Now I’m not sure if I’m starting to get a one-track mind, or if there are just SOOOO many applications for ePs out there that it’s becoming ridiculous. Time and time again though, people seemed to be seeking a way to consolidate all the ‘bits’ of their lives, their work, their projects, whatever, and make some kind of sense of them. And to me, ePOrtfolios seem to be the way to do that. Or at least one way.  

What I mean by that is that ePortfolios aren’t anything new. It’s not about doing ‘more’ as such, but about bringing together what we’re already doing and making sense of it. We already have a range of experiences which we’ve collected – for many of us though, evidence of those experiences are scattered far and wide, and often it takes a mammoth search to find them! We already reflect on those experiences, just usually not in written form and not as regularly as we’d probably like. We select experiences and weave a story around them for job applications, but we often have to rush through this at the last minute – after the mammoth search. So we’re doing it all anyway. ePortfolios just help us doing it better.

This is especially true when it comes to our work in teams. A couple of times, people suggested that information be gathered on specific courses or projects and the response was – “but that’s all over the place – in my filing cabinet, in theirs, on my computer, under a desk…and hey, didn’t Mr X have some of it, but he left years ago. Wonder where it is now?” Now if that project just had a portfolio that all could access, contribute to, record meetings and reflections and ideas in, as well as developing work…

Or perhaps that’s just my one-track mind.

Photo source: http://lh6.ggpht.com/_YXpDdoS_RUI/SG_1gXmRkgI/AAAAAAAACCA/vqTgbQwlIg4/DSC01211.JPG

Of course, there are already freely-available tools out there that anyone can use to create their own portfolio. Grab any blog tool and you’re 75% of the way there already! What we’re looking for is a system that provides you with much greater confidentiality and privacy than you might get by pulling together a series of Web2.0 tools – something that we’re hearing is certainly valuable to many within the CSU community.

We’ll provide more details as soon as they become available, but hang in there in the knowledge that work is being done to ‘get this right’ rather than just throw another tool out there at you. In the meantime, the best thing that anyone can do to start off their ePortfolio is to start gathering together the kinds of artefacts that you might use as ‘evidence’ to show off who you are. All you need to do this is a good folder structure on your hard drive or in MyWorkspace within CSU Interact. Oh, and find a space where you can reflect on a regular basis about your work and professional development – check out the transferable skills wiki for some help on how to start up a blog if you don’t already have one.