). The system, which is designed to
manage and display online portfolios for students, faculty and professionals to
advance educational and career objectives, is the first statewide system in
America. For more information, please visit www.avenet.net, and www.avenetefolio.com.
Media Contacts:
Victor P. Leginsky
Director and
Officer
Learning Innovations FORUM d'Innovations d'Apprenntissage
Phone:
604-643-1289
website: www.lif-fia.org
Ross
Heupel
Director of Marketing
Avenet Web Solutions
Phone:
651-290-2021
website: www.lif-fia.org
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb220501.htm