Significant Learning Experiences

The other day, my daughter asked me an interesting question. She said, "Do you remember the things that you got wrong the first time, and then corrected, better than you remember the things that you didn't make a mistake on?" I thought about it and realized my answer was, yes, I do remember things better when I've struggled to learn them. My daughter said this was true for her as well. This reminded me of the slightly annoying optimists who tell us that we should think of our mistakes as "learning opportunities." The reasoning behind the platitude is simple: if you don't make any mistakes, you won't learn anything new. 

If this is true, if a process of trial-and-error is beneficial, then what does this say about the role of teachers and students?  For example, if we as students are given simple, step-by-step procedures for using a preselected set of tools to create our archives, blogs, and portfolios, does that diminish what we learn or remember? Is it possible that a "spoon-fed" approach might inhibit, rather than promote, our learning? I'm not suggesting that I wouldn't prefer to be shown how to do things, to spend less time wrestling with tools and more time developing my portfolio content and presentation, but the question still interests me. What do I gain from flailing around in the technological waters, learning from my mistakes? Or, from another perspective, am I doing my son (or other students) a disservice if I "rescue" them from their frustation too soon, showing them how to do things they might have figured out on their own if given more time? 

The Final Stage: Copyediting for Usability and Consistency

My process for creating an ePortfolio has involved three stages:

http://docs.google.com

Stage One: Content. Inventory and digitally archive all relevant files. Use Google Docs, DropBox, or a similar tool. Save Microsoft Word files in both DOC and PDF formats. Also include: PowerPoint (PPT) files and other types of writing projects; descriptions of the assignments provided by the professor; discussion board posts; any significant email correspondence with professors or classmates; and anything else that might be needed to create a capstone portfolio with reflective summaries. Ideally, the archive will contain most of these items already because it will have been created gradually, over the course of the entire program, rather than all at once at the very end. Files converted to the Google Docs format may require editing to repair formatting problems (extra pages, duplicated text) created during the conversion process. Note that unusual fonts, which for example may have been used to create a special effect for a flyer or brochure, may become unreadable when the files are converted. Be sure to check every file in Google Docs after the conversion. In some cases, it may be preferable to skip the conversion altogether.

Maintaining a Portfolio for Days, Months, Years

I'm unsure how long I will be able to maintain an electronic portfolio. I've never been able to keep a journal for very long—I have a collection of half-empty ones—and, in a way, the process for keeping an ePortfolio up-to-date reminds me of keeping a journal. Easy to do when I have lots to say, but hard to do as a well-disciplined habit. However, unlike an ordinary journal, a portfolio is a multimedia endeavor, which makes it intrinsically more interesting. I like being able to add pictures, video, and hyperlinks. If I create content in some other forum or for some other purpose, without necessarily having a portfolio in mind at the time, I can easily connect to the content later. I can also access my portfolio from any mobile device, so I can work on it when the mood hits me.

Maybe instead of thinking of the portfolio as a piece of work to be maintained, it is better to think of it as a repository, a bottomless briefcase to which things can be added over time. As a writer, inevitably, I will be creating written artifacts as I progress through my life and career. It will be up to me to decide whether I want to annotate them as I toss them into my digital repository, or if I'd prefer to go back later to reflect on them, as I am doing for my Master of Arts in Professional Writing. Most likely, I will alternate between the two, sometimes keeping records consistently and other times doing so episodically.

Creating a Digital Narrative (a Slide Show with Voiceover)

When writers talk about "voice," they're usually referring to a style of writing that shows some personality. Readers are left to imagine for themselves the timbre and pitch of a writer's spoken words.

Not so when it comes to a digital narrative that includes both audio and visual elements. This past week, my assignment was to write a script, select or create images, figure out a way to combine the text with the images, and then add a recording of my own voice reading the script in time with the slideshow. I felt oddly nervous about recording my voice, so I saved that step for last. 

I experimented with a combination of tools. I tried iPhoto, PowerPoint, iMovie, and something entirely new to me: Screenr.com, a free web-based screen recorder. The steps I took were as follows:

Using Rubrics to Evaluate ePortfolios

This week, we referred to two different rubrics as we reviewed and provided feedback to our peers on the initial drafts of our Capstone (Academic) ePortfolios.

The first rubric was A Generic Rubric for Evaluating ePortfolios, posted on the ePortfolio Portal (adapted and used with permission from Joan Vandervelde's ePortfolio (Digital Portfolio) Rubric). This rubric used the following criteria for the evaluation (total points possible = 36):

1. Selection of Artifacts and Written Communication—All must be clearly and directly related to the purpose of the portfolio. (0 to 9 points)
2. Reflections—Constructive in nature; clearly identifying and describing goals. (0 to 9 points)
3. Use of Multimedia—Appropriate photos, artwork, audio, video, or a combination of these should enhance the purpose of the ePortfolio and make it more interesting. (0 to 6 points)
4. Captions—Are all artifacts clearly identified with title, author, and date? (0 to 3 points)
5. Ease of Navigation—Do all internal and external hyperlinks work? (0 to 3 points)
6. Layout and Text Elements—Are fonts and headings easy to read with appropriate use of white space? Are background and colors aesthetically pleasing? (0 to 3 points)
7. Writing Mechanics—Is the ePortfolio well edited: no errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar? (0 to 3 points)

