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| Reflection on the Process | | Date Created: Sep 15, 2004, 09:29 PM |
Here are my reflections on the process of creating this electronic portfolio. In reality, this is the seventh tool I have used to publish my e-portfolio on the Web. The first version of my new e-portfolio was published using a portfolio system developed by the Maricopa Community Colleges. These are some of the comments that I write in the blogging tool that is included in the Maricopa system:
I spent an evening going through my web pages and my hard drive (my digital archive) to select the specific artifacts that I wanted to use in my portfolio. I set up an Excel spreadsheet that let me list the artifacts (21 in all) and then create hyperlinks to each URL.
Portfolio at a glance-Excel
(http://electronicportfolios.org/myportfolio/artifacts.xls)
After creating the list with the URLs, I added comments in Excel to represent the captions for each artifact. I played around with converting the document into HTML, but spent too much time fighting the Microsoft style sheet codes. So I just converted the document into PDF, which I will use on the WWW. I uploaded the Excel spreadsheet to this portfolio as a document, but I might prefer using the PDF.
Portfolio at a Glance - PDF
(http://electronicportfolios.org/myportfolio/Artifacts.pdf)
After selecting the artifacts, I tried to identify which competencies or skills each artifact demonstrates. I found five or six major categories right now, maybe more when I think about it. But the major categories have emerged. Now, all I have to do it create a collection for each grouping, and write an overall reflection plus record the captions. Since I had all of the artifacts on one of my websites, all I had to do was capture the URL.
From start to finish this project has taken me an evening, and most of the time was spent in selecting the artifacts and writing the captions. Those aren't really technology issues...they are portfolio issues.
It took me about one hour to finish all of the entries using BlogWave Studio, which was mostly a copy/paste job between my Composer version and this program. Not too bad for 20+ entries and eight pages. The software even transferred the hyperlinks. I only had to change the relative links to the documents within the portfolio, not the links to the artifacts on the web.
This tool has some real advantages, like being able to edit the pages offline (I am writing this on a flight to Oakland) and upload them when I have an Internet connection. You can save an entry as a "Top Story" which will appear at the top of a category, regardless of when it is created, overcoming the reverse-chronological order of the entries, reflecting its blogging software roots. This Top Story then appears when the category is selected at the top of the window, with the associated entries below. As I was creating the entries, I could create each one in the reverse order of the way I wanted them to appear (as I discovered with other versions).
I am impressed with the user interface, the built-in image editor that picks up images from my iPhoto Library, and the flexibility in building different types of pages and paragraphs within a document. It also allows categories and tabs to separate postings using categories. The website has short video clips that demonstrate the various functions, a very nice "Atomic-learning" type of training, without sound. The real disadvantage is the requirement for a .Mac account ($99 a year) and the complex licensing. The company has a very strict licensing process, requiring the name of my .Mac account (I have two) plus the serial number of the computer where the software will be installed. A lot of security for a $20 program! Still, I think I will continue using the program, to build other types of sites. I like the multiple types of entries.
I like the multiple types of entries. There are five styles for entries:
General - text and image files (from iPhoto)
Photo Album - import iPhoto Library or any image
Music Album - import iTunes Library or any MP3 file
Movie Album - capture iSight or DV can or import any QT movie file
File Sharing - archive any files
Once these documents are on your .Mac account, you can find the URL for each item to be able to create a hyperlink within entries. All entries are accessible from the blog menus created by the program. I have some suggestions for the developer, though: The process of making internal links within the site is awkward. Their link window should allow the inclusion of other blog pages, not just internal links. I'd also like to be able to see and edit the HTML code, as I can with other blog software I use. |
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