E-Portfolio Reflection

• I have developed skills that have changed my view of technology, teaching, and learning. Like many aspects of life, history seems to repeat itself. Within creating a curriculum there are three focal points that should be addressed: Subject matter, society, and the individual student. Curriculum has come a long way from the colonial era where there was no real need for formal education or subject matter. If there was formal education it was often based on societies views upon religion. Currently we have seen a push for Tyler’s model of curriculum where there is a linear subject based approach to curriculum. With the technology that I have learned to integrate into the classroom, I will be able to focus on the goals and the priorities of learning rather than the end result. The process throughout being digitally literate is far more useful in our students’ future than that of a traditional classroom.
• Working on the E-Portfolio has helped me to think about and demonstrate my strengths and skills and become a more self-directed technology learner and a better teacher. Within the article, Researching Electronic Portfolios and Learner Engagement: The REFLECT Initiative (2007), Dr. Barrett clarifies how electronic portfolios could be very beneficial to a classroom and to the student. “To effectively use portfolios for assessment, a learning organization needs to establish a culture of evidence. Evidence in an electronic portfolio is not only the artifacts that a learner places there, but also the accompanying rationale that the learner provides: their argument as to why these artifacts constitute evidence of achieving specific goals, outcomes or standards. Furthermore, just because a learner makes the claim that their artifacts are evidence of achievement, in "high stakes" environments, the evidence needs to be validated by a trained reviewer, using a well-developed rubric with identifiable and specific criteria." I have learned this statement to be true to some extent when I have had my students working on their in-room portfolios that were tangible not electronic. I believe this to be true even more so about electronic portfolios.
• The themes and patterns that emerged from my E-Portfolio were that of furthering my career. Everything that I added, from the pictures, to the spiritual autobiography, to the examples of my work were to showcase the skills that has made me a good teacher to a potential employer.
• The impact that making an E-Portfolio has made on me academically, professionally, and/or personally has been phenomenal. Not only can a student/teacher use e-portfolios for the process of learning, they can initiate conversations that teach educators different ways to alter their content and use student suggestions for different elements in the classroom. The effect of maintaining a reflective portfolio has great potential to support deep learning and ownership of the learning process. The learning process throughout this project has taught me a great deal about myself and what I have accomplished as an educator. There is something greatly uplifting about seeing all that you have worked hard for in one website that you can freely show others to improve your opportunities in the workforce.

Barrett, H. C. (2007). Researching Electronic Portfolios and Learner Engagement: The REFLECT Initiative. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50(6), 436-449. Retrieved June 11, 2010,from http://www.helenbarrett.com/portfolios/JAAL-REFLECT3.pdf