Collaboration and communication using e-Portfolio among junior-high/high school students from Japan, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Among many ways of utilizing e-Portfolio in the field of education, one of the unique cases was to use it as a vehicle to support collaborative projects and facilitate communication between those in distant locations. In an example of Connecting Classrooms East Asia (CCEA) initiated by the British Council Japan in 2008-2009, the combination of two key functions, an e-Portfolio and an online bulletin board, enabled junior-high and junior-high/high school students from Japan, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom to not only hold meaningful discussions, but also learn about and understand each other better. As the students grew to know each other through an interactive e-Portfolio and online bulletin board, they became more active in participating in discussions and the amount of interaction among them increased even further. The paper concludes that the original goal set by the British Council Japan to nurture global citizens through this project was achieved utilizing this online platform. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.