One eportfolio for every hippopotalopardile in the human zoo?
Ray Tolley (http://efoliointheuk.blogspot.com/) got me thinking.
If you are going to use the term eportfolio in a particular, restricted way, then you need to define the term precisely. Many people have several eportfolios: LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, blogs, PebblePad, various forums and repositories, their own web site, a Monster.com CV, etc. Many more people have none. Those with several often cross reference between them. We may choose to call just one of these collections our portfolio. But, if we do, we should say why this one, not that one. And, given the fast-moving field, we must be tolerant of exceptions to any rule and be willing to negotiate meaning.
As we are all required to carry a passport (one size fits all) we could possibly be mandated to have something called an eportfolio or (maybe) lifelong learning record. If the definition coalesces around this particular meaning, a range of practices and contexts which are now within the eportfolio purview will fall outside that restricted view. But, mind you, some of us don't find one passport sufficient, either.
Within the range of practices, which started this discussion on my Posterous blog (http://rworld2.posterous.com/ngtip09-portfolio-typology-fur), I do not believe there will ever be one eportfolio system that everyone finds amenable in every area of application or culture of use. It may, in some circumstances, be desirable to mandate the use of a single tool (will it?). Some people for whom use has been mandated will take to the tool and continue to use it beyond the mandate through several transitions. Some will drop it as soon as it is no longer mandated or their circumstances change.
Outside of a mandate, I doubt that one size will fit all the human hippopotalopardiles I know.
