One elementary school in Cyprus is using a pilot version of ePortfolio.org as a system for their assessments of their students and sometimes it will be used for the evaluation of the teaching process and results of the teachers by completing an eportfolio themselves. Before accepting to test this system, they discussed in several meetings about the advantages and disadvantages of this with all the users and persons responsible, like the learners, teachers, principal, trainers of the system and the vendors too. They have thought about the cost and the storage space as two negative approaches to this system.
Furthermore, introducing another system used by the Open University of London, called MyStuff, has its own pros and cons, like big storage space and it is not paid, but it is used free by its members (students, tutors etc). Since both systems are in the field of Education then the main users for both systems are the learners, teachers and Principal together with the trainers at the beginning if any, because in ePortfolio.org there are trainers, whereas in the second system there is no training due to the ease of use. Both systems have the same objectives, like introducing to the students a system where they can write notes, upload different kind of files they like to have in their repository (presentations, word documents, excel documents, images, videos, etc), exchanging comments and feedback through discussions and also reflect on their thoughts and others where teachers or tutors can come in the discussions and insert comments or make necessary clarifications, making resumes for future use in their employment status and keep their thoughts and stuff private to them (privacy is a strong advantage).
As far as the teachers are concerned, the perspectives are more alike to the above which students need to have in their personal eportfolio. The most important feature though is that they are able to see their students' thoughts, reflections, beliefs and different aspects of their assessments in order to check them and reflect on them too. Also, in this system the teachers, principals are able to make evaluations, assess their students, and the principals the teaching stuff by checking on their eporfolios at any time they consider appropriate. Even the vendors will be able to see the good and the bad features of their system and make the necessary improvements on it.
As a result, I think that MyStuff will be the most appropriate one for the students in this elementary school as its features are more attractive and it's easier to use than the eportfolio.org, since there is no need for training. Also, it is free for the people who are in to it whereas the other system ePortfolio.org has a fee and if you need more storage you have to pay more in order to get more space. Since, it will be used lifelong this is the most appropriate system because it can be exported to other eportfolios too when you wish to do it.
References:
EduTools (2007) Product Listing (accessed 17 October 2009) http://eportfolio.edutools.info/item_list.jsp?pj=16
ePortfolio Platform (2009) Overview of the ePortfolio platform (accessed 17 October 2009)
http://eportfolio.org/about.cfm
Open Univeristy MyStuff (2007) MyStuff info (accessed 17 October 2009)
http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/MyStuff-info/?page_id=39