September 14, 2024 – Modelling is Important

I am reminded this week that I will be returning back to this blog on a somewhat regular way with my EDUC 394 class. The use of e-portfolios have taken a journey with me from EDUC 431 to EDUC 490/491 to EDUC 405 and ow EDUC 394. There is some part of me that is somewhat attached to e-portfolios as a platform for reflection, but also used as a platform to learn more about digital literacy and citizenship, to design a website, and to demonstrate the professional standards. This year in EDUC 394, the learning intentions are different from the former. The e-portfolio is now serving as an assessment tool and vehicle to store student work.

I am super excited about this concept. The e-portfolio has a different application and limited to the content found in the EDUC 394 course. I can still embed edtech into my classes by using portfolio, but now I can pick and choose different blog posts and webpages that directly reflect the student’s learning from the course. The image above is taken at West Lake Park. We went there for our second week of classes. The first week was on campus to discuss the course syllabus. This week, we were on the land learning about land as co-teacher. The class included land acknowledgements, teaching/learning metaphor, and walking curriculum.

Next week, we will be working online for EDUC 394 and adding content to our WordPress sites, adding our location statements and teaching/learning metaphor. We will also spend some time with design, personalization, and a blog post that reflects on our learning experience at West Lake. By the end of next week, they would have completed 3 of 10 items. The work is ongoing, not an event. What does it look like to have the same learning target, the same success criteria, but different outcomes because personalizing the learning experience is emphasized. This framework of teaching and learning is embedded in BC’s Curriculum.

I also love iterating ideas too. We talked about personalization and assessment with the teaching/learning metaphor at West Lake, and we are also going to see personalization in our portfolios. If anything, looking at the bright side, they will have a completed (mini) portfolio ready to share prior to their first teaching practicum. I will have to think about who the audience is for their portfolios. We will discuss this during our class next week. In writing this blog post, I am thinking that it will be a professional portfolio that reflects who they are as learners. But, the portfolio is an assessment tool for me in EDUC 394 and I’m pretty stoked.