ABSTRACT
Print and electronic portfolios historically have featured reflection as their centerpieces. Collectively, institutional members of the Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research, like many portfolio advocates, have found considerable promise in reflection. One of the more surprising findings across institutions was that of eportfolio structures and of the ways that established or student-created eportfolio structures invite, foster, and support reflection. Four different electronic portfolio projects, at four very different institutions, provided co-relational and institutional evidence of student learning. In 1985, rhetoric and composition scholar David Bartholomae coined the expression inventing the university to explain the basic task of the postsecondary student aspiring to success: “He must learn to speak our language.” There are other ways to think about the university, of course. University of Nebraska–Omaha (UNO), a major urban institution, has as one of its goals the use of electronic portfolios for disciplinary development and achievement, in this case for teacher education candidates.
