Author_Institution :
Comput. Eng. & Inf. Technol. Dept., Payame Noor Univ., Delijan, Iran
Abstract :
Activity theory represents the relationship between people and technology. Human learns via his/her communication with social and technological environment, and his/her learning and problem solving treatments correlate with his/her interactions with environment. In the web space users communicate via private emails, group discussion forums and synchronous chats. They receive news via news group and bulletin board, and they share their beliefs and findings via videos, photos, and different format documents. In all of these interactions users modify their stored information and so their mind. Learning-oriented interactions are done with learning goals to raise achievement. Scoring these interactions causes not only learning results but also its processes and leaner efforts be evaluated. This evaluation can be done for both formative and summative assessment, but it is important that assessment should be valid and reliable. For these purpose special structures and environment have provided and recommended such as virtual learning communities and e-portfolios. A virtual community is a learning oriented social network that prepared for learners to share their experiments, consult each other, raise their opinion, criticize themselves, and etc. They not only reflect on what they have learned, but also directs for future learning. On the other hand a portfolio is used to plan, organize, document and reflect learning. It is a collection of samples of best work selected to provide a broad view of owner´s achievements. But providing hard copy portfolio take a lot of time and efforts and also there are some problems for keeping it long time and sharing experience. E-Portfolios, facilitate students´ reflection on their own learning, leading to more awareness of learning strategies and needs, and unlike paper-based portfolios, e-portfolios allow information to be stored, accessed, updated, and presented in the various electronic formats to record student´s achievements. Loggin- - g activities of community member via a standard format and joining it with e-portfolio content obtain opportunity for integrate evaluating that means valuation of social and pedagogical parameters too, such as partnership, companionship, leadership, team working and so on.
Keywords :
electronic mail; problem solving; team working; electronic format; group discussion; human Web; learning oriented interaction; learning oriented social network; learning progress; private email; problem solving; synchronous chat; virtual community; virtual learning; Collaboration; Communities; Electronic learning; Humans; Lead; Portfolios; Reflection; Community Profile; Distance Learning; Formative Assessment; Human Activity; Sustainability; e-Portfolio; online Learning Community;