In my current job, I struggle with showing a “product” of my knowledge work. I end my day with a marked-out checklist, but not always much else. For example, I may research a help ticket for hours, but the only person who really knows that is me. Should I use my calendar, my daily checklist, or my solved help tickets as a reflection of my output? All of these paint an imperfect picture of my day-to-day accomplishments.
In Why Use an ePortfolio, I read several sources on the use of ePortfolios. Not only are they a fantastic way to show learning as a process. They are also a great way to capture thought work. They do this by 1) creating a context for learning, and 2) allowing for reflection and making the reflection visible to be tended to again and again.
Creating Context
The beauty of an ePortfolio is how effortlessly it can create a context for a learner through significant learning environments. In A New Culture of Learning – Douglas Thomas at TEDxUFM, I was intrigued by the 2014 video’s question on the meaning of expertise. Students’ view of teachers is different than when I was a child. The experts in my childhood were teachers and encyclopedias. Today’s students, however, are inundated with information and must create meaning from a multitude of sources. To them, teachers are not the experts. Teachers can harness this information overload, however, by providing students with context around it all. To do this, teachers should engage passion and imagination and provide opportunities for, “challenging creativity in the face of obstacles.” The ePortfolio captures learning in a significant learning environment through reflection.
Making Meaningful Connections
Reflection is the search for connections. As Dewey said, “We learn not from the experience, but from the reflection on the experience.” This occurs because of the cycle between practice and metacognition. This cycle includes Reflection → Planning → Action → Observing, back to Reflection. Humans create stories from our observations. We can continue to test and refine these stories, thereby deepening our learning. As Donald Schön said, “When we get into the habit of recording our stories, we can look at them again, attending to the meanings we have built into them and attending, as well, to our strategies of narrative description.” (Why Reflect? – Reflection4Learning)
ePortfolios for Thought Work
The product of the ePortfolio is a great way to show the process of learning. Without an ePortfolio, it’s easy to focus on output and miss out on the hours of valuable knowledge work. You miss out on the heart and soul of the creation. Because of this, my goal is to add more of my work to my ePortfolio. I will then reflect on my processes through a blog. I won’t use this for proof alone. It will also be a record of my own learning in my career as well as a way to return to my work for continued reflection.
References
Harapnuik, D. (2021, 5). Why Use an ePortfolio. It’s About Learning. http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6063
Reflection4Learning, Barrett, H., & Richter, J. (n.d.). Why Reflect? Reflection4Learning. Retrieved 11 2, 2021, from https://sites.google.com/site/reflection4learning/why-reflect
TEDxUFM & Thomas, D. (n.d.). A New Culture of Learning [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved 11 2, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM80GXlyX0U