ePortolios – what are they?
Eportfolios can and should be simple to understand and, more importantly, simple to create and maintain. Especially if we keep the academic and scholarly jargon down to a minimum and focus on what we need to know to effectively use ePortfolios to enhance learning. I have been using a digital portfolio or an ePortfolio for many years and when I first send people to my portfolio at www.tilisathibodeaux.com those who aren’t aware of the educational jargon ask “isn’t this just a website or blog?” Yes, an ePortfolio is a website, blog or other named digital resources or location where you can show others what you have learned are learning and hope to learn.
You will begin to develop your ePortfolio selecting a platform that you will use throughout the duration of your time as an Honor’s student at Lamar University. Remember, building your eP is an iterative process. We do not expect you have this fully “finished” in the Leadership Community. Instead, we ask that you browse other ePortfolios, read the research in the field around ePortfolios, and decide how to make your ePortfolio reflect aspects of your own personal choice and voice. You get to decide how you set this ePortfolio up and the pages/posts within, the tagging and categories, etc. Be creative and have fun with this. The more you do to maintain and build your ePortfolio the more it will benefit you later along your projected pathway or career. Now, it is time to begin establishing your digital presence in the form of your own website, your ePortfolio. You will do this by posting your Honor’s experiences to your ePortfolio which will be the cornerstone for all of the authentic work that you will do. You will have the opportunity to develop your voice, choose and select your learning tools, develop authentic assignments, and own your learning. Your ePortfolio will be a place for you to house all of your work for others to see, so be mindful of the way you engage and communicate your ideas.
Honor’s Student’s ePortfolio Examples
http://tilisathibodeaux.com/wordpress/?page_id=1352
Need more help? See Dr. Thibodeaux’s website at: http://tilisathibodeaux.com/wordpress/?page_id=311
Once you have selected a selected a platform and built your eP, share your website link to the discussion forum and submit to the form in the Blackboard Leadership Community.
Selecting an eP Platform
First, select a platform (or find your own) to see which one best appeals to you. Consider storage space, size limitations, video/audio capacity, personalization, etc.
***If you have a website already set up with your district, you should create a new one that is for YOU. District website tend to be limited and blocked by firewalls, etc. Examples of platforms are: WordPress (most popular), Weebly, Wix, and Squarespace.
START WITH FREE! If you get to the point that they are asking you to pay, go back and figure out which step you missed to keep your eP FREE. Do NOT pay anything – these are free! $0 for life.
How To Create Your ePortfolio
https://wordpress.com/ – penultimate site, but learning curve
https://www.weebly.com/ – drag and drop – easy
https://www.wix.com/ – with WIX, if you select ADI Tool, it is a helper tool, drag and drop – easy
Second, once you select a platform, click the ‘Getting Started’ button on the website and the eP platform will walk you through how to set up the link.
Third, when choosing a domain name, type your first name, middle initial, last name or just first and last name. Maybe you have a unique domain name you wish to use. Also, note that when choosing your domain name, you may have to try several options before you can select a free domain name that is available. Personalize this so you do not have a string of numbers behind your website address. www.classylearn.com is just one example of a personalized creative name. Be sure to choose the FREE for life $0 version. If you do not, you will be need to find the link that takes you to the FREE version (In word press, it is just above the paid for options.)
Then, choose a template or theme (same thing). For WordPress, you’ll have to navigate to the word Theme and choose a FREE theme. The other platforms will help you pick out a theme based on what you select as you are signing up. Remember that your eP will grow, just a skeletal shell is all we need at this time.
At this point, you can build an About Me page (post your first discussion here), a Research page (post your week 2 discussion here), and a Leadership page (post your week 3 discussion here). You can also make any top-level pages that you wish. Be sure to copy paste your discussions from this community into your eP as a blog or top-level page.
You may want to develop a top-level (static) page to include Honor’s Experiences. While you can organize your Honor’s Experiences how you wish, this will be a great place to put some of your experiences in the beginning until you figure out how you will organize, structure, and present your eP. Below are some resources that will help you along the way.
Learner’s Mindset Discussions (LMD) ePortfolio Why Ep 30. In this episode we explore how sharing why an ePortfolio is an investment in oneself if much more important than explaining how to build one. If you can share why an ePortfolio is important to you chances are your learner will also appreciate why it can be important to them.
****Helpful Hints about Selecting an eP Platform*****
1. You may want to sign up with an email account other than your LU email so you can keep the same log in beyond your years at LU.
2. Most platforms will start you in a theme, but you can customize and change just about anything.
3. START WITH FREE! If you get to the point that they are asking you to pay, go back and figure out which step you missed to keep your eP FREE. Do NOT pay anything – these are free! $0 for life.
Need more help? See Dr. Thibodeaux’s website at: http://tilisathibodeaux.com/wordpress/?page_id=311
Digital Citizenship: Check out Cyberwise for a listing of resources on appropriate digital citizenship: https://www.cyberwise.org/digital-citizenship-resources
