ePortfolio: Let's Get Started!

In the post entitled Getting Started Tips on Dr. Dwayne Harapnuik's webiste, he argues that lack of time has been a significant reason as to why former DLL students do not consistently and effectively utilize their ePortfolios throughout the program and after graduation. To combat this concern, Harapnuik sets out to explain how the EDLD 5303 course benefits students by providing them with the enough time and tips to help students set up quality ePortfolios for easy, time saving, and consistent use in the future.

In the first three paragraphs of his post, Harapnuik provides information collected from a research survey conducted on former students regarding factors that cause them to stop using ePortfolios. When viewing this information, I initially found it very surprising that when up against factors such as maintenance and personal interest level in ePortfolios, time was the number one factor for discontinued use. I was initially surprised because I believe that many students’ interest and maintenance of the ePortfolio declines after graduation simply because the usage of ePortfolios is no longer required and they no longer view it as essential. Although I found myself agreeing with the student interviewed when he/she stated that “all your time is spent just keeping your head above water there is no time to think about the benefits of an eportfolio or how to build and structure your eportfolio for use for anything more than document storage” (Harapnuik, D., 2016), I feel that if students viewed ePortfolios more as necessary, important, and useful in their current careers, they would set aside time for it. Therefore, I feel that as we build our ePortfolios it is vital that we include information that truly resonates with us so we will remember it and are more inclined to go back to our ePortfolios for it.

Throughout the rest of Harapnuik’s post, he explains how the EDLD 5303 course is structured and provides tips for how to navigate the 5303 course in order to gain the most benefit from it. I am very grateful that those in charge of the DLL program took sincere interest in the concerns expressed by graduate students in the survey and had the growth mindset to actively do something in an attempt to change these outcomes by creating the EDLD 5303 course. Because it is devoted solely to the development of a quality and effective ePortfolio, the 5303 course allows students an adequate amount of time to focus on creating ePortfolios that are organized and constructed exactly the way we need/want them to be with information that resonates with us to promote future use. I am also very grateful for the information provided in these sections (particularly the recommendations for proceeding through the program). I feel that this information provides me with a solid blueprint for how to set up a quality, effective ePortfolio that allows my learning and ideas to be presented in an organized and well thought out manner. I will definitely be referring to this article often as I continue building my ePortfolio.

The Minimalist Fundamentals of ePortfolios and What Is An ePortfolio?

The posts by Dr. Harapnuik entitled The Minimalist Fundamentals of ePortfolios and What Is An ePortfolio argue for the simplicity of meaning and presentation of ePortfolios. In The Minimalist Fundamentals of ePortfolios, Harapnuik suggests that more elaborate definitions of ePortfolio do not offer any major differences in meaning than simpler definitions and can often take away from the actual meaning because they “start moving into a discussion of the why, or purpose, of portfolios and how we create [ePortfolios].” (Harapnuik, D., 2015). Therefore, he believes that a simpler, more succinct definition of ePortfolio is better because it makes for easier understanding. In the What Is An ePortfolio? post, Dr. Harapnuik suggests that ePortfolios should be as simple as possible in structure, presentation of information, and navigation. By making the ePortfolio simple, it allows more time to focus on how to effectively utilize the ePortfolio to enhance learning.

I found both of these articles to be extremely helpful in getting me to think about the purpose of an ePortfolio in a different way. By reading the various definitions of ePortfolio presented and linked to The Minimalist Fundamentals of ePortfolios post and the why, what, how, and who sections of the What Is An ePortfolio post, I came to gain a better understanding of the true premise of having an ePortfolio; to provide evidence of one’s growth process as a learner. I have never had experience with an ePortfolio prior to the DLL program so the whole concept was extremely new to me. However, in reading these posts, I discovered concepts and ideas that will allow me to think differently about the process of setting up my ePortfolio. For example, coming into this course I believed that an ePortfolio was supposed to be an elaborate website used to show what one knows and/or has accomplished and cater exclusively to those involved in my field of work, education. I understood an ePortfolio to mean a future marketing tool used to showcase of all of our successes and none of our flaws. After reading these article, however, I learned that it is often times better to make the ePortfolio “simple to understand and, more importantly, simple to create and maintain. Especially if we keep the academic and scholarly jargon down to a minimum” (Harapnuik, D., 2016). I also learned that it is important to include “what [we] don’t know” (Harapnuik, D., 2016) in our ePortfolio. These are all ideas that I had not considered before but will now take into account as I continue to build my ePortfolio.

Making Meaningful Connections in an ePortfolio:

In the post Making Meaningful Connections in an ePortfolio, Dr. Harapnuik suggests that most graduates nowadays have not been educated in academic environments that promote critical thinking, creativity, or allow them to show evidence of their learning. Because of this, he argues that purposefully designed ePortfolios are important for learners to have as they can provide evidence of learners making connections as opposed to simply collecting information.

In Making Meaningful Connections in an ePortfolio, the incorporation of Seth Godin’s quotes spoke volumes to me. He brings up a very valid point that, throughout most of our educational careers, we are simply collecting information but not really taught to display what we have learned and the connections we have made via self-created bodies of work. As a result, many students do not have samples of learning that truly display what we know, how we have learned, and how we have grown and lack an ability to think critically and problem solve. That is why I feel that having the EDLD 5303 course is an extremely important component in the DLL program. By having a course that focuses specifically on our development of a quality and effective ePortfolio, students will have a self-created space of their own “where the student reveals their learning journey and shows through reflection, speculation and documentation of all the meaningful connections that they have made…between their schoolwork and their personal and professional lives.” (Harapnuik, D., 2016). As a person who has never had my own learning portfolio (in neither the paper or electronic format), I am very excited to finally have a domain where I can display my learning process in a thorough way via tangible examples of critical thinking and problem solving. Not only will this help others understand more about my growth as a student but it will also help me understand how to grow into becoming an expert educator.

Resources

Harapnuik, D. (2016, March 3). EDLD 5303 Getting Started Tips. Retrieved from http://www.harapnuik.org/?p=6322.

Harapnuik, D. (2015, May 26). Making Meaningful Connections in an ePortfolio. Retrieved from http://www.harapnuik.org/?p=5790.

Harapnuik, D. (2015, August 4). The Minimalist Fundamentals of ePortfolios. Retrieved from http://www.harapnuik.org/?p=5934.

Harapnuik, D. (2016, March 10). What Is An ePortfolio?. Retrieved from http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=5973.