Embedded Files
Fiji was the last stop on my New Zealand & Australian tour before heading home. However, ETEC 590: Graduating Project is not my last course. I am finishing my ETEC 580 Case Study Project this fall (2011) and taking one final course in January 2012, ETEC 533. I see this e-Portfolio as a piece of work that will evolve over time and one that I will use in my teaching and professional career. As such, I will be adding reflections and artifacts from these courses as they are completed.
ETEC 590 is my third course with Dr. Franc Feng and I am very pleased that he is the professor for this course. His continued support and guidance with my Media Projects in ETEC 531 and my ETEC 580 Case Study Project has been priceless. I have received the same support and guidance during this course ETEC 590. I have very much enjoyed the different aspects of the course and how meaningful and relevant each activity has been.
I found it helpful see what different types of technology is available to host & present one’s eP when we analyzed prior eP’s from past 590 cohorts. Analyzing prior e-Portfolios, creating my e-Portfolio rubric and writing my e-Portfolio Proposal were all activities that were scaffolding and unfolding the e-Portfolio creation process rooted in constructivism and Bruner’s theory of Discovery Learning as well as Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and Social Learning Theory (Driscoll, 2005 & Smith, 2002). The entire course was reflective in nature as our assignments and group collaborations were based on reflecting on some aspect of the MET program and making connections to prior earning and knowledge which are two essential elements of constructivism and connectivism (Duffy & Cunningham, 1996).
The dynamic community of practice (CoP) that our cohort has created has been amazing as most of us have been in prior courses together so most of us knew each other. This was a comforting feeling for me as I was happy to be sharing this final leg of the race with many whom I already knew. I was familiar with their skills, work ethic and quality of work so this was also reassuring at this final stage in the program as peer review was a key element of the whole eP creation process. I truly value this process and as a result, taking ETEC 590 was a great way to showcase my learning!
My eP Reflection
My e-Portfolio (eP) creation process happened in various stages:
First there was preliminary preparation which included analyzing prior e-Portfolios(eP’s), their artifacts and eP rubrics. The analysis included noting which artifacts were used and what type of competencies were being displayed. Next, our community of practice, CoP, collaborated in groups and discussed which MET competencies were important and which artifacts should be included in our eP’s. I compiled a list of both as it suits my learning style and I find lists easier to reference rather than looking back through the discussion forums. Then we reviewed prior eP rubrics in our groups and posted summaries after analyzing the eP rubrics together. These experiences along with my research on e-Portfolios in ETEC 532 provided me (and the whole CoP) a foundational basis to prepare to create our own eP rubrics and our e-Portfolios. During this stage I had to consider which media tool / platform would host my eP. I selected Google Docs. See my eP Rationale for this reflection.
The next stage was using this foundational knowledge to write my e-Portfolio proposal. See The Beach below for this reflection.
Next was creating my eP rubric. See Coconut Bowling below for this reflection.
The next stage was practice peer reviews of prior e-Portfolios. We had a choice of a variety of different e-Portfolios from previous 590 cohorts to practice writing peer reviews. After which we started working individually on our own eP’s.
I planned out my webpages on word document pages, one for each webpage. I used my Metaphor Chart from my eP proposal to guide my organization and structure of my eP but it did evolve and change. Some of the categories I originally selected ended up housing different information.
I listed my countries and matched my courses to the countries (each country / course has its own doc page with reflections and artifacts listed). I ended up with 15 Countries & Courses
I listed my artifacts under each course (on each separate course doc page)
I categorized my artifacts into 3 categories: Text Documents, Media Projects & Visuals and Group Projects. I did this to make sure that I had a cross section of artifacts from each grouping.
Then I created a page for my eP site references & resources – I organized these in a table
Next, I selected my 3 countries, artifacts & reflections to work on first as these would be peer reviewed.
Next, I continued to work web design including: inputting back & next links on the web pages and writing the reflections for the country and artifact pages.
**Unfortunately I was away at a work conference for a week and unable to work on my eP so I lost valuable work time during this conference. Also, when I took my face-to-face course this past July, Historical Thinking, I lost another week of work time on my eP. So missing these two weeks of valuable work time set me back considerably. When my 590 CoP was ready to move on to Peer Review #2 of our eP’s I wasn’t ready. I luckily had great reviewers who were willing to wait a few days to give me a bit more time to finish most of it. They both realized and acknowledged in their review that my eP was still in construction but they both gave some very valuable peer feedback. I implemented all of the suggestions and my eP is much more refined due to their feedback.