Google Docs and Etherpads: "Realtime Collaborative Text Editing"

For about a year now, I've been using Google Docs for collaborative text editing. The tool allows me to share documents with other people, either for viewing only or for editing collaboratively. Up to ten people can view or edit a document simultaneously. A revision history, color-coded by author, is created automatically so changes can be tracked and restored to earlier versions if necessary. There's an integrated chat, which shows up as an IM window, so that collaborators can discuss what they're doing while they're doing it. The tool also makes it easy to email and post documents online. (For a more detailed description of Google Docs, see the Google Docs Getting Started Guide.)

This past week, I played around with iEtherPad. Although Google shut down the EtherPad.com servers, after acquiring AppleJet Inc. and the EtherPad collaboration product and technology, it released the code as open source. So, etherpad services are still available through the following links:

iEtherpad
PiratePad
Sinc.in
The Etherpad Foundation
TypeWith.me

When I tried out iEtherpad with my Portfolio in Professional Writing class, I discovered that it had the following features:

Work Incrementally. Save Everything. Be Flexible.

Condensing years of experience into a few sentences or square feet of space isn't easy.

I spent most of the day yesterday at the NH Homeschooling Coalition (NHHC) annual Spring Workshop, where I served on a panel and shared what I know about homeschooling high school. The purpose of the workshop was to enable those with questions about homeschooling to hear from those who were already homeschooling successfully. NHHC volunteers also set up large tables with displays of curriculum materials for browsing and catalogs to take home. Attendees included those who were considering homeschooling for the first time as well as experienced homeschoolers who were looking for help with the high school years. Some of the questions I was asked were:

• What does your program include, and how did you decide to include those subjects?
• What resources do you use, and where do you find them?
• What records do you keep, and why?
• How do you know when you're finished? (Unlike a student attending school, a homeschooled high school student does not necessarily receive a diploma from an accredited institution.)

Giving Up the Devil You Know

One thing about tools: it's always tempting to remain loyal to the familiar ones. Once I've spent time learning how to use a new tool or technology, I'm inclined to keep using it. I need to be tempted away by the promise of better performance, greater convenience, or very cool features. Otherwise, my uncharacteristically conservative philosophy when it comes to tools can be summarized by this pithy bit of wisdom: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Perhaps this explains why I spent two years wrestling with Google Sites before I discovered Weebly and Blogger, or why I have until recently resisted switching from iPhoto to Picasa for Mac. Sometimes, it's the little things that make all the difference. For example, when I wanted to created tabbed web pages, Google Sites was no help to me. I suppose I could have written the HTML for a tabbed page (see this Elated article), but one of the reasons I was using a WYSIWYG editor like Google Sites in the first place was because I wanted to avoid doing my own programming. Sadly, instead of searching for a new tool, I settled for less and resigned myself to organizing pages with customized sidebars.

During the past two weeks, I have been researching different tools for creating blogs, wikis, and websites. I am delighted to see that Weebly offers a variety of tabbed web page designs. Other niceties, like drag and drop elements and instantaneous previews of template changes, make Weebly an easy tool to learn and use. No doubt, I will eventually encounter drawbacks to Weebly but, so far, I like it just fine.

Taking a Course, Receiving an Education

I have taken seven courses at New England College related to professional writing: Professional Writing and Rhetoric; Editing in the Professions; Research methods; Media and Public Relations; The New Media; Business and Technical Communication; and Creative Nonfiction. The course titles suggest in broad terms the course content, but they are not definitive. It would still be possible to make inaccurate assumptions about what the courses offer or what a student like myself who has taken the courses might know as a result. So, simply listing the course titles, as a typical transcript does, is insufficient when it comes to assessing my qualifications.

Organizing e-Portfolio Contents

Yesterday, I introduced my 14-year-old son to the idea of electronic portfolios. I had already spent the previous day creating my own digital archive (with Google Docs) and website (with Google Sites). I familiarized myself with the way the tools worked as I went along. I also considered some philosophical arguments for the potential of e-portfolios, such as Dr. Barrett's "Balancing the Two Faces of E-Portfolios" and an Educause Quarterly article on a "lifetime personal Web space (LPWS)" (Cohn and Hibbitts, 2004). The latter article by Cohn and Hibbitts raised several questions that I would like to see answered before I become a staunch e-portfolio advocate, specifically:

• "Where is the body of rigorous, research-based evidence that supports the e-portfolio as a pedagogical and presentational tool?" (Or, perhaps more relevantly, what research has been done since their article was published in 2004?) 
• "From a cost-benefit perspective, is it prudent to commit . . . student resources to a time-consuming process . . . ?" (A question I fully expected my pragmatic son would ask me.)
• "Do we know for certain that graduating students who bring electronic portfolios to their job [or college admission] interviews will be more competitive than students who furnish paper-based portfolios?" 

