Aim to Be Awesome, Not Perfect

So I have been updating my e-Portfolio, my website, for my EDLD 5303 class. I am struggling a bit with it, since I started the website as something to showcase my creations, like my Tech Tools Showcase PD website and my BreakoutEDU creations. But this class is asking me to share more of my learning, and merging the two is proving a bit difficult for me. I figure I will find my happy medium, just not sure when just yet... However I am trying something new for this. I created an Anchor account and I am creating a podcast for one of my assignments.  I have been making a lot of screencasts lately as an ITS, since my district is moving to asynchronous online learning, and I just didn't want to make another one. Hopefully I will get  it loaded later today. Want to check it out?  Go to www.kimberlywassmuth.com to see it!

So in the midst of all the #socialdistancing, my graduate school classes continue.  Actually, it has been a welcome break to have something to focus on.  This week's discussion board topic - ownership of an e-Portfolio.  When I became a Google Trainer, someone I met said to create any training materials in my personal Google account, not my school (work) account.  When I asked why, she said that when created under district accounts and with district property, that the materials technically belong to the district and if I leave, the materials can not necessarily follow.  It definitely gave me pause.. but I fully admit I still create mostly in my school account, since it is part of my job to support district staff.  But it has me thinking... does this idea applies to the idea of student e-portfolios as well?  If students spend all this time creating something about their school learning, and using a school domain and...

One of the readings for my EDLD 5303 class is a site about Reflection for Learning .  I have found it to be a very useful site, one that I could refer to a lot when sharing ideas about e-portfolios. For example, the site has suggestions and examples of reflection with students, including sentence stems and bridging questions  to get students thinking, which I think is really useful. The author of Reflection of Learning references a book called "The Portfolio as a Learning Strategy" (Porter and Cleland, 1995), and includes this quote - "... in the power of reflection that helped us move beyond seeing about portfolio as a mere alternative to traditional assessment to appreciating its value as a learning strategy.  In this capacity, portfolios become vehicles for reflection in which learners examine where they have been, where they are now, how they got there, and where they need to go next." (p.34) This really got me thinking - is a portfolio a product? A strategy...

Today, within a matter of hours, my next 11 days went from full to empty. The City of Houston cancelled all sorts of events, including the Cross Court volleyball tournament my daughter and her club team were supposed to play in.  Just a few hours later, Disneyland announced they are closing on March 14th and will remain closed for the remainder of March. Cancelling chaos ensued. In the midst of all this, a lot of local universities are extending spring break (which is next week and now the week following) and parents/students of our district are asking"Will we be next?" Honestly, I don't know the answer... But all these school closures and Twitter discussions about #remotelearning got my wheels spinning about portfolios in a time like this - could an e-portfolio be a logical choice to demonstrate student learning during this time? Earlier this week, I listed to an episode of the Shake Up Learning Podcast about, as they put it, home learning. It was really cool to h...

At the end of my first digital learning class in my Masters Program, we were asked to create our e-portfolio.  Since I already have my own site, since I am a Google Trainer, the assignment was pretty easy. I just had to add the class assignments, and turn it in.  Done! Easy Breezy! Got an A and moved on. Now, here in the second class, EDLD 5303, we have been asked to further add to the e-portfolio, especially using it as more than a digital container, but really as a place for reflection on our learning and for meta-cognition.  As I was reading the articles about e-portfolios, this quote stuck with me - “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.” My website, up until the start of this class, really was just a digital container for me to showcase my creations. Since starting...