Hi Caroline,
It has been too long since we last talked about dotfolio. I have been preoccupied with a few things. One of which is a lab report writing tool. I am developing a tool for the School of Physiology here that allows students to write their lab reports online, as well as provides the necessary scaffolding to improve report writing.
This tool will be used to generate a "learning artifact" or learning outcome that can then be archived in dotfolio. This will therefore require a way for dotfolio to install new applications, and to mount an instance of a new application on all existing dotfolio subsites.
Using the clipping tool, a student can then clip a blog entry to a lab report, and reflect on the learning outcomes. If Curriculum Tracker is also installed, then these artifacts can be clipped to the course listed in Currciulum Tracker, thereby providing context for the learning artifacts. Kind of like connecting the dots, and eventually seeing the overall picture of one's personal learning and development.
Cheers,
Nick.