Facilitation Innovation

This site exists as an ePortfolio that is part of my Applied Digital Learning masters program. As I learn more about the purpose of my ePortfolio and consider the vision I have for it, one of the big concepts I’m grappling with is who owns my ePortfolio? This is not a question I initially considered. It seemed quite obvious to me that I own it! I bought the domain, I set up the site (although please excuse that it is still a work in progress), I am adding all of the content.

Despite the level of ownership that it seems I have over this little corner of the internet, the fact remains that who owns my ePortfolio is up for debate. If I am exclusively going to be using my site to publish assignments for my masters program, then is it my professors who really own my ePortfolio? Am I only using it to give my professors what they want (Rikard, n.d.)? Audrey Watters (2019) says “This can be a way to track growth and demonstrate new learning over the course of a student’s school career — something that they themselves can reflect upon, not simply grades and assignments that are locked away in a proprietary system controlled by the school.” This sounds like more of an opportunity for me to take control of my learning.

The other thing that gives me a sense of personal ownership is that despite the fact that I am posting assignments here, I am encouraged to choose how to present my ideas, given ownership of the connections I am making to my own learning, and am able to express these ideas and connections in my own voice. I can apply my learning to my authentic work and life experiences. Essentially, because of this COVA approach I become the owner of this ePortfolio space (Harapnuik, 2021). And I intend to truly make it mine!

This leads me to the main point of this post. What is my vision for my ePortfolio? Beyond housing my ADL assignments, I envision this being a space for me to share my insights as a professional learning facilitator, my passion for phonics instruction and literacy for all, plus the fun, magical, interesting things I am reading in my free time. Hopefully I will get to make connections through this digital space with like-minded folks and learn from them as well.

References

Rikard, A. (n.d.). Do I own my domain if you grade it? (EdSurge News). Retrieved September 8, 2015, from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-08-10-do-i-own-my-domain-if-you-grade-it

Harapnuik, D. (2021, August 1). Who owns the ePortfolio. Harapnuik.org. Retrieved September 6, 2022, from https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6050

Watters, A. (2019, June 25). The web we need to give students. Medium. Retrieved September 6, 2022, from https://brightthemag.com/the-web-we-need-to-give-students-311d97713713