Back in the swing

After a loooong break, I'm slowly starting to get back into posting here. What can I say - life intervened :-)
Several conferences, workshops, visits to Oz and other places in the world, new friends, new work, new roles etc ... E-portfolios and digital storytelling have been occupying a lot of my thinking time as I puzzle with the disconnect between new approaches to teaching and new understandings of learning. What changes need to be made to the ways we assess or evaluate learning to better fit with our newer understandings? And what alternative techniques can we use to better suit other ways of creating and constructing knowledge? Of particular interest is the dilemma of critical thinking, critical reflection and reflective practice. How does this develop - and more importantly, how can teachers, peers and colleagues help lifelong learners develop this skill and articulate the processes?
Also, and probably related, I've been working on developing a new theory of learning in which various other approaches such as PLEs and connectivism can be incorporated in a more holistic view of how humans learn - and can learn. I've called it "Ecological Constructivism" until or if I can re-define it in other terms.