SOCIAL SOFTWARE IN THE CONTEXT OF VOCATIONAL TRANINING Daniel K. SCHNEIDER, Urs RICHLE, Mireille BETRANCOURT, Monica GAVOTA TECFA, FPSE, University of Geneva Daniel.Schneider@tecfa.unige.ch, Urs.Richle@tecfa.unige.ch Abstract The Swiss Leading House: Technologies for Vocational Training project (Dual-T) investigates ICT-supported learning scenarios in vocational training to improve integration between school and workplace. We shall report deployment and usability issues from our initial experience using the ELGG social software with dental care assistants. We report how we had to adapt some of platform’s functionalities and interface to cope with simple pedagogical scenarios. We shall present some provisional design rules for an e-portfolio approach to classroom activities and formulate some desiderata for future developments. Introduction We shall report some benefits and limitations of the use of the ELGG social / e-portfolio software (Tosh & Werdmüller, 2004) in initial vocational training classes. The Swiss system of vocational training is a “dual” system, similar to the German and Austrian system. Almost two thirds of the adolescents in Switzerland are trained by this apprenticeship system after the secondary level (after age 15/16). At school, they acquire theoretical skills and general culture, but they spend most of the time in a real workplace (business and other organizations) learning practical skills. In the context of the reform of the vocational training system initiated in 2000, the Swiss government sponsored a series of research projects on vocational education training (VET). Dualt-T is a larger project on ICT-supported vocational training and comprises four subprojects. The Dual-T-GE subproject aims to foster the professional identity for dental care assistants. Our fundamental working hypothesis is that shared writing activities about professional experience can improve the apprentice’s domain knowledge and skills, help them integrate the content studied in school with the actual practice at the workplace and contribute to professional identity building (Wenger, 1998). To support this research programme we need to implement collective and collaborative writing environments. Social electronic portfolio systems (Vuorikari, 2005) seem to be good implementation candidates. In a first series of studies, we tried to introduce a web-based platform to write about workplace knowledge and events in the classroom. E.g. we had apprentices write in a first step about critical incidences at work or describe procedures and then comment, complete or revise the writing of others. Research and development approach We adopt a design-based research and development approach (Collins, 1992; Design-Based Research Collective, 2003), which postulates that design of learning environments and refinement of learning theories are intertwined and should be based on continuous cycles of design, enactment, analysis, and redesign. Furthermore, research should lead to sharable theories and guidelines for practitioners and account for how designs function in authentic settings.