Next, was to create the tour video. I made an outline of what I wanted to include and mention in the video and then I created the video using screencast-o-matic and uploaded to Youtube.
Lastly, I reviewed each webpage of my eP going through the eP checklists and made final revisions.
It’s now finally ready to submit! I can’t tell you what a great feeling that is to finally finish! This has been a labour of love but many long hours trying to make up for those lost weeks.
My experience in Fiji was not as fantastic as the other places I’ve traveled but I have a few great memories of Fiji. Although, for the most part, it was actually quite a scary experience traveling from resort to resort alone in Fiji. Our group was scattered between a couple resorts about 15 minutes down the road from each other so some of these commuting experiences freaked me out even though everything ended up fine and safe.
As a result, I have matched the artifacts from ETEC 590 to my favourite memories in Fiji.
Artifacts:
2. Coconut Bowling - eP Rubric
3. The weather - HTTrack Tutorial
I’ve included my reflection of e-Portfolios and Anderson’s (2008) and Barret and Garret’s (2009) frameworks for online communication and e-Portfolio creation. I’ve also included their frameworks they were instrumental in guiding my eP creation process along with the 590 CoP feedback and peer review process.
“Electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) allow students (anyone) to incorporate, demonstrate, display and showcase their competencies and talents while allowing them to also critically reflect upon their experiences. E-portfolios are described as digitized collections of one’s work; a collection of knowledge, skills, values and achievements that articulate the relevance, credibility and meaning of the artefacts being organized and presented (Beetham, 2006). E-portfolios provide a comprehensive and scalable means to record and document individual and organizational progress towards defined curricular objectives and goals. They’re a medium to market talent, engage in assessment and evaluation of one’s progress and development, expand one’s professional development, examine the efficacy of design organization of artefacts and operations, support learning, and engage in meaningful, authentic learning and reflection. E-portfolios illustrate the evolution of one’s learning journey by telling a story… Anderson (2008) states that e-portfolios are excellent examples of e-learning incorporating all relevant components in his Educational Interactions Framework and Barret and Garret (2009) provide a useful framework for the e-portfolio creation process.” (Tutkaluk, 2011).
Using these frameworks and what I’ve learned in ETEC 590 and my other MET courses, I’m hoping to use my eP to help guide my colleagues in the creation of their own professional e-Portfolios.
Figure 1: Barret and Garret, 2009
Figure 2: Anderson’s Framework of Educational Interactions on the Semantic Web (2008, p. 61)
Fiji was the last stop Globetrotting
& time to return home
until January 2012
when I take
See my Travel Diary
to continue this reflection
in my MET Final Reflection.
References
Anderson, T. (2008). Toward a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.) Theory and Practice of Online Learning, Chapter 2 (pp. 45-74). Available online at: http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008_Anderson-Online_Learning.pdf
Barret, H. & Garrett, N. (2009). Online Personal Learning Environments: Structuring Electronic Portfolios for Lifelong and Life Wide Learning. On the Horizon | Vol. 17 No. 2, 2009, pp. 142-152, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1074-8121. Located at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dd76m5s2_39fsmjdk
Beetham, H. (2006). E-portfolios in post-16 learning in the UK: developments, issues and opportunities. Retrieved from http://www.jisc.hosting.eduserv.org.uk/media/documents/themes/elearning/eportfolioped.pdf
Driscoll. M.P. (2005). Psychology of Learning for Instruction (Ch5 Situated Cognition, Ch7 Interactional Theories of Cognitive Development & Ch 11 Constructivism) pp. 153-182; pp. 227-244; pp. 384-407. Toronto, ON:Pearson.
Duffy, T. M., and Cunningham, D. J. (1996). Constructivism: Implications for the design and delivery of instruction. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology (pp. 170-198). New York: Simon Schuster Macmillan.
Smith, M.K. (2002) 'Jerome S. Bruner and the process of education', the encyclopedia of informal education http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm.
Tutkaluk, E. (2011). E-Portfolios Demonstrate, Enhance & Assess Learning! Unpublished graduate essay, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
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