1. My Purpose and Goals for a Digital Portfolio
I intend to design a portfolio in which to plan, record, share, reflect, and document my professional growth as a teacher. Here I will try out new 'digital' things, reflect on various teaching and learning activities, share successes, challenges, and, dare I say it, examine failures! It will provide a collaborative landscape for sharing professional understandings and reflections on philosophy, and provide direction in my future teaching and learning contexts. I will record my own critical commentary to aid in making pedagogical decisions in my day to day practice.
This platform will allow me to experience and examine my own interactions within the 21st century digital educational and world context and learn more about my strengths and weaknesses. By so doing, I may better understand the potential, possibilities, and pitfalls in utilizing various digital learning technologies for myself and for my students. I am not yet comfortable with the ballooning public sharing culture through such things as blogs, wikis, image sharing and the like. I hope to become more comfortable and forthcoming in this new, for me, electronic environment.
In essence, developing a web-based portfolio affords me the chance to develop new knowledge and skills, demonstrate my learning, and encourage growth and confidence in my practice. I expect to become less of a 'digital immigrant' although, regretfully, I will never be a 'digital native!'
Audience for this portfolio will include employers, colleagues, my school community, and members of particular online professional groups that I do, or may, interact with. However, I will be the primary audience or critical reader of my own evolving online presence.
2. Initial Brainstorm of Appropriate Content to Include in the Web-Based Portfolio
- Some sort of introductory page that includes information about myself and my vision and goals for the portfolio.
- A statement regarding my educational philosophy and beliefs
- A brief resumé and outline of professional achievements and experiences to date
- An overview of my current professional development plan and progress updates
- A record of particular professional development occurrences, which could include both formal and informal learning and critical reflection
- Artifacts related to recent professional practice e.g. examples of student projects, photos, video, audio, text, visual representations
- Samples of online digital tools used together with associated critical commentary
- Links to any blogs or wikis as deemed appropriate
- Provide links to my graduate course reflections and projects
3. Where to Start in the Design Process?
I need to investigate and decide which web platform or application is most suited to, and easily available for, this project.
I will need to develop a clear organizational concept map in order to see how each section of my portfolio will link and to see how users will navigate through the various parts, access information easily, and return to sections of choice.
I need to continue research regarding effective design concepts for a web application. For example: placement of text versus graphics, color and organization of page layout, amount of information and visuals to include per page, usability of the navigation tools, and professional and/or welcoming and inclusive aspects of the total package.
I need to begin collecting, sorting, and choosing among artifacts and information that I wish to include, especially for the initial stages of design and development. I will manage these as separate files on my computer in order to try and remain organized.
I will need to learn more about how to incorporate links into my portfolio to connect to external blogs, wikis, and other online environments that I deem important. Initially, I hope to link this portfolio to my current blog pages and group wikis we are compiling for the course on User-Centered Design.
4. End Note
Whilst this project represents a fair amount of time to be invested and much ongoing work, I do hope that I will be able to continue its development and affective use as I continue in my graduate courses and ultimately return to my own teaching context.
