E-Portfolios & Learning

Creating the E-Portfolio was an exercise in constructive learning. Exploring presentation formats and researching content provided opportunities for considering usability and to focus on delivering selected resources to a specific user group.
By designing an E-Pathfinder in conjunction with information ethics, I gained practical experience in constructing learning tools that integrate web-based resources for building students' information literacy skills.

The E-Portfolio assignment was definitely a valuable learning experience. Students were able to examine general concepts related to information ethics by responding to the course-based questions. In addition, students were invited to explore a subject related to information ethics in depth.
By allowing students to choose a topic of interest, the E-Pathfinder assignment became personally meaningful. Having the opportunity to connect concepts presented in the course to development of the E-Pathfinder provided experience with practical applications and facilitated the creation of functional research tools that can be shared beyond the course.
Course requirements were extended into "real-world" applicability. The knowledge gained by developing E-pathfinders and constructing E-Portfolios builds highly-valued, experienced-based professional skills.

Having created a blog focused on sharing information resources related to the topic of information ethics and literacy with students and teachers, I will definitely maintain the blog and use it to support student learning across content areas. I have shared the blog with my school district administrators, and they are uniformly enthused about its content, and about using the blog format as an instructional tool. My experience with creating and using blogs as learning tools has given me a head start in using cutting-edge technology for expanding learning opportunities, and both my district and I truly appreciate the fact that I had the opportunity to experiment with this format!

My advice to other Information Ethics students would be to give careful thought to your topic, to begin creation of the E-Pathfinder as soon as possible, and to devote time each day to designing the pathfinder, exploring resources, and integrating content.

Using the Bb discussion board for responding to course-based questions works well. However, using the E-Portfolio blogs as a vehicle for responding to classmates would provide additional opportunities for sharing ideas and giving/receiving feedback.
It is always valuable to gain practical experience using various formats to communicate with others. While the ability to comment to blog posts is an engaging way to communicate, it is important to keep in mind that Bb is typically stable, while other web-based venues (especially servers) can be unstable and less reliable!