The description of an ongoing project for the development of a modular personal portal supporting language learning and the social and professional integration of immigrants. Presented at ePortfolio and Digital Identity conference in Maastricht, Netherlands.

1. ePortfolio for immigrants Modular personal portal supporting lifelong learning ePortfolio and Digital Identity Oct 24th, 2008, Maastricht, Netherlands Samantha Slade

4. ePortfolios for immigrants This means taking a lead in promoting partnerships and networks in which educational, social and economic agencies pool their resources to address a common action-strategy. The successful and harmonious integration of immigrants/migrants is a challenge of most modern societies. Multiple stakeholders - Government: education, employment, immigration - employers - community groups - immigrants

5. Interests of the various stakeholders: Immigrants... This means taking a lead in promoting partnerships and networks in which educational, social and economic agencies pool their resources to address a common action-strategy. - move to the region and stay (qualified work force)‏ - access local language courses and develop proficiency in local language - access employment services and resources and find appropriate employment (based on their skills)‏ - integrate into a new work culture - develop ease in daily life - bridge between home country and adopted country - integrate well with others

6. ePortfolios and challenges of knowledge society This means taking a lead in promoting partnerships and networks in which educational, social and economic agencies pool their resources to address a common action-strategy. Ensuring development of digital competence of citizens By Babak Fakhamzadeh, Flikr, Creative Commons

7. ePortfolios and challenges of knowledge society This means taking a lead in promoting partnerships and networks in which educational, social and economic agencies pool their resources to address a common action-strategy. Integrating and improving access to rich and diverse resources and services that are hidden, dispersed or fragmented. By Kazuhiko Teramoto, Flickr.com

8. A regional ePortfolio project in Québec A partnership of 5 organisations - 3 educational organisations (CS Laval, CS Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Cégèp Montmorency)‏ - technological research institute (CRIM)‏ - applied R & D company (percolab)‏

10. Goals for the ePortfolio: immigrants can ... - start anytime, anywhere - learn local language and customs - develop employability skills and understanding of local work culture - develop awareness of their competence and ability to communicate it - share and interact with others (family in home country, support network, teachers, potential employers)‏ - develop a sense of pride, self efficacy and identity

11. A successful pilot phase Proof of concept for interest and use, technological solutions, and pedagogical orientations...

12. A modular widget based environment This means taking a lead in promoting partnerships and networks in which educational, social and economic agencies pool their resources to address a common action-strategy. Users may set up the environment as they wish: edit, move, add, adjust, rename everything.

13. Helpful structured methodologies Scaffolding activities to avoid the blank page syndrome.

14. Based on already existing resources and services Bring existing information into a process based on immigrant needs.

15. Technological aspects – flexible “non-sequestered” 1. Personal portal like Netvibes/Posh 2. An open-source library of widgets for ePortfolio processes 3. Embedded services See: Widgets for flexible learning and ePortfolios, Yves Otis http://www.percolab.com/blog/2008/09/14/widgets-for-flexible-learning-environment/ Creating Flexible User Applications Using Widget Technology , Scott Wilson http://www.elearning.ac.uk/features/feature.2008-07-08.2311704736

21. Samantha Slade [email_address] This presentation is available at slideshare.com/sam5 The development blog is available at percolab.com