Evaluating My ePortfolio for ETEC 590

This ePortfolio was created as part of a course within my Master of Educational Technology program. For this course I was required to include a number of items in my portfolio for grading purposes including a self-assessment rubric. These items are included below:

 A list of at least three educational and professional goals

My educational and professional goals are included below:

  • Explore new areas of educational research that can open new career pathways off the beaten path of a traditional educators career trajectory
  • Provide formal documentation to many of the skills I’ve developed intuitively working professionally in education for more than ten years.
  • Create professional networks for future career opportunities.

Artifacts that reflect progress toward those goals (at least nine, in total, as described below).

A list of my sample work within the MET program and from work can be found in the main menu under sample work. This work has been categorized and tagged to reference related MET courses and topics such as learning theory. Each entry of sample work contains reflective commentary.

A specific metaphor relevant to your own learning and the ePortfolio

Throughout my ePortfolio I refer to myself as a designer. Although I am not necessarily “designing” in the traditional sense I employ design thinking to my professional practice.

An updated and current resumé or CV.

My updated resume can be found here.

A statement of your own philosophy relevant to your own future direction.

My design philosophy can be found here.

An annotated reference of an article or book that has a particular, or perhaps profound, impact on your professional development.

A collection of important readings and articles with reflective commentary can be found in the reading list archives of my blog.

 A description of courses (including numbers and titles) that you completed, and a personal reflection on their relevance as you worked toward your goals.

This information can be found on my Education and Training page. When a course is selected all resources tagged with that course tag will be listed. The tag description includes briefly the relevance of the course towards my goals.

 A “Future Directions” section that builds on your reflections on the learning process and highlights potential next steps.

This section can be found here

 An introduction to your ePortfolio highlighting the contents and/or rationale for undertaking a Master’s Program

This information can be found on my Education and Training page.

 A Title and Table of contents to orient your reader.

The menu and organization structure (categories and tags) is automatically generated using WordPress.

Self-Assessment Review

Create a visually appealing and modern looking ePortfolio

I chose a self-hosted WordPress website to allow for maximum flexibility in the design and to remove any distracting banner ads or branding. I used a modern WordPress theme that uses clean white space to make the content stand out. I used formatting blocks to make sure the pages look consistent across the website. The end result is an ePortfolio I’m excited to put on my LinkedIn profile and future cover letters for employers.

Organize the ePortfolio for easy and efficient navigation.

The WordPress platform has allowed me to use tags and categories to automatically generate lists and self-organize my ePortfolio. For example I can categorize posts as “Designing for Assessment” and they will automatically be placed in a list of my sample work. The tags on each post allow me to easily display topics and to link learning artifacts to the course they were completed in.

The organization of the ePortfolio is intended to let people viewing my website easily find what they are looking for. When I planned the website I anticipated different audiences that would be interested in my content. For example I have grouped my work by designing for education and designing for assessment.

Using the WordPress blogging platform allows for new content to be pulled to the home page of the website automatically.

Ensure content is engaging by editing for conciseness and including multimedia where possible.

In general my writing is concise and plain language. I have included some content in this e-Portfolio to meet the requirements of MET. I will

I was fortunate that many of the learning artifacts I created in my MET course were multimedia-based. Multimedia, including videos, are easily embedded within WordPress. Some of the earlier videos I created are not as sophisticated or polished as later videos. I think it’s important to include them in the website to demonstrate growth in my skills and editing.

Flexible design that can be easily maintained and updated after the completion of the MET program.

I have always maintained a professional portfolio since the start of my career. This is my first digital portfolio and I intend eventually transition my full portfolio to this website.

WordPress was a good fit for this project because it can easily be updated with new themes without losing any of the content. This is important so that I can update my theme in a few years when it becomes to look dated. WordPress was also chosen because it’s a flexible platform that works with the various multimedia formats that I work with and might one day experiment with.

Flight Path ETEC 524

This post is an assignment for ETEC 524:

I started my career in education teaching overseas in Sweden. The experience had a major impact on me personally and professionally. I learned a lot about myself and made life-long friends. It also confirmed for me that I just don’t have the interest or passion to be a classroom teacher. I did well during my time there but I never really felt passionate about it in the same way I saw other teachers. When I came home I was ready for something different.

I started working in the non-profit sector when I returned to Canada. I worked in the field of Public Legal Education. This was when I discovered the aspects of education that I found rewarding: being creative, experimenting with technology and design, and making a difference. I was hired because of my willingness to try new things and experiment. A big first was creating the organization’s first mobile app. The app was a collection of FAQs for landlords and tenants regarding the Alberta Residential Tenancies Act. It was flashy and got a lot of attention from our funders but ultimately the investment of resources was not worth it. A mobile website was probably better suited for the project and would have been easier to maintain. A lot of my work during this time was trial and error. Unknowingly I was developing my own framework for
evaluating new technology intuitively, although probably not very efficiently. It was interesting because there are competing demands that have to factor into decisions about technology. First of all pedagogy but other contextual factors like what excites the funder, what can grab the attention of the end-user, and how scalable is the solution. During this time I attended a workshop on creating mobile content that gave the valuable advice if you are waiting to create a perfect video you will never publish a thing. Aim for high but not for perfection or you will never achieve anything. This has really stuck with me and has influenced my approach to incorporating technology into education.

When I had to move for my partner’s work I ended up working at the University of Manitoba. I started in instructional design but since then my work has shifted to program evaluation. During this time I also started my MET program. I started being quite optimistic about technology and now as I complete this final course in my MET program I find myself pretty skeptical about the role of technology in education. In particular I’ve been a bit disillusioned by witnessing a lot of technological flash without substance professionally. I have been frustrated as an online learner in the MET program that I feel like I didn’t get much out of. As I near completion of my masters I wonder if I would have had a more fulfilling experience in a F2F or blended environment. So my skepticism probably makes me well-suited for my career transition into evaluation. I hope to get more experience thinking critically about technology through this course. I think the group as a whole is going to be very eager and excited about introducing technology to different aspects of education. I hope though that we have discussions where we are critical about technology.