Ownership of ePortfolio


Upon reviewing the provided resources this week, it is clear to me that ownership is a crucial aspect of the eportfolio process because of the agency it gives the owner to make meaning of the process and product of ePortfolio. According to Harapnuik, learners are more likely to make meaningful connections with ownership of ideas. Learning activities need to be authentic by connecting them to the real world and allowing learners to decide the “what” and “how”, with a clearly defined “why” provided by the educator. If learners use their own ideas and data they really own the activities/problems/scenarios presented in the ePortfolio and will dig deeper and obtain a much better understanding of the concepts. Therefore, as described in the Creating Significant Learning Environments video, educators need to create SLEs where learning experiences and instructions are planned with learners achieving ownership as a goal. It described significant learning outcomes as being achieved by “continuously aligning and improving course components” with “engaging learning activities” and “informative learning assessments”.
Another case for ownership of the ePortfolio is made by Andrew Rickard, who advocates giving students their own web domain, saying that “To own one’s domain gives students an understanding of how Web technologies work. It puts them in a much better position to control their work, their data, their identity online.” According to Audrey Watters, discussions of Digital Citizenship by learning institutions and educators usually concern use of technology “appropriately” instead of demonstrating their work and learning over their career, and having a voice that reaches beyond classroom walls. A high degree of ownership will allow learners control of all aspects of ePortfolio, as described by Thibodeaux, Cummings and Harapnuik (2017). The learners will gain a stronger set of college and career readiness (CCR) skills as related to technology, organization and communication, and a stronger professional identity and presence.

References

Harapnuik, D. (2015, May 8). Creating Significant Learning Environments (CSLE). YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ-c7rz7eT4&feature=youtu.be

Harapnuik, D. (n.d.). Who Owns the Eportfolio? It's About Learning. Retrieved from http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6050

Rikard, A. (2015, August 10). Do I Own My Domain If You Grade It? EdSurge. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-08-10-do-i-own-my-domain-if-you-grade-it

Watters, A. (2015, July 15). The Web We Need to Give Students.  BRIGHT Magazine. Retrieved from https://brightthemag.com/the-web-we-need-to-give-students-311d97713713

Thibodeaux, T., Cummings, C., & Harapnuik, S. (2017). Factors that Contribute to ePortfolio Persistence. International Journal of ePortfolio,7(1), 1-12. Retrieved from http://www.theijep.com/pdf/IJEP257.pdf

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