If I have to answer this question so much in my own professional life, I can imagine that having to answer this question as a student can be very challenging as well. What do you say? What do you not say? Which parts of your day do you leave out because even though they take up enormous amounts of your time & energy, they’re either boring or impossible to explain to your aunt? I feel this. working with technology, working in higher education, and working in the kind of liminal space that I do can leave me with a kind of messy grey area of experience that’s difficult to articulate. Also: how do I sound smart?

For real.

That’s why I love ePortfolios.

I get to describe what I do for a living, in an organized and professional way that actually reflects who I am and what I’m good at. When I look at my ePortfolio, I’m proud of my achievements, and I get excited about what I can achieve in the future. This space looks like me, sounds like me, is a reflection of who I am, what I’d like to get better at, and what I’d like to contribute.

I have really enjoyed working with the Education faculty on their Professional Development portfolios for this reason. These students are motivated, and being able to reach them at the beginning of their now two year program and get them thinking about how to present their professional growth in a way that will get them a professional job has been very enlightening. The WordPress ePortfolio pilot program has hinted that not having the platform repeated beyond one class means that the students don’t engage with the idea of what an ePortfolio can provide them. If I see the students once? They forget where to log in, they post the bare minimum, they see no value in building out their ePortfolio beyond the reflective assignments they’re given. Seeing the students multiple times gives me the opportunity to address their hesitations, answer their questions, get them motivated and also gives them the impression that the ePortfolio must be something worth doing if this girl keeps showing up to talk about it.

(hey there, I don’t think I’ve ever been a hashtag before!)

 I started the semester with a mandatory workshop of the full cohort of Education students, they are all required as of this year to complete an ePortfolio. I had each student register for an ePortfolio through the database ahead of time, which cut down on time interruptions for technical difficulties with such a large group of people. As a group, we navigated through a concise Prezi presentation of the Dashboard, only highlighting the portions they would be using most frequently (Pages, Posts, Themes, Media Library), then I walked them through the required pieces they needed to have for marks at the end of the year, and added in some additional pieces they should consider if they wanted to step it up a notch. I created a template of my own for them to follow.

Following this initial meeting in September, I attended each of their Advisory groups at least once. In these smaller groups, I was able to tackle their technical questions more succinctly, and I found that addressing them in these smaller group settings allowed other more introverted students to feel like they weren’t alone in sharing their frustrations and questions. As a group, we would go through creating their Standards of Practice drop-down menu together, so they could visually see how it would be laid out on their page, and also so I could touch on the kinds of Artifacts they should be focussed on gathering throughout their practicums and beyond. Though it seems strange, I was encouraged by how many students came to see me afterward to clarify some of their concerns or even to show me the kinds of artifacts they were gathering and asking: is this good? what would make this better? can I make this prettier?

Pretty cool stuff.

Even cooler? Many of these students returned again at the end of the semester, before they were due to present their skeleton ePortfolio to their Advisor, to get feedback on how to improve their look and feel. It was exciting to have some of these students looking beyond only the practical purpose of their platform and seeing how it could benefit them. I’m really looking forward to seeing these students again in their second year, seeing what they will bring to their ePortfolios. I’m actually hoping they challenge my perceptions and make me step up my game!