I appreciate the opportunity that we had to look over exemplar ePortfolios, examples of student portfolios at various levels, those of other DLL students, as well as portfolios and blog sites belonging to edtech professionals and bloggers. I spent a lot of time on this activity because like so many things online, it was a deep rabbit hole for me! On practically every single ePortfolio or blog site I found a new book to add to my Goodreads list, a new podcast to sample and save for later, an interesting resource, new people to follow on social media, or great nugget to retweet.

It is easy to become distracted and overwhelmed with the amount of information and content available to us. There is so much to discover, learn and connect to our world. My most effective method for not becoming overloaded with information is to consider my primary goal make that the target.

My target for this post is to focus on what I view are high points of 6 of the many suggested ePortfolio sites:

I was drawn to Jesse Lee’s University of Waterloo undergraduate ePortfolio because of its simplicity and organization. I was especially interested in his blog post about time management. While reading about the COVA method and having students develop authentic learning through solving real-world problems, I frequently wonder about teacher time management. In order for students to manage their time well, teachers have to create conversations about and model that as well. I suppose at the elementary level, the time that students have to work on projects must come in smaller chunks. In his blog post, Jesse provides great time management tips such as prioritizing, and setting smart goals. But more than that, Jesse tells his own story and what he has learned about the reasons for building time management skills.

I love Michelle Little’s site Little Tech Stop. Michelle incorporates some very creative elements in her portfolio, such as a Thinglink image that describes her Digital Learning & Leading Journey. Thinglink is one of those digital tools that I have visited multiple times, but have not used to created anything magnificent. I really like her example briefly describing each course on a winding road.

Jamie Velazquez’s WordPress portfolio is a lovely collection of posts that demonstrate the knowledge gained through her Digital Learning and Leading Journey, I especially enjoyed reading about her STEAM Lab Blended Learning Plan outlined in an infusion of the 5 Stages of Change and Covey’s Four Disciplines of Execution. This is something that I have never heard of. I haven’t see these ideas introduced on the sites of any other student or anywhere in our current course materials. This example is part of the beauty of the COVA and CSLE models. Learners are working toward a common goal, but are not necessarily limited by the granularity of one specific standard.

Bridget Gallagher’s portfolio created in Weebly was designed with elegant simplicity. I was especially interested in her post about Instructional Design in Online Learning. I am so looking forward to taking that class and learning more about effective ways to structure an online course. I’m not sure if you have noticed or not, but there is a huge proliferation of virtual courses available lately. Across the past two decades, there has been a gradual growth of online learning and virtual college courses. But suddenly, this past year, with the need for social distancing, virtual courses have exploded. Bridget’s model of effective course design heightens my enthusiasm for moving forward in the Lamar DLL program!

Lisa Nielsen, the Innovative Educator’s blogspot was interesting to me for multiple reasons. Primarily, she had a recent blog post about about a variety of suggested podcasts. Of course I had to go and subscribe to a couple, one of which was the Class of 2025 from Oregon Public Broadcasting, which focuses on current issues in public education. I like that Lisa’s contact was current. After being in education for a couple of decades, I have started projects in multiple platforms which have either been abandoned or become stale. I hope to be able to keep my current ePortfolio up-to-date and relevant. The other element of Lisa’s site that I really enjoyed was the variety of subject topics. The world of edTech and digital learning has so many areas to explore, and my interests are varied. Therefore I really value that Lisa posts content about teacher effectiveness, digital citizenship, mobile devices, social media and more.

I am a huge fan of George Couros, his books like the Innovators Mindset, and presentations. George emphasize the importance of relationships for effective and meaningful teaching and learning. His YouTube video Blog as Portfolio, finally helped me make the connection about why our blog posts are important elements of our ePortfolio. The posts reveal a journey of learning, and allow for greater demonstration of learning, and show evidence of abilities publicly. Also, on Geroge’s site there is a link to a great webinar that is an introduction to his portfolio master course, that emphasizes many of the concepts we have learned in this course.

Taking the time to review these sites, particularly the ones of my Digital Learning Leading predecessors, has given me insight into what is possible for my ePortfolio. I entered the program with a somewhat narrow and self-limiting view of the potential for my ePortfoilo. Digging into what other students have created before me has helped me up my game substantially!

“Digital portfolios push learning, help learners reflect on their growth over time, develop a library of learning, create opportunities, and build a digital footprint.”

-George Couros

Couros, G. (2021, February 9). George. George Couros. https://georgecouros.ca/blog/.

Covey, F. (2020, December 3). The 4 Disciplines. FranklinCovey. https://www.franklincovey.com/the-4-disciplines/.

Gallagher, B. (2018, July). Capstone. Bridget Gallagher. http://www.bridgetsgallagher.com/capstone.html.

Harapnuik, D. (2015, July 16). Show Me Yours and I Will Show You Mine – Eportfolio Examples. harapnuik.org. http://www.harapnuik.org/?s=eportfolio%2Bexample.

Lee, J. Welcome – Jesse Lee Business ePortfolio. Welcome – Jesse Lee Business ePortfolio – University of Waterloo. https://learn.uwaterloo.ca/d2l/eP/presentations/presentation_preview_popup.d2l?presId=509947&pageId=836542.

Little, M. (2018, July 29). Little Tech Stop. https://littletechstop.wordpress.com/.

Nielsen, L. (2021, February 7). Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator. https://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/.

Oregon Public Broadcasting. Class Of 2025. Spreaker. https://www.spreaker.com/show/class-of-2025.

Thinglink. Create unique experiences with interactive images, videos & 360° media. ThingLink. https://www.thinglink.com/.

Velazquez, J. (2018, November 3). Capstone: My Innovation Plan Reflection. My Learning Journey. https://jamievelazquezdlleportfolio.wordpress.com/2018/11/03/capstone-my-innovation-plan-reflection/.

YouTube. (2012). Blog as Portfolio. https://youtu.be/s4C69Lrpk1E.