Mahara

Mahara  is really a fantastic tool!  It is so easy to navigate around the page and use its many features, making it a really user friendly piece of software.  I really like the drag and drop feature when customising the pages.  I can see myself getting a lot of use from this software.  It would be handy if there was a help feature on the site as well.  I don't want much do I!:-)  However, I read on the internet that Mahara now have a book published called Mahara 1.2 E-Portfolios: Beginner's Guide which is offered in hardback or e-book.  For anyone interested, Amazon sell the book but apparently it is cheaper through Packt Publishing.

What a great tool Mahara would be for high school students in preparing portfolios to showcase their best work, and preparing resumes to assist them in obtaining jobs in the workforce after school.  I believe any assistance students can foster to assist them is a very worthwhile activity and I feel that this would be an 'authentic' and 'meaningful' activity for students as well (Kearsley, & Shneiderman, 1999).  Furthermore, Mahara is particularly suitable for classroom use as it makes groupwork a breeze.  Mahara allows students to set up groups, communicate and collaborate, and publish work with their respective groups when working on activities.

References
Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1999).  Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning.  Retrieved from Central Queensland University, FAHE11001 Managing E-Learning, 
http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm