Introducing Mahara
What is Mahara
Mahara is two things: an e-portfolio and a social networking system combined.
An e-portfolio is a system in which students can record "evidences of learning" - such as essays, artwork or other such things they produce that can be stored digitally. These itemss are known as artefacts in Mahara.
Artifacts can be combined on a single page to produce web pages called views in Mahara. The page you are reading is a view and displays a number of artifacts in a neat and professional manner.
However, Mahara is also a social networking system. Social networking systems ( think Myspace, Facebook or Bebo) give a way for people to interact with their friends and create their own online communities. In Mahara, students and teachers can share information, form groups to work on projects, comment and rate material produced by each other, leave messages and much more.
Mahara is more than just a place to store files. Mahara also includes blogging, a resumé builder, Moodle integration and online communication systems.