Statement of the Problem: The ever-growing advancement of ICTs is changing the patterns of social life, manpower competencies, and citizens’ skills. By entering the information society, the need for new competencies for being a digital literate and skilful citizen in such dynamic society is pushing us to attain such required competencies. In education, this need for students and teachers are more demandingly recognized. Also, there is a need for conceptualizing and systematizing the technological potentialities for sustaining environments which could help the students enhancing their critical thinking, collaborative learning, and communication skills in order to achieve better learning outcomes and performances required for having constructive roles in a knowledge-based society. Digital portfolios as platforms of social settings of work and community and learning environment with the possibilities of establishing social interaction are acknowledged for communication and collaboration. As for the purpose of this study, the need for exploring the potential of digital portfolios in enhancing the lifelong learning skills which, are essential for citizens of a knowledge-based society is realized. Regarding this fact that digital portfolios are becoming efficient and common tools in education and teacher education particularly, and from a socio-cultural framework and its implications for educational practices, it is worth trying to explore potential of digital portfolios for collaboration and communication in professional development. So, this study is an attempt to find out more about developing and utilizing digital portfolios by preservice teachers in their educational activities to explore how digital portfolios can be used as tools for communication and collaboration and to investigate how using digital portfolios could promote their professional development. Objectives: - To investigate the students’ perceptions and experiences of developing their digital portfolios. - To explore the capabilities of digital portfolios for establishing an environment for communication and collaboration. - To probe the roles of digital portfolios in supporting and enhancing students professional development. Research Questions: 1- What are the problems or challenges encountered in developing and utilizing digital portfolios? 2- What do students perceive as the strengths and weaknesses of creating and using a digital portfolio? 3- How does digital portfolio provide students with the environment which help them to establish effective communication and collaboration? 4- In what ways communication and collaboration through digital portfolio enhance students’ professional development? Theorical Framework: Recent diffusion of ICTs in the educational fields has allowed us the adoption of socio-constructivist approaches to design and implement such learning environments in virtual contexts which consider the negotiation of meanings, sharing the experiences through the discussion and collaboration for developing new knowledge and for the purpose of lifelong learning. Social learning theories emphasize the importance of the learner’s social context and believe that learning doesn’t occur in isolation rather through a social setting such as family, workplace, networking, interaction and collaboration with others (Brown, 2002). A socio-cultural framework scaffold collaboration with the support of technology. On the other hand, Mezirow’s transformation theory helps us to understand the nature of human learning and communication. Mezirow claims the adult learning process involves “critical reflection and discourse in human communication” (1996, 158 in Brown, 2002, 230). The implications of such theories regulate our thinking to conceptualize educational endeavors into a systematic direction.

Qualitative methods have been used by many researchers in working on digital portfolios (Kariuki & Sandy, 2001; McKinney, 1998; Bartlett, 2002; Brown, 2002; Smith et al. 2001). So, in this study, Qualitative techniques of inquiry will be adopted to find out scientific answers for the research questions and problems. The data collection instruments will be: semi-structured interviews, portfolio’s content, researcher notes and journaling during the implementation course, email and correspondences by online means. Also, it is useful to conduct a focus group.

With collaborative Web 2.0 tools, digital portfolios offer possibilities for establishing such environment which facilitate communication and collaboration. In such a context, digital portfolios can be developed as a tool for continuing professional development by teachers and students. As linnakylä, et al. (2007) argued, “digital portfolio could be used to enlighten learners’ personal study plans , authentic learning contexts, experiences and reflections as well as their communication and networking with other students , tutors and teachers” (P, 5). It is expected that developing and utilizing digital portfolio by preservice teachers promote communication and collaboration with their students and colleagues and help them in personal and professional development.