Teacher in Development

Portfolios, and when I say that I mean personal learning environments, should proudly show our failures and how we dealt with them. They should show our work, not just the correct answer. Portfolios should showcase the journey - the wrong turns, the tears, the sweat, the plodding along through snow, hail, rain, and blistering sun. They should show our moments of uncertainty, and what we did to resolve the issue.

If we focus solely on the destination, on rewarding the finished product, aren’t we training ourselves and our students to embrace extinction and irrelevancy?  If George Siemens is right, and it’s really not about what you know but your ability to know more, then portfolios should be fluid places that are in constant flux and change. 

They should showcase the meeting of competencies, but only as sign posts along the side of the way. The journey always continues.

And each portfolio or personal learning environment should be unique. Take a peek over at Jeremy Hiebert’s blog. Both his article, and the comments are well worth your time if you’re thinking about portfolios.

""Self-Directed Learning Tools" to reflect the types of tools and functions that connect these concepts above and below — although the label still sucks, this is a significant conceptual shift — we’re not talking about a PLE (or e-portfolio) as a tool itself. I’m not even sure that it can be created or designed by someone for someone else. Just as each person’s desires, abilities and past experiences are different, each person’s personal learning environment should be their own unique combination of tools, networks and methods that help them accomplish their goals. If the learning environment is truly personal, the tools and the learning are self-directed by definition." (Hiebert, 2006)

Interesting thought: portfolios that are unique, because the student is unique. I think there will be some elements of uniformity in that there are core competencies that everyone needs to learn and be able to do, but how that person reaches those goals and records them, can and should be different.

And if we do our jobs correctly, the real power of the portfolio is what happens after our students have long left our classrooms.

Success: the portfolio, or at least the act of ongoing development and learning, goes on and continues.

Failure: School’s finnished, I graduated, I passed the level = I’m done.

The Value Added Portfolio: I show my work. My audience can see the process, and how I utilized  resources and connections to create solutions.