I am thankful I put the time in during cornerstone on my e-Portfolio. I would be really struggling right now with my course load and having to put together my final e-Portfolio. I really think this is one of those projects that don't go away, so put in the time now. There are so many projects and papers I've written since I first created my e-Portfolio. I am really trying to only put in information that shows my diversity and understanding of my areas of study. Some are just okay, but there are those I put everything into. The reflection I'm using to do all this is me trying to put myself in the other chair. Meaning, I am trying to think what I would think if I read this e-Portfolio. Does it give insight into who I am? Does it demonstrate how passionate I am about my studies? Do I appear to have more than book smarts? Can I apply what I've learned in a real setting, in real situations?
When I think about reflection, I consider it a form of mental paraphrasing. What did I experience? How did it change me or not change me? Was I able to apply it to my life? Reflection for me is a time to take all the little memories and lessons, in any situation, and get a bottom line on what the meaning turned out to be.
Reflection is different than description. When you are describing a situation you are like a journalist and leave out editorializing. When you are reflecting, you are using critical thinking to transform an action to have meaning. Use your reflections to understand the experience. How are you all doing on your e-Portfolio's. Have you started them yet?
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I found this course to be extremely practical as well as educational. I now have an idea of what employers look for in prospective workers. I think the most important lesson in this course, for me, was how to make and e-portfolio. It never would have occured to me to make a portfolio for myself, let alone one that can be accessed online. It allows me to display my best work and personal qualities. With this useful tool, I am able to express myself in a professional manner. I also learned how to exploit my majors to their full potential in analyzing current issues. What is even more impressive is that I am able to work on my portfolio even after this class has ended. I feel that I will be walking away with a lot more than what I came in with.
ReplyDeleteReflection and description are two different things. Description is a concrete notion. It soley captures appearance and lacks depth. Reflection is an abstract and more thoughtful concept. One takes the time to think about how a certain subject affected them personally. One thinks about how they can utilize the information they have learned and put it towards a certain goal. As I reflect, I see that my experience in this class is a positive one that further prepared me for whatever I may encounter in the real world.
I think your explanations for the difference between desciption and reflection were very good. I agree. Description is reflection without the critical thinking and heart.
ReplyDeleteI definitely am leaving with more skills after this capstone course. I garnered a little more of the listening and thinking and seeing everything as a learning experience instead of just an affirmation of something I think I already know. I hope that makes sense. I was really nervous for capstone after taking cornerstone. I was more prepared than I thought. But I really had to learn about time management this semester. I've been busy before, but never with so much on the line in my life right now. I am at numerous crossroads and our projects that took as much heart and myself as it did my scholarly knowledge helped me to balance it all. I don't recomment taking 5 courses with three kids and working while commuting an hour to go to school to anyone in their senior semester!!! LOL. Your last semester has a lot going on with further applications, graduation, final projects. Capstone will take a lot of your time. Try to plan ahead to not be overloaded. I, so far, am managing well, but it's taking every second of my free time. I've missed so much and had no personal life. Find your balance.
I completely agree with Jillian. I have seriously put thought into the e-Portfolio this semester, because I can really see it benefiting me in the future. However, I have spent most of my focus of the e-Portfolio for the audience of admissions councils for graduate school. Considering that I am not a traditional student pursing a degree in Audiology, I believe an e-Portfolio will really act in my benefit. I could not think of a better way to display all of my academic attributions, because I feel my strong resume already shows my extracurricular experience. As I was requesting previous professors to serve as a reference, I kept thinking in my mind "I wish I had something to remind them of how I performed academically". Upon completion of my e-Portfolio viewers will be able to see what a well-rounded student I really am. I can see it painting a great picture of who I am both academically and professionally.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the ePortfolio has definitely benefited me. Throughout the semester, as we had to create different parts of it, it was harder to see how it would all come together in the end. But now, as we're in the final stages of the ePortfolio, I can see that it is truly a representation of my interdisciplinary studies and integration of my various areas with all the other extracurriculars in my life. Not only will I have produced a good portfolio, but it has also served to show me a lot of things about myself including my passions and how these could work together in future career goals.
ReplyDeleteAs I was developing my first content page, I was having trouble figuring out the difference between description and reflection. But as I was writing I clearly realized the difference. First, I was just stating exactly all the things I had done that fit under my "leadership" content page. In order to take that one step further I had to explain how my acadamic and extracurriculars fit together. Also, I wanted to look back and see if I really enjoyed these things and if I want them to be a part of my life in the future. With this type of reflection, I could more easily say whether one of my jobs or volunteer experiences really affected my leadership. Reflection also includes how you were changed by things and how you will apply these changes in the future.
By using reflection to develop my e-portfolio content, I will be able to remember what I was feeling while completing each section of the e-portfolio to put together a complete project. Reviewing all the contents will allow me to alter a few things in order to relate all the assignments to one another. While completing all the assignments I was very confused and kind of frustrated because it seemed I was answering all the same questions with different wording. Now I see that this was planned just to enable me to view different aspects of my answers.
ReplyDeleteReflection is very different from description in that with reflection you are more likely to be reviewing your original description. Reflection allows you to take a second look at something and alter anything with a fresh mind. Just as it is important to review an essay you write, I think reflection is very important in all aspects of life.
I think we all have a good grasp on the differences between reflection and description. Since this is our last blog assignment. Please use this to ask any final questions. I'm not an expert, but I'd be happy to help with any further questions and dialogue we may come up with.
ReplyDeleteAs I'm finishing up my ePortfolio, I was just wondering for some possible ideas for artifacts. This is something I've been struggling with on some of the assignments. I don't have a lot of artifacts from classes as a lot of my classes are simply 5 tests and a final, because that is the way many science classes are. I have some papers I've included, but was just wondering for some other ideas from people who have probably taken similar classes that I have.