For now, I'm willing to try e-portfolios because the arguments in favor of using them are sufficiently persuasive. My goal in proposing the idea to my son was twofold: to see how he would respond to the arguments in favor of e-portfolios and, assuming he was persuaded, to see what process he would use to create one.

Content Ownership and Privacy Concerns

I am in the process of creating a digital archive of the written work I created while in the Master of Arts in Professional Writing program. I have decided to use Google Docs to store my collection of work, which primarily includes files in Word (.doc or .docx) and PDF. Based on my experience with Google Docs thus far, the application seems easy to use and well-suited to a Web 2.0 portfolio environment. Best of all, the price is right: free for my current low-volume needs. I also feel encouraged by the Data Liberation Front, which appears to offer an escape hatch from Google if I decide to move my digital archive elsewhere.


However, in spite of all the advantages, I still have some reservations about using Google apps, because the Google Terms of Service include the following statements about "Content license from you" (Section 11):

Working Portfolio vs. Presentation Portfolios

During the past week, I have learned that there are different types of portfolios, created to serve difference purposes and audiences. Broadly, the two main types are presentation portfolios and working portfolios.

A presentation portfolio is a showcase of collected works. Most of the writing portfolios available to the public on the internet seem to be presentation portfolios. Many were created by freelance journalists who are marketing their skills with persuasive "hire me" messages. When I create a presentation portfolio, I plan to include samples of my best work, selected to impress a specific audience. While I may add brief descriptions of individual artifacts to explain why I included them in the portfolio, the main function of my presentation portfolio will be to attract prospective employers.

In contrast, the most important reason for maintaining a working portfolio is to enhance learning. Essentially, a working portfolio is a tangible manifestation of the abstract theories of constructivism. According to constructivism theory, "people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences" (from "Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning," one of many sources on the topic). Meaningful, long-term knowledge isn't acquired by passively listening to a lecture and parroting back what was said. As learners, we need to be actively involved, integrating new information in our own way. That's where the working portfolio comes in. Students can use portfolios as a tool for learning, reflecting on their own understanding of who they are, what they know, and where they see themselves heading. Teachers, mentors, and homeschooling parents—all of us who aspire to become "guides alongside"—can use working portfolios to examine personal and professional goals, reflect on the learning process, and evaluate the effectiveness of different approaches.

Dr. Cheryl E. Ball's Digital Media Scholarship

Dr. Cheryl E. Ball, Associate Professor of New Media Studies

I am grateful to one my classmates (you know who you are) for bringing this portfolio to my attention because it serves as a wonderful example of both layout and process when it comes to electronic portfolios and digital media scholarship.

Getting the Most Out of an Education, and Documenting the Results

As someone who returned to graduate school relatively late in life, I knew exactly what I wanted from a master's degree program: a flexible schedule and course of study, faculty with relevant expertise, and challenging assignments. I was willing to pay for instruction and guidance, but only if I could get it on my own terms. The traditional model of faculty lectures and textbook exams wouldn't be enough for me. If I wanted lectures, I could find those online for free. I could also select and read textbooks without assistance. What I needed was "a guide on the side," someone who would respond to questions and push me harder than I would push myself.


In 2009, I enrolled in the online Master of Arts in Professional Writing program at New England College, and it has suited me well. Each course in the program has allowed me to tailor the assignments to suit my own interests and aptitudes while also encouraging me to try different writing styles and genres. The assignments have stretched me beyond the limits of what I would have done on my own, and I have received meaningful feedback from wise mentors. Now, as I work on my capstone project (an electronic portfolio), I have an opportunity to reflect on the program and present some of my work.


At the same time, I am also considering how homeschooled high school students might use electronic portfolios for personal assessments or formal evaluations. As someone who has been homeschooling my own children since 1997 and providing support for other homeschoolers for many years (see my website), I can imagine how electronic portfolios could be a valuable tool for homeschoolers. 

Introduction, or How This Blog Got Its Name

The name of my blog, Guide Alongside, is derived from advice I encountered repeatedly when I began reading about how to improve online course instruction for higher education:

Be a "guide on the side," not a "sage on the stage." 

The phrase first appeared in an article written by Alison King for the journal College Teaching (Vol. 41, 1993). The full title of the article is "From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side."In the article, King uses "sage on the stage"to describe the old-school style of instruction, also known as the "transmittal" model, wherein a professor lectures to students who are expected to memorize and repeat back what they hear. This model assumes students are passive recipients, dependent on teachers for their learning. In contrast, a "guide on the side" encourages students to become actively involved in their own learning process. Such a teacher provides resources, asks thoughtful questions, and facilitates further investigation. King argues that this latter form of instruction encourages critical thinking and creative problem solving, essential skills for students in the twenty-first century.

This idea of mentoring, of collaborating with students rather than lecturing at them, reflects my point of view when it comes to home education, lifelong learning, and professional writing. 

In the posts that follow, I plan to elaborate on this idea as part of my reflective journal for a Master of Arts in Professional Writing capstone project. I will be documenting my experiences as I prepare an electronic portfolio with Dr. Helen Barrett as my "guide on the side."