Exploring Student Teachers' Views on ePortfolios as an Empowering Tool to Enhance Self Directed Learning in an Online Teacher Education Course
This paper explores Economics student teachers' views on ePortfolios as an empowering tool to enhance self directed learning in an online teacher education course. An interpretive phenomenological research approach was employed for data collection and a purposive convenient sampling technique was selected to collect data. Only Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) and Batchelor of Education (BEd) Senior Phase/Further Education and Training Economics Subject Methodology (SDEC00N) student teachers registered on myUnisa for the modules were targeted. Multiple sections from the ePortfolios that had been considered for the purpose of this study were taken from their creative writing assignments, a research projects, lesson plans, reflective journal entries, podcasts, blog postings. Data were collected and analysed on a weekly basis to create a plethora of information. Student teachers felt that they were empowered with different subject content knowledge, technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) and other technologies, student centred methods and techniques through the ePortfolio project.