ReplyDeleteThank you for being so responsive throughout the semester Rhonda. Your opinions and suggestions have be very useful.
ReplyDeleteJust as Femke, I would also like to know some good examples of artifacts. I really only have one paper that I wrote that I could use as an artifact.
Having science classes does limit your ability for artifacts. You will have the artifacts you create in the cornerstone and capstone courses for a final product. I had to revise mine once I realized they were valuable assignments and could be beneficial if written correctly. I know that is an end result type of situation, but that's what we are focusing on for actual use. Also, how many electives have you taken? Do you have many left? I have powerpoints I've created for classes with papers, too. Not many science classes will have papers, but you can create a document (for final product, not so much for your course, here) to add later.
ReplyDeleteFor me, a lot of artifacts have come from my health area. I took Medical Self-Assessment and have at least three artifacts to add from that course. I also took Perception for my Psychology minor and had some very well created powerpoints of my own creation. I didn't like spending the time to create them, but am so thankful I have them for the e-portfolio.
If you have room for electives, I would also suggest classes that are already interdisciplinary. For example, I took Physiological Psychology. That created a couple papers, too.
I would suggest, depending on how heavily you plan on using your portfolio, planning some of your courses to use as support in the future. I hope that makes sense.
I have also enjoyed this experience. There have been very enlightening conversations here! Thank you, also.
I probably haven't put as much effort into the e-portfolio as I could have. It is definitely a great tool, but I can also see many situations arising in which the person reviewing you doesn't want to have to go online and look through pages and navigate. It seems like most of the time they just want to see what you look like on plain paper and if you can make yourself stand out without going overboard on your presentation of the material.
ReplyDeleteI made my first headline page and also have an about me section in the portfolio. Both sections aren't outstandingly strong, but do express me relatively well. I'm sure I will refine it countless times before it is sound.
Thanks Rhonda for all of your tips. I like the idea about maybe making a document at the end of the class. For example, for microbiology, I learned a lot of valuable lab skills which I could summarize in a paper or powerpoint. Maybe a summary of skills in a powerpoint can be valuable for later and can even show a potential employer those skills.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I have a lot of electives left to take, but will have several classes for my minor next semester. These all center around public administration and will have several papers and group projects that can be used.
Thanks for the ideas for artifacts. Also, thanks for all of the other insights you've all shared throughout the semester, I've learned a lot. Good luck in all your future endeavors!
That was definitely another issue I had, Femke, with developing my artifacts. Truthfully, I haven't done that much focused work for my major. I'm just done with my GED and am finally beginning to take more focused classes. As a result of this, many of my classes and classwork don't apply to my disciplines; and if they do, they often are lower level classes that don't involve essays or projects, but mainly tests.
ReplyDeleteI only have two courses left for next semester, besides Capstone. I am scheduled to take medical self assessment and epidemiology of infectious diseases along with capstone. I do not believe I will be able to add any more artifacts with my prospective coursework for Spring 2010. Most of the things I have learned in my classes have been of good use for my real world experience. For example, medical terminology has been of use daily, but I do not have an actual artifact to present in an e-Portfolio. How can I present this knowledge to prospective admission counsils and employers?
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is not easy to think of an artifact, especially with some of our science based classes. I also have science based classes and I was going to use my anatomy book and my medical terminology book because I know I will be using those for years to come. I also am using an artifact from a pharm tech job I had (a pill counter.) I didn't have any other ideas but thought these might constitute as articles.
ReplyDeleteAfter re-reading everyones comments, I also see that we generally all have the same concept on description and reflection. I think one of the most important concepts to remember is that reflection is always important! Allowing ourselves to review and revise ideas from the past allows us to enhance our general descriptions and ideas of that subject.
ReplyDeleteI have the same problem. The classes I took were for the sole purpose of getting enough credits for graduation. It was hard for me to think of any artifacts that could be used to further exemplify my qualifications. The only thing I could think of was to use my old lab reports and psychology essays. I hope that would work.
ReplyDeleteThat's basically all I have used. My two main artifacts were a biology lab report and a paper for political science on the Electoral College. Up to this point I've had hardly any 3000 level classes, and besides this class, they were all mostly for my past majors. I think that the reflection shown in my portfolio shows what I'm about, and the fact that I at least have artifacts, even if they aren't most relevant, will show my abilities and critical thinking skills.
ReplyDeleteI've mentioned my role in the hiring process. I've had to sift through hundreds, yes, hundreds of cover letters and resumes. I do find it hard to imagine stopping to go online to view a candidate based on an e-portfolio alone. I would have had to have been captured by the cover letter and resume. However, for graduate admissions, I can see this as a very useful tool. In the world of academia, this plays. However, for real world situations, I'm planning on putting the link on my resume and mentioning it if I get a second, third, etc, interview. I think the best lesson in this situation is that maybe our focus was a bit too much on the grade and not the experience or what we learned. Take this opportunity to find a bit more meaning in your courses. Find the reason as to why you might need to know this information and the many ways in which it may be applied. I'm also teaching this to my son who explained he didn't need to tell me what the book was about because he knew he'd get a "decent" grade on his quiz. I was irate. We, including me, cannot just go to school as just a stepping stone. We all need to get what we can out of our experience and I'm finding that includes many things that have nothing to do with our grade. It's truly critical thinking and application that will get us as far as we need!
ReplyDeleteAlso, Happy Thanksgiving! On a corny note. . . Our family is struggling like many today. However, I feel most thankful that I am able to still go to school and our family has food and a home. I hope you all really appreciate your families, friends and what they mean to you this holiday. Take the needed break and enjoy your families and friends!!!
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