If you just finished EDLD 5302 and are wondering what is the best way to approach EDLD 5303 then you will appreciate this post.
In our research into why students either continue to use or stop using an eportfolio after a program of study the number one factor for why students stopped using an eportfolio was the lack of time.
In addition to the survey results one of our focus group participants stated:
“All your time is spent just keeping your head above water there is no time to think about the benefits of an eportfolio or how to build and structure your eportfolio for use for anything more than document storage”
For many of the students in Masters of Digital Learning and Leading program at Lamar University coming out of the first course in the program EDLD 5302 Concepts of Educational Technology this sentiment is true. We have often seen students struggle with getting the weekly assignments completed and simply dropping an evidence of learning into their eportfolio container is what most students have been able to accomplish.
EDLD 5303 is structured to give students the time to focus completely on the eportfolio, to experiment with blogging tools and methods, and to work on their eportfolio without having to do additional course work?
The evidence of learning accumulated in EDLD 5302 can now be shaped and moulded into a well organized and cohesive format to genuinely convey a message beyond basic technology skills competence. In EDLD 5303 students are given the opportunity to move beyond dropping assignments into a digital container and are encouraged to start to consider and show how they plan to use technology to enhance their own learning and their learning environments.
This theory and background is all great but what is the best way to proceed through EDLD 5303?
We recommend that students:
- Explore and incorporate the ideas from the following and related links:
- Take the time to revise and better organize and preset your EDLD 5302 coursework. Chances are you received significant feedback that you would like to act on and also wished you had more time to do a better job on your assignments. You now have the time to do this.
- Review your eportfolio platform and consider if it is robust enough to support you through the remaining 10 courses in the DLL program and for many years to come. For example, in EDLD 5305 you will be required to have students comment on your work. Getting comments working in Google Sites can be challenging so if you were to switch to a different platform this would be a wonderful time. Consider the recommendations in How to Create an Eportfolio. If you are not using WordPress or a similarly robust blogging platform you should consider the switch before you have so much content that the switch becomes much more difficult.
- Review and improve your navigation and organizational structure. Even though we all rely heavily on search engines a well organized and comprehensive navigation structure can go a long way to making it easy for your user to access information on your site. Have other people use your site and share how easy or difficult it is to navigate. If you are using WordPress you should start to build a good “Categories” structure which will help you to organize your site was you continue to add more content.
- As the bare minimum you should include the following sections on your site:
- About/Bio
- Main Interest (on my blog you will see Learning, Courses, CSLE, Eportfolio, Book list etc.)
- Projects
- Categories
- Archives
- Links
- Social Media connections
- Contact
- Start using your eportfolio for more than just your course work and start posting about your learning experiences.
- Enjoy the learning experience!
